How hard is the water in Warren County, IA?
14.6 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Warren County, IA is 250 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 14.6 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 23 samples at 5 sites between 1990 and 2014, drawn from groundwater wells, which is what most taps and private wells in the county draw on.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 13.6 and 17.5 gpg. The whole middle of that range gives the same answer, so a test of your own tap is unlikely to change it. Confidence in the county figure: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 14.6 gpg a softener pays its way here. Before you buy, check the quoted unit's grain capacity against the sizing table below, and ask whether it regenerates on demand, which uses less salt than a timer. Call your utility for its own report if you are on city water.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 10.5 to 18.1 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Warren County was 180 mg/L and the hardest 310 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 17.5 gpg and the bottom quarter below 13.6 gpg.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 319 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $57), and roughly 2,346 gallons of regeneration water. Installed, most units run $1,000 to $4,500; spread over 15 years with salt, that is about $157 a year.
Sizing at 14.6 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 876 | 24,000 | 107 lb |
| 2 | 1,752 | 24,000 | 213 lb |
| 4 | 3,504 | 32,000 | 426 lb |
| 6 | 5,256 | 40,000 | 639 lb |
Warren County against the rest of Iowa
Among the 93 Iowa counties with data, Warren County is number 79 of 93 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 68% of counties.
Softest in Iowa: Taylor County at 8.2 gpg. Hardest: Pocahontas County at 45.3 gpg. Closest to Warren County: Madison County (14.6), Clinton County (14.5), Lee County (14.1).