How Do I Test My Home Water

A home water test kit helps you discover what s in your drinking water.

How do i test my home water.

Follow these steps to put your water to the test. Obtain a water quality report for your neighborhood. The water bottle test may work well as a basic assessment but it isn t the most accurate way to determine your water hardness level. Following please find an excerpt from my book the prepper s water survival guide.

For that a more sophisticated hard water test is required. For lead the test is of a pass fail nature which is the case for virtually all at home lead water testing kits. How to test your water. First find a see through container like an empty plastic water bottle.

Most water systems test for lead as a regular part of water monitoring. Every water supplier is required to offer a consumer confidence report ccr to provide information about the quality of the water in your area check online on the epa website and search for you local water system provider or check the website of your city s water provider to see the report. If you want to know if your home s drinking water contains unsafe levels of lead have your water tested. This report will contain the average.

A hard water kit includes test strips and a color chart. That s also a good idea if your home was built before lead free pipes were mandated in 1986. Fill a clear container with water. Chapter 9 of the book discusses the importance of testing your own water how to do it and what to test for.

I do suspect my water contains plenty of bacteria even if the tests proved that it does not contain harmful coliform bacteria and the water quality may change over time. The epa has set a limit of 15 ppb for lead in municipal water supplies and this testing kit will indicate whether your water contains lead above or below the 15 ppb threshold. There s a simple way to see if your home has hard water without having any test performed. Water may look crystal clear in your glass but that doesn t mean there aren t micros.

Testing is the only way to confi rm if lead is present or. I can say though that based on these test results i will drink this water quite confidently after basic treatment should i ever need to. We ve already discussed the infinite possibilities for contaminants in water sources. If you re on well water you won t get a ccr so you should get your water tested.