Having worked with the Arsenic Quick test kits for a number of years now we can honestly say that they do not pose much of a risk at all. To answer your questions more directly, though…

• Liberated Arsenic Gas – While true that this test procedure does generate a very small amount of gaseous arsenic, the volume created poses no risk to test personnel as long as the test gets performed in a normally ventilated room.

• Use of Tartaric Acid – All of the Arsenic Quick test procedures require the use of an acid, true, but the acid in question (tartaric acid) qualifies as a food grade acid rather than a more aggressive industrial grade acid like other test kits use. Use of tartaric acid in the Arsenic Quick test procedure poses no real danger to test personnel.

So… should you fear the Arsenic Quick Test Kits because they use an acid as a reagent and generate a small amount of arsenic gas? Not in our opinion — and as we said, we have used them many times in the past 7+ years.

Compared to the other methods available to the public for testing drinking or ground water for free, dissolved arsenic, the Arsenic Quick line of arsenic test kits have a shorter total test time, safer reagents and simpler instruction set. And yes, we have used other arsenic test kits manufactured by other companies, as well.

Arsenic Quic 2 Tests (481396-2)

Arsenic Quick II, 2 Tests (481303-2)

]]> http://watertestingblog.com/2012/05/10/how-dangerous-are-the-arsenic-quick-test-kits/feed/ 0 http://watertestingblog.com/2012/04/27/water-testing-blog-store-now-open/ http://watertestingblog.com/2012/04/27/water-testing-blog-store-now-open/#comments Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:15:01 +0000 Water Testing Blog http://watertestingblog.com/?p=5495 After years of getting requests from loyal readers to open an online store where they could quickly and easily locate a lot of the products we frequently write about… we have finally taken the plunge and opened the Water Testing Blog Store.

Water Testing Blog Store Now Open

To start we have selected 20 water quality testing products that we feel do an excellent job of accurately measuring various water quality parameters that really and truly should matter to more people.

Examples: Arsenic, Bacteria, Chlorine, Metals, and, of course, everyone’s favorite in the Summer, Pool & Spa Water Quality.

Look for us to expand our offerings as time goes on and, as always, thanks for dropping by the Water Testing Blog… and don’t forget to test your water on a regular basis!

Testing for Chlorine

Multi-Parameter Test Kits

Pool & Spa Testing

]]> http://watertestingblog.com/2012/04/27/water-testing-blog-store-now-open/feed/ 0 http://watertestingblog.com/2012/04/26/what-is-the-difference-between-total-residual-chlorine-and-free-chlorine/ http://watertestingblog.com/2012/04/26/what-is-the-difference-between-total-residual-chlorine-and-free-chlorine/#comments Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:36:08 +0000 Water Testing Blog http://watertestingblog.com/?p=5428 Simply put, the total chlorine concentration in a water sample includes all available free chlorine plus all the chlorine that has already oxidized (acted on) contaminants in the water and become combined chlorine (monochloramines).

Free (available) chlorine refers to the concentration of chlorine molecules residing a water sample that have not, yet, oxidized contaminants. As a general rule you want to maintain a free chlorine residual in a body of water or water source.

Therefore, if a water sample has a total chlorine residual but no free, available chlorine, then the sample may or may not be ‘safe’. Some public (municipal) drinking water systems use only combined chlorine

Why would they do that?

It seems counter-intuitive that a public water systems would choose combined chlorine over free chlorine given free chlorine’s superior disinfecting (oxidizing) properties, but monochloramines do still have oxidizing capabilities and they do not create compounds (disinfection by-products, tri-halomethames, TTHM’s, etc.) that may cause cancer.

So… if you want to know how much free chlorine you have versus how much combined chlorine you have, simply subtract the free chlorine concentration from the total chlorine concentration:

(Total Chlorine) – (Free Chlorine) = Combined Chlorine

For pool water you can use a test strip like the Pool Check 5-Way or a Basic Taylor Test Kit to determine the free and total chlorine concentrations of a sample.

