How hard is the water in York County, ME?
6.4 grains per gallon
Optional: a softener helps, but plenty of homes skip it.
The median hardness measured in York County, ME is 110 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 6.4 gpg. That is moderately hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 39 samples at 28 sites between 1990 and 2019, 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 3.1 and 15.4 gpg. That spread crosses a decision line, so some homes here land on a different answer. A $10 test strip on your own tap settles it. Confidence in the county figure: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 6.4 gpg this is your call. Look for white film on glasses and crust on the shower head: if you see little of either, you can live without one. If you do want one, a 24,000-grain unit is enough, so ask for that size rather than a bigger one. Because York County straddles a decision line, check your own tap with a $10 test strip before you spend anything.
More on when a softener is not worth it.
From 0.6 to 41.5 gpg
The softest single sample on record in York County was 10 mg/L and the hardest 710 mg/L, a 71-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 15.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 3.1 gpg.
Wells 6.4 gpg, rivers and lakes 0.8 gpg
39 groundwater samples from 28 wells put the median at 109.7 mg/L. 9 surface samples from 5 sites put it at 13.2 mg/L. In York County the wells come out 5.6 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 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 140 lb of salt a year (4 bags of 40 lb, about $25), 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 $125 a year.
Sizing at 6.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 384 | 24,000 | 47 lb |
| 2 | 768 | 24,000 | 93 lb |
| 4 | 1,536 | 24,000 | 187 lb |
| 6 | 2,304 | 24,000 | 280 lb |
York County against the rest of Maine
Among the 16 Maine counties with data, York County is number 2 of 16 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 36% of counties.
Softest in Maine: Lincoln County at 0.7 gpg. Hardest: Penobscot County at 6.9 gpg. Closest to York County: Aroostook County (6.4), Penobscot County (6.9), Knox County (4.3).