Watersafe The Original Water Testing Kit for Drinking Water, Well and Tap Water, Sensitive Lead in Water Test, Bacteria, Hardness, pH, Nitrates, Easy Instructions, Lab-Accurate Results, 1 Kit

For 20-some-odd bucks, you can know if your well water is safe. We've wondered for a long time, and now have that peace of mind. We knew ahead of testing that we had good-tasting well water. We knew from the driller's report that we have lots of it. We knew that our pump sits in good water, down 240 feet through bedrock. We also knew that our water is hard. We have the calcium deposits to prove it, and as a result, we run a salt water softener with a microprocessor that is sophisticated enough to know how often it needs to soften the water. And we run an RO (reverse osmosis) filter under the kitchen sink that purifies our drinking (and cooking) water. But just how hard is our water? We didn't know that. We also didn't know that in terms of metal, chemical and bacterial contaminants, if our water was safe. We've been drinking it and our health is good. But still, that nagging question. What's really in the water? Now we know. This little test kit is a brilliant idea. You don't need to take a sample and send it off to a lab, paying whatever fees, and waiting weeks for results. You can do these series of tests at home, in less than an hour (except the bacterial one, which needs two days in a vial at room temp to see if the nasties are going to have a breeding party). It's pretty simple, really. You get a sample of water directly from your well (we have a tap near the wellhead, before the water is softened and filtered). I took a squeaky-clean glass jar and filled it. Most of the tests are in the form of chemically sensitive patches on strips of paper -- like litmus paper -- which are dipped in your well water, and react in the presence of heavy metals and other contaminants. (You could, of course, test your municipal tap-water as well -- it does tell you if there are unsafe levels of chlorine, which are not present in well water). And in fact, the litmus test is included -- one of the oldest ways to discover the Ph level of your water or if it is acidic, alkaline, or neutral. With this kit you can quickly reveal the presence of nitrates and nitrites (usually caused by animal waste). You will test for possibly dangerous heavy metals, including copper, lead, and iron. Iron, by the way, is present in a lot of wells -- observably as ugly orange stains in sinks and toilets. Our water did not display even a trace, which surprised us. The test for dangerous bacteria, as I mentioned, takes two days to "ripen." If the water remains purplish, you're in good shape (ours did). In fact, the good news is, our water was fine on all counts -- except "hardness." We have about 400 ppm (parts per million), which is relatively high. Of course, we already knew it was hard, and compensate for that with the salt softener. Having done all this, the question arises: what would we have done if we had found our well water was high in a contaminants? Move? But knowing is better than ignorance. The test is easy to to, at home, without the need to send away samples and wait for results. The price for peace of mind is cheap, and $10 less than one of our well equipment companies wanted for the exact same kit, same brand. Recommended.

Easy to use. The 48 hour bacteria test requires a spot to rest in touched and 70 degrees an over - hard for a mountain town. Clear instructions I googled what the results meant after. To comoate

I’m on well water and have gone to private labs in the past (for hundreds of dollars), but now I feel that I know what to look for in my water tests. My main water issue is Nitrates and hardness, and this test kit gave me similar results to my lab tests. So I like being able to test more frequently without the lab costs.

Just as described.. easy to use

I am a newbie to owning a private well. I began investigating water test kits as friends have suggested I get a whole house water softener. I loved the taste, smell, and feel of our water (soap rinses right off in the shower). But, I was getting some rust? looking rings in our toilets. So, decided I would test and see what was up and if I needed a softener. This home testing kit has 6 separate tests – either strips or vials – which test for bacteria, copper, iron, nitrates and nitrites, ph, hardness, chlorine, lead, and pesticides (atrazine and simazine). I figured these tests about covered my concerns. I also did a lot of research online – mainly government sites such as the CDC, environmental services, state departments of public health, and university websites. Some information was interesting – some just put me to sleep. My tests did show that I was at the 50 ppm in hardness. I found at a university site that 50 mg/l (which is same as ppm) was considered in the soft range – at least according to sanitary engineers. The water conditioning industry says that’s on the edge of being somewhat hard. Hmmm. I think I’ll stick with it being considered soft? I also discovered a few helpful hints – some of these are given in the fairly thorough instructions that came with the kit, others I took from other sites in my research. - Use cold water - For the lead test, it's best to do a “first draw sample” where you test your water sample when it’s been sitting in your pipes a long period of time - at least 6 hours. So, just take it first thing in the morning before flushing. - For the bacteria test, don’t use the sink faucet, use the bathroom or tub faucet. Let the water run water for 5 minutes before you take a sample. If you have to use sink faucet, clean first with chlorine and then run water the 5 minutes. Also, do not touch any part of inside of collection tube. Also, of note, this test kit is for ONE test. Some kits have multiple use, not this one. I do plan on frequently retesting as these values can change, so may look for kits that allow for multiple testing. Final opinion – I think this test is great for a preliminary test – instructions are thorough, and it’s easy to do. But if you have any real concerns about the safety of your drinking water, I would recommend getting a test done by your state departments (in South Carolina they have it through DHEC) – where I believe you’ll get a bit more accurate results. Of course, these fees may be a bit higher depending on the state you live in.

