Home Comfort Dispatch ranked 15 engine/data/water towns, sorted by grains per gallon (hardness). Every number below comes straight from the source data, not an estimate.
1. Wood River (Madison County, IL)
Grains per gallon (hardness): 24.5
Wood River's tap comes from shallow wells dug right next to the Mississippi River levee - some of the hardest, most mineral-heavy water in the region, so heavy the city runs its own softeners and it still leaves scale crusting your faucets, spotting your dishes, and quietly cooking your water heater to an early death....
2. Edwardsville (Madison County, IL)
Grains per gallon (hardness): 24.0
If you're on Edwardsville city water, it's softened at the plant - so scale isn't your headline. The real story is what's dissolved in it: the city still reports lead service lines feeding some homes (one tap tested at 10 ppb, and there's no safe level of lead), plus disinfection by-products (TTHMs) running about 100x...
3. Jerseyville (Jersey County, IL)
Grains per gallon (hardness): 21.5
Your Jerseyville tap water comes from chlorinated wells that legally pass but tell a textbook hard-water story. It runs very hard (an estimated 18-25 grains), so you are scrubbing chalky white scale off faucets and showerheads, fighting filmy glasses, and watching it crust up inside your water heater and shorten its...
4. De Soto (Jefferson County, MO)
Grains per gallon (hardness): 21.0
De Soto tap water is VERY HARD - about 21 grains per gallon, roughly three times the level where damage starts. That is the chalky film on your shower glass, the spots you can't wipe off the faucets, soap that won't lather, dry itchy skin, and dull, straw-feeling hair. The same scale silently coats your water heater's...
5. Foley (Lincoln County, MO)
Grains per gallon (hardness): 20.0
Foley sits in the Mississippi River bottoms, and bottom-land water is the worst kind for your home: hard, iron-heavy, and prone to that rotten-egg sulfur smell. Expect water that typically tests "very hard" (est. 15-25 grains/gallon) - enough to leave chalky scale on every faucet, fight your soap into a film on skin...
6. Marthasville (Warren County, MO)
Grains per gallon (hardness): 20.0
Marthasville's tap is well water that the city chlorinates - and that chlorine leaves behind cancer-risk byproducts (TTHMs at 20x EWG's health guideline, plus HAA5 and three more). It's legal, but "legal" isn't the same as clean, and a carbon or RO system strips it out. The bigger daily pain is hardness: this Missouri...
7. Crystal City (Jefferson County, MO)
Grains per gallon (hardness): 19.5
Crystal City's water is legal, but legal is not the same as clean. It runs ~19-20 grains of hardness, so that chalky white crust on your faucets, the soap that never rinses off, the film on your shower glass and the dry, itchy skin and dull, tangled hair are all real - and that scale is quietly cooking your water...
8. House Springs (Jefferson County, MO)
Grains per gallon (hardness): 19.4
House Springs water depends on your street, and neither side is gentle. If you're on the local wells (PWSD No. 6), you've got VERY hard water at ~19 grains - that's the chalky film on your faucets, the spots on every glass, soap that won't lather, dry itchy skin, flat hair, and a water heater quietly dying years early...
9. Pacific (Franklin County, MO)
Grains per gallon (hardness): 19.3
Pacific runs entirely on groundwater wells, and that water is VERY hard at about 19 grains per gallon - that is the chalky scale crusting your faucets and shower glass, the film that leaves your skin tight and your hair dull and straw-like, and the mineral buildup quietly cooking your water heater to an early death....
10. Troy (Lincoln County, MO)
Grains per gallon (hardness): 19.2
Troy water is pumped from deep wells and comes out VERY hard - about 19 grains per gallon, nearly double the "very hard" line. You feel it everywhere: soap that won't lather, filmy skin and stiff, dull hair after every shower, chalky spots on glasses, and a crust of scale building inside faucets, shower heads and your...
11. Hillsboro (Jefferson County, MO)
Grains per gallon (hardness): 19.0
Hillsboro tap runs about 19 grains per gallon - rated VERY HARD. That's the chalky scale crusting your faucets and showerheads, the spots that won't wipe off your glasses, soap and shampoo that never lather, dry itchy skin and dull, brittle hair, and a water heater quietly choking on lime that dies years early. On top...
12. Pevely (Jefferson County, MO)
Grains per gallon (hardness): 19.0
Pevely's tap water is groundwater pumped from local wells, and it is brutally hard - about 19 grains per gallon, roughly triple the "very hard" line. That is the white crust on your faucets and showerheads, the film that leaves your skin tight and itchy and your hair dull and straw-like, the soap that never quite...
13. New Haven (Franklin County, MO)
Grains per gallon (hardness): 18.5
New Haven's city water tests clean and compliant, but it's hard - the kind that leaves chalky white scale on your faucets and shower glass, crusts up your coffee maker, and shortens the life of every water heater and dishwasher in the house. That same hardness fights your soap, so skin feels dry and tight and hair...
14. Old Monroe (Lincoln County, MO)
Grains per gallon (hardness): 18.3
If you live in Old Monroe, your tap is some of the hardest water in eastern Missouri - around 18 grains per gallon. That is the chalky white crust eating your faucets and showerheads, the film that leaves skin tight and itchy and hair dull and straw-like, and the scale that silently kills water heaters and appliances...
15. Winfield (Lincoln County, MO)
Grains per gallon (hardness): 18.3
Winfield's tap water is brutally hard - about 18 grains, double the "very hard" line - so you're scrubbing chalky scale off faucets and glassware, fighting dry, itchy skin and dull, filmy hair, and quietly killing your water heater 15-20% early as scale cakes the tank. It carries more dissolved minerals than the EPA's...