For drinking water you can use test strips like SenSafe Free Chlorine Water Check to determine the free chlorine concentration of a water sample and SenSafe Total Chlorine Water Check to determine the total chlorine concentration of a water sample.

OR, for an even easier test procedure, you can use the WaterWorks 2 Free & Total Chlorine Test Strip which tests for both free and total chlorine at the same time.

SenSafe Free Chlorine Test

SenSafe Total Chlorine Test

Free Chlorine High Range Test

]]> http://watertestingblog.com/2012/04/26/what-is-the-difference-between-total-residual-chlorine-and-free-chlorine/feed/ 0 http://watertestingblog.com/2012/03/26/where-can-i-get-a-well-driller-master-test-kit/ http://watertestingblog.com/2012/03/26/where-can-i-get-a-well-driller-master-test-kit/#comments Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:33:43 +0000 Water Testing Blog http://watertestingblog.com/?p=5358 Today’s inquiry came to us from ‘Ramprakash’ who very plainly said, “I want to buy Master Water Testing Kits”.

We think you have excellent taste water test kits, Ramprakash, because the Well Driller Master Test Kit puts the power to perform multiple samplings on water sources right where it belongs: In the hands of private well owners.

The Well Driller Master Test Kit comes with 50 Free Chlorine Test Strips, 50 Ultra Low Total Chlorine Test Strips, 50 Hydrogen Sulfide Tests, 50 Total Hardness Test Strips, 50 Nitrate/Nitrite Test Strips, 50 pH Test Strips, 24 Manganese Tests, 50 Water Metals Test Strips, 10 Arsenic Tests, 50 Iron Tests, 50 Copper Test Strips, 2 Lead in Water Tests, 2 Pesticide Tests, and 1 bottle of Bacteria Test.

Where to buy the Well Driller Master Test Kit?

At this time we know that FilterWater.Com carries both the Well Driller Standard Test Kit and the Well Driller Test Kit.

The Standard kit has a few less tests and costs around $140 while the Master kit has a cost of around $195.

Regardless of which option you choose, we suggest picking up extra Coliform Bacteria Tests since both kits come with only one test for bacteria. FilterWater.Com sells a pack of 12 coliform bacteria tests for around $80.

Ground water flows slowly underground through pore spaces between sand, gravel, and cracks in rock, in underground formations called aquifers. These aquifers supply water that is used for sources for drinking water, agriculture, feeds our lakes, and recharges our streams and rivers.

More than 90 percent of all public drinking water systems rely on ground water to supply the population with drinking water. And millions of Americans rely on ground water from aquifers to supply their private wells. source

So as you can clearly see, having safe, clean groundwater matters to each and every one of us. Without it we will all face a high probability of disease and sickness because of the contaminants we would ingest by drinking water from polluted groundwater sources.

Groundwater Awareness Week

Thirteen years ago the National Groundwater Association, an organization which has proven itself highly useful in bringing groundwater safety issues to people’s attention for many years, began National Groundwater Awareness Week as a way to generate interest in groundwater cleanliness and advocate private well testing.

Without regular well water testing well owners will not know if the aquifer from which they obtain their water has become contaminated.

Commonly found contaminants in groundwater

While the list of potential contaminants would take forever and a day to complete, the most commonly found contaminants in groundwater include arsenic, nitrates, nitrites, coliform bacteria, and various metals such as lead, iron, copper, manganese, etc.

Well and groundwater testing

Far too many private well owners put faith in notions such as “my well gets its water from the deepest part of the aquifer so I know it’s safe to drink” or “we have never had a problem before so we shouldn’t have one now” and potentially set themselves up for trouble.

Contamination of aquifers does happen and it can occur without any clearly identifiable cause. It takes time for unwanted contaminants to work their way down through the soil and/or through vast mazes of underground waterways so a contaminant found today may have began its journey into the aquifer years ago.

