We recently received a rather interesting question from ‘Chmst411′ who asked, “Are your arsenic test kits dangerous? We want to do an experiment with the kids for a school project but fear the arsenic gas you say gets ‘liberated’ during testing. How dangerous IS that gas and what risk does that acid used pose?”

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.

Today’s inquiry came to us from ‘Ira’ who asked, “I live small apt w/ really tiny kitchenspace that has terrible tasting water and wold like to get bottle less water cooler with the ro filter. All ive seen take too much space so do they make smaller ones for apartments? fast answer appreciated. thankyou.”

Most of our staff has lived in apartments for a good portion of our lives so trust us when we say that we FULLY UNDERSTAND the inconvenience of not having enough room to put all your stuff, let alone put a big, bulky water cooler in the corner someplace.

Previously we wrote about a countertop reverse osmosis system that takes up a lot less space than a traditional reverse osmosis system in an article called Do They Make Reverse Osmosis Filters for Apartments? and today we would like to discuss a bottleless water cooler made by Global Water that occupies 11″x18″x16″ worth of countertop space and comes with either a 2-stage or 3-stage filtration system: The G4 Countertop Water Cooler

For those who would like an additional level of water purification, FilterWater.Com will install a UV Water Sterilizer in the unit prior to shipping for an additional fee.

The G4 Countertop Water Cooler (G4CT) uses a reliable LG Compressor, qualifies as an Energy Star rated appliance, comes fully assembled with installation hardware included, and conforms to UL Standard 399 (for Drinking Water Coolers).

Why would I want a bottleless water cooler?

Putting it bluntly, your water tastes bad, you cannot install a water filter where you live, the thought of mounting 5-gallon jugs of water on a regular water cooler does not sound fun, and in the long run most people tend to make out better overall without the monthly water service bill.

What tests determine if I need a water filter?

We get this question all the time, and, as usual, we tell people to get their water tested by a certified water testing lab. National Testing Labs offers a reasonably priced drinking water test kit for around $155 that tests for 83 potential contaminants and a more sophisticated water test kit that tests for 97 potential drinking water contaminants including many chemical contaminants, such as pesticides, that occasionally turn up in well water.

What about at-home drinking water test kits?

After having your water analyzed professionally by a certified water testing lab it always makes sense to keep an eye on contaminants of concern and test kits like the SenSafe Water Quality Test Kit work well for the purpose — depending upon the water contaminants of concern.

Single-parameter water test kits that test for things like hydrogen sulfide, nitrates/nitrites, free chlorine, total chlorine, coliform bacteria, total hardness, etc. work well if you already know what water quality parameter typically strays out of an acceptable range at your home or office.

Got a question about home, school or office water quality testing?

Drop us a line on our Contact Us Page and we will do our best to answer your question(s).

As always, we thank you for visiting the Water Testing Blog!

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!

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.

The internet makes locating information, goods and services so much easier than in the past and when it comes to inquiries about water testing the Water Testing Blog definitely gets its share of inquiries from outside the United States.

Today’s inquiry came to us from ‘Ashish’ who wrote, “hi,i am a mp govt emploie i want all test for water because my department allso belong these.”

As best we can interpret, Ashish works for a government agency that has responsibility for performing water quality testing and Ashish would like to know where he can obtain all the required water quality testing products that his agency would need to carry out its water testing duty.

Unfortunately, without knowing exactly what testing Ashish’s department performs we really can’t provide him with much of an answer except to recommend the following general, all-purpose testing equipment:

• eXact Micro 10 Water Testing Meter — We selected this water testing product because of its versatility. The eXact Micro 10 provides direct readings for Total Alkalinity, Bromine, Calcium Hardness, Free Chlorine, Total Chlorine, Copper, Ozone, Permanganate and pH. When used in % Transmission Mode along with the appropriate reagentstrips the eXact Micro 10 has the ability to read an additional 17 water quality parameters.

  In addition to having extreme versatility, the eXact Micro 10 Water Testing Meter also has extremely easy-to-follow testing procedures. Children in the grade school age range can operate this meter and obtain accurate water test results.
   

• Well Driller Master Test Kit — We keep mentioning this test kit because of the value it has for people seriously interested in testing water on a regular basis. Testing for a total of 14 different water quality parameters (some as many as 50 times!) this conveniently packaged water testing kit offers awesome value for under $200.

So, we regretfully cannot say that we have satisfactorily addresses Ashish, but we did at least try. If you have more specific questions, Ashish, please feel free to contact us again!

