Do you know if your Montana home has hard water? If it does, you may be unknowingly clogging your pipes and irritating your skin. If you don't know what hard water is, you've definitely felt the difference between hard and soft water. But, why should Montanans care about their home's water hardness? Let me explain.

What is hard water, anyway?

Credit: Gary The Water Guy via YouTube
Credit: Gary The Water Guy via YouTube
loading...

Most water in homes has some trace of magnesium and calcium dissolved in it from rock formations giving off the minerals after it rains. The more of those minerals are in your water, the harder it is.

The ideal water hardness is somewhere between 0 and 3.5 grains per gallon (GPG). However, if your water is over 7 GPG, which funny enough is Billings' average GPG, you may experience some symptoms such as dry skin and itchiness, as well as seeing mineral buildup on faucets and showerheads.

Does Montana have a history of hard water?

Only four larger cities in Montana have water hardness under 7 GPG, those being Cut Bank, Bozeman, Butte, and Helena. According to HydroFlow USA, Montana's water is slightly hard, with an average hardness of around 5 GPG.

The city with the hardest water in Montana is Kalispell, with an average hardness of 12 GPG. If you live in the Flathead, we hope you have plenty of water softeners in your home. The city with the least hard water in Montana is Helena, whose water only clocks an average hardness of 1 GPG.

94.9 KYSS FM logo
Get our free mobile app

In short, it's important to know exactly how to fix hard water issues in your home. Otherwise, it could lead to a house that you won't be able to keep clean and irritated and dry skin. Perhaps invest in a water softener if you'd like to avoid these issues, but be prepared to pay somewhere over $1,000.

READ ON: See the States Where People Live the Longest

Stacker used data from the 2020 County Health Rankings to rank every state's average life expectancy from lowest to highest. The 2020 County Health Rankings values were calculated using mortality counts from the 2016-2018 National Center for Health Statistics. The U.S. Census 2019 American Community Survey and America's Health Rankings Senior Report 2019 data were also used to provide demographics on the senior population of each state and the state's rank on senior health care, respectively.

Read on to learn the average life expectancy in each state.

LOOK: The most expensive weather and climate disasters in recent decades

Stacker ranked the most expensive climate disasters by the billions since 1980 by the total cost of all damages, adjusted for inflation, based on 2021 data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The list starts with Hurricane Sally, which caused $7.3 billion in damages in 2020, and ends with a devastating 2005 hurricane that caused $170 billion in damage and killed at least 1,833 people. Keep reading to discover the 50 of the most expensive climate disasters in recent decades in the U.S.

More From 94.9 KYSS FM