Frequency of testing

Well and groundwater professionals all pretty much agree that private wells should get tested for at LEAST coliform bacteria, nitrates/nitrites, arsenic, and heavy metals once a year — preferably by a certified drinking water testing laboratory.

For a list qualified labs in your area, take a look at the State Certification Officers for Drinking Water Laboratories page on the EPA web site. It contains a list of links to certified labs arranged in alphabetical order by state.

Well water testing kits for home use

For those who would like to perform spot checks on the quality of the water produced by their well on their own, we suggest taking a look at the Well Driller Master Test Kit since it gives well owners the ability to test for many different parameters on more than one occasion.

The Well Driller Master Test Kit comes with 50 Free Chlorine Test Strips, 50 Ultra Low Total Chlorine Test Strips, 50 Hydrogen Sulfide Tests, 50 Total Hardness Test Strips, 50 Nitrate/Nitrite Test Strips, 50 pH Test Strips, 24 Manganese Tests, 50 Water Metals Test Strips, 10 Arsenic Tests, 50 Iron Tests, 50 Copper Test Strips, 2 Lead in Water Tests, 2 Pesticide Tests, and 1 bottle of Bacteria Test.

Today we heard from ‘Ilija S’ who asked, “Who do we contact to get well water tested?”

Hello, Ilija, and thank you for your inquiry.

When it comes to well water testing we suggest contacting a certified well water testing laboratory in your area. Your Local & State Health Departments should have a list that they can send.

Please keep in mind that if you have reason to suspect well water contamination, you should always defer to the expert testing services of a qualified, certified water testing laboratory; preferably one in your immediate area since their staff will know more about the intricacies of your local water situation than a laboratory located in a different city, county or state.

For spot testing of basic water quality parameters, test kits such as the WaterSafe Well Water Test Kit or SenSafe Water Quality Test Kit work quite well… but they do not test for more complex, man-made chemicals such as VOC’s (volatile organic compounds).

If you want a more thorough analysis that includes things like pesticides and volatile organic compounds, you may want to take a look at test kit options like the National Testing Labs Mail-In Water Testing Kit that includes a number of commonly found pesticides and different VOC’s.

We hope this has helped at least a little bit!

EPA & NSF Recognized Sanitizer for Water Softeners

Inline Sediment Filter for Washing Machine

]]> http://watertestingblog.com/2012/02/22/who-do-i-contact-for-well-water-testing/feed/ 0 http://watertestingblog.com/2012/02/19/chromium-in-well-water-a-reality-in-california/ http://watertestingblog.com/2012/02/19/chromium-in-well-water-a-reality-in-california/#comments Sun, 19 Feb 2012 18:34:25 +0000 Water Testing Blog http://watertestingblog.com/?p=5258 We continually find articles these days that report about well water test samples containing unwanted heavy metal contaminants such as Chromium-6… and yet many private well owners still won’t get their own water tested on a regular basis.

Today’s Chromium-6 well water finding comes to us from the Coachella Valley region of California known and the detected levels of Chromium-6 in the water greatly exceed California’s public health goal.

Hexavalent chromium, a potentially cancer-causing heavy metal made famous by activist Erin Brockovich, is found in drinking water supplies throughout most of the Coachella Valley at 150 to more than 1,000 times above California’s public health goal, a Desert Sun review of local water agencies’ well-testing results found.

The National Toxicology Program of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services concluded in 2008 that hexavalent chromium, or chromium-6, in drinking water shows “clear evidence” of causing cancer in laboratory animals. And a 2010 draft toxicological review by the EPA found the contaminant in tap water is “likely to be carcinogenic to humans.”

But scientific study on chromium-6 is ongoing, and some recent findings call into question at what levels and under what circumstances ingesting the metal may cause cancer.

California’s public health goal for chromium-6 levels is not a regulatory standard, only a step in the process of establishing one. State and federal regulators have yet to set a maximum allowable drinking water contaminant level for the metal, but work toward one is under way. ( source )

Regardless of whether or not California or the USEPA has established an official safety limit (i.e. Maximum Contaminant Level) for Chromium-6 in drinking water, none of us here at Water Testing Blog would want to drink water that contained that high a concentration of Chromium-6.

