How hard is the water in Wood County, OH?
30.4 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Wood County, OH is 521 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 30.4 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 15 samples at 5 sites between 1992 and 2024, 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 25.4 and 35.4 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 30.4 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 24.1 to 122.7 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Wood County was 413 mg/L and the hardest 2,100 mg/L, a 5-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 35.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 25.4 gpg.
Wells 30.4 gpg, rivers and lakes 16.2 gpg
15 groundwater samples from 5 wells put the median at 520.5 mg/L. 830 surface samples from 83 sites put it at 278 mg/L. In Wood County the wells come out 14.2 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. A utility here that draws from the river can deliver noticeably different water from a private well next door.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 40,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 664 lb of salt a year (17 bags of 40 lb, about $120), 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 $220 a year.
Sizing at 30.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,824 | 24,000 | 222 lb |
| 2 | 3,648 | 32,000 | 444 lb |
| 4 | 7,296 | 64,000 | 888 lb |
| 6 | 10,944 | 80,000 | 1,332 lb |
Wood County against the rest of Ohio
Among the 88 Ohio counties with data, Wood County is number 4 of 88 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 95% of counties.
Softest in Ohio: Scioto County at 5.7 gpg. Hardest: Perry County at 113.3 gpg. Closest to Wood County: Athens County (26.8), Franklin County (26.6), Shelby County (25.5).