Hard water in Lyons, NJ
Reported by NJ American Water - Short Hills · October 2025
- NJ typical
- 80 mg/L
- EPA health violations since 2016
- 0
- Softener for 3 people
- 24k grain
- Data
- Utility report
Lyons water measures 133 mg/L (7.8 gpg) of hardness, hard by USGS standards. The number comes from NJ American Water - Short Hills, dated October 2025.
Lyons sits 53 mg/L above the typical New Jersey figure of 80. None of the 10 nearest cities we track has harder water. The range nearby runs from 100 mg/L in Martinsville to 133 in Basking Ridge.
What 133 mg/L means at home
Expect white crust on faucets and showerheads, plus spots on dishes that come out of the dishwasher.
Kettles collect scale quickly. Water heaters build up sediment at the bottom of the tank, which makes them work harder over time.
Soap and detergent need a little more to lather, and soap scum shows up in the tub.
Hardness is not a health problem, and EPA sets no limit for it. It is a matter of scale and soap.
What to do about it
At 133 mg/L most of the trouble is scale, and only a few things deal with it.
Ion-exchange water softener
The standard whole-house fix. It swaps calcium and magnesium for sodium or potassium and needs salt plus a drain. Size it with the calculator below.
Salt-free conditioner
No salt and no drain line. It changes how minerals form scale instead of removing them, so water still tests hard.
Reverse osmosis or carbon filter
Under-sink reverse osmosis removes minerals from drinking water only. Plain carbon filters improve taste but do not soften.
3 people × 75 gallons a day × 7.8 gpg = 1,750 grains a day. A 24,000-grain unit regenerates about every 13 days.
EPA record for Lyons's water system
No health-based violations since 2016
Serves about 217,230 people from surface water.
- Health-based
- 0
- Monitoring or reporting
- 1
- Open now
- 0
TapWaterData ties Lyons to this system. EPA's service-area records do not name Lyons, so check the utility printed on your water bill.
Health-based means a contaminant above its legal limit or a missed treatment step. Monitoring and reporting violations are late or missing tests and notices. Source: EPA ECHO, 2026Q3 export, violations with periods starting 2016 or later. Full EPA record.
Questions
Is Lyons water hard?
Yes. It measures about 133 mg/L (7.8 grains per gallon), which the USGS classes as hard.
What is the water hardness in Lyons in grains per gallon?
About 7.8 gpg. One grain per gallon equals 17.1 mg/L, so 133 mg/L divided by 17.1 gives 7.8.
What size water softener do I need in Lyons?
For 3 people using 75 gallons each per day, 7.8 gpg works out to about 1,750 grains a day. A 24,000-grain softener covers that with a regeneration about every 13 days.
Has the Lyons water system had EPA violations?
EPA records show no health-based violations for NJ American Water - Short Hills since 2016. There were also 1 monitoring or reporting violation, which are about late or missing tests and notices.
Nearby cities
- Basking Ridge133 mg/LHard
- Bernardsville133 mg/LHard
- The Hills133 mg/LHard
- Martinsville100 mg/LModerately hard
- Green Knoll100 mg/LModerately hard
- Watchung109 mg/LModerately hard
- North Plainfield100 mg/LModerately hard
- Bridgewater Center100 mg/LModerately hard
- New Providence133 mg/LHard
- Dunellen100 mg/LModerately hard
Hardness data: TapWaterData US Water Hardness (utility report, October 8, 2025), CC BY 4.0. Population: US Census Bureau. Violations: EPA ECHO. How we use them.