Testing for Chromium-6 in water?

You may pick up an easy-to-use test kit for chromium made by SenSafe/WaterWorks in our online water testing store.

As an alternative, yo can use a test called Heavy Metals Water Check Test Strip, a product also manufactured by SenSafe. It detects Chromium-6 but the product will not differentiate between Chromium-6 and the other metals it can detect. But, in all honesty, any heavy metals detected in one’s drinking water should make a person want to take action.

Removing or reducing Chromium-6?

A company called ZeroWater manufactures point-of-use water filters & water pitchers using NSF Certified (NSF 42 & NSF 53) technology that supposedly reduce the number of Total Dissolved Solids in drinking water to zero.

ZeroWater ZD-018 Refrigerator Water Filter Dispenser (23 cup)

ZeroWater ZD-013 Water Filter Pitcher (8 cup)

For those who in search of a water filter system capable of producing quality drinking water out of the tap rather than a pitcher or dispenser, the NSF 58 Certified Goldline Reverse Osmosis System which carries the WQA Gold Seal installs under the sink (i.e. out of sight) and produces just under 11.5 gallons of purified drinking water per day.

NSF 58 Certified RO System for the Reduction of Barium, Chromium III & VI, Fluoride,
Lead, Nitrate, Nitrite, Radium, Selenium, and TDS Levels

Pentek US-1500 Water Filter System
NSF/ANSI STANDARD 053 for VOC Reduction

Many people believe well water cannot become tainted by contaminants because it typically comes from locations far beneath the surface. Water Testing Blog strongly suggests that you DO NOT BUY INTO THAT LINE OF THOUGHT.

We ‘yelled’ that last bit for a reason. Unwanted and potentially harmful contaminants can find their way into well water regardless of how far below the surface it comes from.

Hence the reason why well water professionals and health officials suggest having one’s well water tested yearly.

Today’s story about well water contamination came from Kansas where residents of Butler County have had to all but abandon the use of their drinking water wells because of an unpleasant chemical smell.

Specifically, the water coming out of the private wells has a gasoline like odor to it.

A bad odor and taste in the well water has some residents in a neighborhood east of Andover concerned. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment and a water testing lab are working to find the source of the problem, but residents in the area are becoming frustrated.

Eric and Brittney Hauck say the well water at their house in Butler County smells terrible and they fear it could be unsafe.

“There was the smell of gasoline, kind of a paint-thinner kind of smell,” said Brittney Hauck.

The Haucks immediately stopped drinking the water and contacted the KDHE. Ash Creek Associates out of Portland, Oregon came out to their house and tested the water.

Last week, the Haucks received the results which showed elevated levels of benzene and other contaminants. The testing company gave the Haucks bottled water and installed a charcoal filter at no charge.

A week later, the family and many other neighborhood residents are still waiting for answers from the KDHE about what’s causing their water to become contaminated. KAKE News attempted to contact both the testing company and KDHE but could not get a response because the offices were closed for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Some residents suspect the contamination may be coming from a petroleum pipeline that runs through their neighborhood. Until they can get some definitive answers about the safety of their well water, residents say they’ll continue to use bottled water for drinking, cooking and bathing. ( source )

We feel very bad for the Haucks and all the other folks in that area affected by the suspected contamination of the aquifer from which they draw their well water. Hopefully the KDHE will determine the source of the well water contamination quickly and make it so the Haucks and their neighbors can once again perform simple tasks like cooking and bathing with their well water.

Testing for benzene in drinking water?

The average person cannot obtain an off-the-shelf test kit capable of testing for the presence of benzene in drinking, tap or well water. That sort of testing must get done in a laboratory using advanced analytical techniques and equipment.

