How hard is the water in Winnebago County, IL?
18.7 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Winnebago County, IL is 320 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 18.7 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 20 samples at 7 sites between 1990 and 2017, 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 17.9 and 18.8 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 18.7 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 16.4 to 20.4 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Winnebago County was 280 mg/L and the hardest 350 mg/L, a 1-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 18.8 gpg and the bottom quarter below 17.9 gpg.
Wells 18.7 gpg, rivers and lakes 20.4 gpg
20 groundwater samples from 7 wells put the median at 320 mg/L. 422 surface samples from 14 sites put it at 349.5 mg/L. In Winnebago County the rivers and lakes come out 1.7 gpg harder. Here the surface water reads harder than the wells, which often points to streams fed by limestone springs or irrigation return flow. The two sources are close, so the county figure should hold whichever one your tap is on.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 408 lb of salt a year (11 bags of 40 lb, about $73), 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 $173 a year.
Sizing at 18.7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,122 | 24,000 | 137 lb |
| 2 | 2,244 | 24,000 | 273 lb |
| 4 | 4,488 | 32,000 | 546 lb |
| 6 | 6,732 | 48,000 | 819 lb |
Winnebago County against the rest of Illinois
Among the 102 Illinois counties with data, Winnebago County is number 40 of 102 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 81% of counties.
Softest in Illinois: Pope County at 4.3 gpg. Hardest: Cook County at 34.8 gpg. Closest to Winnebago County: Vermilion County (18.7), De Witt County (18.5), Champaign County (18.4).