How hard is the water in Wichita County, TX?
63.7 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Wichita County, TX is 1090 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 63.7 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 310 samples at 5 sites between 1990 and 2023, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 40.7 and 74.8 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 63.7 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 17.4 to 76.5 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Wichita County was 298 mg/L and the hardest 1,310 mg/L, a 4-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 74.8 gpg and the bottom quarter below 40.7 gpg.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, the water is harder than a standard single tank handles in a week, so plan on a larger or twin-tank unit. Expect about 1,391 lb of salt a year (35 bags of 40 lb, about $250), 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 $350 a year.
Sizing at 63.7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3,822 | 32,000 | 465 lb |
| 2 | 7,644 | 64,000 | 930 lb |
| 4 | 15,288 | twin tank | 1,860 lb |
| 6 | 22,932 | twin tank | 2,790 lb |
Wichita County against the rest of Texas
Among the 217 Texas counties with data, Wichita County is number 13 of 217 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 99% of counties.
Softest in Texas: Nacogdoches County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Ward County at 218.5 gpg. Closest to Wichita County: Blanco County (63.6), Hudspeth County (61), Coke County (71.9).