AS usual at this point we suggest contacting your local water department or board of health to see if they can provide you with a list of certified water testing laboratories. For those wishing to use a mail-in water testing service, you may want to take a look at the 83 water quality parameter test package offered by National Testing Laboratories.

National Testing Labs Water Test Kit for 83 Drinking Water Parameters [ Most Popular Testing Option According to FilterWater.Com ]
National Testing Labs Water Test Kit for Fluoride in Water	National Testing Labs Water Test Kit for Iron Bacteria

]]> http://watertestingblog.com/2012/02/01/kansas-residents-concerned-about-bad-smelling-well-water/feed/ 1 http://watertestingblog.com/2012/01/31/liquid-reagent-turns-yellow-in-presence-of-chlorine/ http://watertestingblog.com/2012/01/31/liquid-reagent-turns-yellow-in-presence-of-chlorine/#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:03:15 +0000 Water Testing Blog http://watertestingblog.com/?p=5207 Today’s inquiry came to us from ‘Kishore’ who asked a question about a liquid test reagent that turned yellow when added to a sample of water containing chlorine-based water disinfection tablets.

Dear Sir, I mixed chlorine tablets(water purification Tablets) in water. my friend taken water in Test tube. mixed one drop of liquid then water color changed in yellow. what is name of that liquid. how to by that.please can sent details.

Hello, Kishore, and thank you for the inquiry about a liquid test reagent that turns yellow in the presence of chlorine. Based upon your description we suspect your friend used a chemical called ‘OTO’ to perform the testing. OTO stands for Orthotolidine dihydrochloride. It test for total chlorine (free chlorine plus combined chlorine collectively).

You can find OTO in most pool supply stores, as it normally comes in the more basic pool water testing kits for total chlorine and pH, the two most commonly tested pool water quality parameters.

Many companies also sell the two reagents separately since they do tend to ‘go bad’ after a year once opened and exposed to air.

If you want to perform more precise chlorine concentration testing for free chlorine, the compound most people have the most interest in (usually) when attempting to determine if water has had the proper amount of disinfectant added to it, you will want to invest in a drinking water test kit that uses DPD-based reagents. ( What is DPD? )

For an even simpler means of testing the chlorine levels in water samples you may want to consider a product such as the SenSafe Free Chlorine Water Check, an EPA Approved method for determining free chlorine concentrations in drinking water, or the WaterWorks 2 Free & Total Chlorine product that uses the same free chlorine testing method as the SenSafe Free Chlorine Water Check and also includes a separate test area for total chlorine.

Want to know more about the differences between free and total chlorine? Check out an article called Free Chlorine, Combined Chlorine, Total Chlorine.

One more thing about OTO before we go: We have heard that some countries have outlawed its use due to scientists having evidence that it may cause cancer in humans… so check local laws before making a purchase!

We hope this helps!

Thus far in our limited research we have found only one kit that we THINK may have the ability to perform testing on various juices: Arsenic Quick. Why do we think this kit may have promise? Quite simply, its design (hanging the test pad reaction area above the liquid getting tested and relying solely upon arsenic gas liberated by a small quantity of food grade acid) means the color of the juice ought not interfere with reading the resultant color of the test pad after at the completion of the test.

Food grade acid? Liberated arsenic gas? Is this test SAFE?

Having performed the test numerous times ourselves, we can assure you that the test procedure and required testing reagents pose little to no harm to people performing the tests.

Food Grade Acid – Instead of using more caustic and potentially dangerous acids like other kits, the Arsenic Quick Test Kit uses tartaric acid, an acid commonly found in various ingredients used in foods most of us eat on a daily basis.

Liberated Arsenic Gas – While the directions for the Arsenic Quick Test Kit instruct testing personnel to perform testing in a well-ventilated area, the amount of gas generated by such a small sample should pose no risks.

But, just the same… open a window in the kitchen and turn on the stove exhaust fan (if you have one), test in the garage w/ the door open, or take some other precaution that will keep fresh air coming into the test area.

Proper precaution in any testing environment, even if the testing environment seems safe, always pays off!