How hard is the water in Wise County, TX?
16.4 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Wise County, TX is 281 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 16.4 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 13 samples at 13 sites between 1993 and 2016, 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 11 and 27.7 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 16.4 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 1.1 to 49.9 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Wise County was 18.8 mg/L and the hardest 854 mg/L, a 45-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 27.7 gpg and the bottom quarter below 11 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 16.4 gpg, rivers and lakes 16.1 gpg
13 groundwater samples from 13 wells put the median at 281 mg/L. 34 surface samples from 3 sites put it at 275 mg/L. In Wise County the wells come out 0.3 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. 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 359 lb of salt a year (9 bags of 40 lb, about $65), 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 $165 a year.
Sizing at 16.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 984 | 24,000 | 120 lb |
| 2 | 1,968 | 24,000 | 239 lb |
| 4 | 3,936 | 32,000 | 479 lb |
| 6 | 5,904 | 48,000 | 718 lb |
Wise County against the rest of Texas
Among the 217 Texas counties with data, Wise County is number 82 of 217 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 74% of counties.
Softest in Texas: Nacogdoches County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Ward County at 218.5 gpg. Closest to Wise County: Mills County (16.3), Bexar County (16.5), Chambers County (16.4).