Diligence in monitoring water quality always makes sense and it really makes sense if you live near industrial complexes, manufacturing facilities… or in this case a mining operation. ‘Andre’ wrote in and asked,

I want to send a sample of river water downstream from a mining opeation to see if and what the chemicals and water is composed of…we fish on this river and would like to submit samples for testing..we are on a budget but still would like to know what is in the water??

and the cost of sending in samples of the river water..thanks

In a situation like this we would suggest submitting a sample to a company like National Testing Laboratories which offers several levels of testing packages. For more information on this company, please refer to a previous article called Who is/are National Testing Labs?

Given the wide range of potential contaminants that could get carried by runoff from the area around a mining operation, we suspect that you will want to run as many tests as possible. National Testing Labs has a 97-Contaminant Test Kit available for around $200 and an 83-Contaminant Test Kit available for around $160.

Basic testing options for day-to-day monitoring?

Once you have established a baseline reading by getting the water tested by a qualified water testing laboratory you will want to keep tabs on the water’s quality by using basic test kits from companies like SenSafe and WaterSafe.

While basic, at-home drinking water test kits will not test for nearly the number water contaminants as laboratory testing, many basic water tests serve as potential indicators of more serious water quality issues.

* TDS (Total Dissolved Solids)

We suggest keeping an eye on the total dissolved solids level in a water source with a simple TDS Meter and monitoring for sudden spikes in TDS levels. Massive changes mean something has entered the water supply.

While that ‘something’ may just be silt kicked up by heavy rains, one should get curious if the levels spike at times other than after rainstorms or other plausible explanations for elevated TDS levels.

* Dissolved Metals

Sudden changes in dissolved metals concentrations should certainly raise a few red flags and Heavy Metals Test Strips make monitoring dissolved metals levels in water a quick, safe and easy process.

* Multi-Parameter Monitoring

If you want to perform a wide range of water tests on a regular basis we suggest investing in a kit like the Well Driller Master Test Kit since it allows users to test up to 50 samples of water for critical water quality parameters.

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.

While many people still blame sulfur for the rotten egg smell in water, sulfur alone does not create that terrible smell. Technically speaking, the sulfur combines with two hydrogen molecules to form H₂S, a compound formally commonly known as hydrogen sulfide gas.

It does not take a large quantity of liberated hydrogen sulfide gas in a water supply to make the water unappealing because of its wretched, egg-like aroma and the smell typically intensifies as the water temperature rises and more H₂S gas leaves the water.

Some would think that simply detecting the rank stench of H₂S gas in drinking water would serve as all the information needed to select the correct water treatment system but, as with most other drinking water contaminants, the concentration of H₂S gas in the water determines what method of removal will make the most sense.

Simple activated carbon filters usually do a decent job of removing smaller amounts of H₂S gas. For higher concentrations of H₂S gas, other, more complicated and expensive methods usually become necessary. In some of the methods chemicals convert the gas back into its elemental form (a powder) and then a filter strains out the precipitated sulfur.

Testing for hydrogen sulfide

We have already mentioned that hydrogen sulfide gas in water does not need to have all that high of a concentration to offend one’s nose so it stands to reason that a good test kit for hydrogen sulfide gas in water would have the ability to detect very low levels of the gas.

Thus far in our travels the kit that seemed to have the easiest instructions, easiest to read color chart, a decent amount of accuracy, and best overall value came from SenSafe and goes by the name of Low Range Hydrogen Sulfide Check.

This highly affordable hydrogen sulfide test kit for drinking water detects hydrogen sulfide levels from 0 ppm to 2 ppm with the first color pad having a value of 0.3 ppm. Testing time: Under 3 minutes.

Many of you have asked us for a definition of ‘groundwater’ so below you will find an excerpt from the EPA web site that does an excellent job of summing up what gets classified as groundwater and why clean groundwater matters so much:

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.

Oh, how we wish we DID know of a simple test kit for fluoride… because we have folks like ‘Mark’ asking us, “do you sell Fluoride tests kits? if so how much do they cost?” all the time!

Right now we know of only two test kits that the general public can make use of to test the fluoride content of their water: 1) National Testing Labs Fluoride Test Kit (mail-in); 2) eXact Micro 7+ Water Testing Meter (w/ fluoride reagent).

Why test for fluoride?

While many people in positions of authority believe fluoride a great additive for the public water supply, many others see it as a dangerous poison capable of doing massive damage to the population if no one monitors its levels.

Also, some people have severe, and sometimes fatal, allergic reactions to fluoride.

Moral of the story?

No matter what side of the fluoride Great Fluoride Debate you may find yourself, the fact remains that small amounts of fluoride can have beneficial effects on teeth and too much fluoride can harm a person over time.

Therefore, like any other water supply additives that serve a purpose (i.e. chlorine used to disinfect drinking water), we believe its concentration need to stay on the radar of water treatment operators at all times.