I live in an area where I have city water within my house on both sides just two houses down each way. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, I have been unable to convince the powers that be to hook me up to the city water system. As a result, I am currently using a private well for my house with two large backwashing filters to correct the water to required standards. I had recently noticed that the concentration of iron in my water (after the treatment filters) was higher than normal because we could see some discoloration in the toilets, so I decided to test the water (before it is treated with the filters) using this kit. The kit is pretty simple and the instructions are straightforward. I performed the tests as instructed but found both the indicators on the test strip for iron and pH to be difficult to judge by the indicated color. The strip for iron was not a color shade that was on the indicator chart initially and only after letting it sit a while was the color a match to anything on the chart. I believe though that letting it sit that long invalidated the test results. The second issue I was having was that the pH indicator on the test strip was a dead on match for the orange color representing 7.5. While that did not initially appear to be a problem, I had an issue with my holding tank a few weeks later and the company that repaired the issue also performed a thorough water test while they were at my home. All of the other test strips appeared to be pretty close (hardness in this kit measured at 120, it was 90 by professional measurement, so close enough) and accurate but my actual iron reading from the company that tested the water was considerably higher than what the test strip indicated. Also, my actual measured pH was closer to ~6.4 than the indicated 7.5 in this test kit. The problem for me is that there are only 2 conditions that my water here normally needs corrections for and that is iron and pH so, this kit unfortunately did not provide the results that I most needed for my particular water conditions. The good news is that the remaining professional tests were all either close to or exactly the same values as this kit. My water also tested negative for harmful bacteria with this kit also so it did give me some peace of mind that my well water was a good reliable source of water, especially after running through my iron and pH filtration tanks.

Not happy with lead test. Precisely put 7 drops of water from the pipette into the vial...barely filled the bottom of the vial. But I followed the directions exactly, but the low amount of water seemed way to low . Anyway, the result was not valid. So, to me this was an expensive part of the kit which, I believe, is designed to fail due lack of sufficient water. The other tests seemed to work quite well. The bacteria test I have to wait 48 hrs.. I would like a response from watersafe.

Worth every penny!! Living in an older building, I was curious about whether I really need to filter my drinking water. This test covers a huge number of chemicals and minerals! The results are phenomenally detailed and offer directions for treatment as well. In addition, I had a question, and received an actual email from an actual highly knowledgeable person! Now I can make an informed decision about filtering and I feel a lot better about drinking my tap water. Highly recommend this company and this test!

Very comprehensive water testing kit. Easy to use and results are clearly displayed. I had a small issue with part of the testing kit which was completely resolved, very quickly and without any difficulty by the supplier. Regarding the bacteria testing vial, I’d recommend to measure the water into a 5ml spoon or container first and then pour into the testing vial as the vial fills up extremely fast from the tap and could overflow. Both the product and customer support deserve 5 stars! Would recommend.

A number of tests, most can be completed within 30mins but the bacteria test takes 48hours for results. The tests from my well water came back OK ! So I can only assume that this test kit, which is thorough, is accurate.

Seemed to have worked well. The only thing I noticed was that the pH strip changed from 6.5 to 8.5 a few minutes after I'd completed the test and set it aside, but both of those numbers were within acceptable limits. Still waiting on bacteria test as of this review, but we get that test done by the municipality and it showed a 0 when we did it a few weeks ago. The only issue we seem to have with our well water is Hardness (120ppm). Other than that everything was either zero or very very low.

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