Hello, Marilyn, and thank you for your inquiry. The SenSafe Water Quality Test Kit contains the following:

• 2 Alkalinity, Total
• 1 Bacteria,Coliform in Water
• 2 Chloride
• 2 Chlorine, Free
• 2 Chlorine, Total
• 2 Copper, Total
• 2 Hardness, Total
• 2 Hydrogen Sulfide
• 2 Iron
• 1 Lead
• 2 Nitrate/Nitrite, as Nitrogen
• 1 Pesticide
• 2 ph
• 2 Sulfate

The kit does not contain tests for manganese but that kit is available on its own. We do carry a manganese test as a standalone kit, though.

Regarding magnesium, that value is included in the total hardness reading given by the total hardness test included with the SenSafe Water Quality Test Kit. Note: The test gives a sum of calcium hardness and magnesium hardness levels, not individual concentrations.

And finally, regarding performing testing for the purpose of determining the quality of your water so you can figure out the best treatment option, if you suspect that your water has potentially significant problems and/or health risks, then home water test kits should serve as a preliminary tests only and you should probably use the services of a certified water testing laboratory before investing in a water filtration system.

If you do not wish to use the services of a local water testing laboratory (which your local health department could help you locate), then companies like National Testing Laboratories offer mail-in water testing services that provide results from a certified water testing laboratory usually within 10 business days.

Flooding, whether extensive or localized, may compromise water quality in drinking water wells.

What if my well never got submerged by flood waters?  Even though your well may not have undergone severe flooding itself, you should not assume that it will provide safe, clean drinking water.  When floods occur, contaminated surface water may indirectly find its way into the aquifer (underground water source) from which your well draws its water.

Under normal circumstances, surface water creeps slowly downward through the ground and as it does so it undergoes a sort of natural filtering by the elements it passes through.  When floods occur, that filtration process may get bypassed altogether, as in cases where a damaged wellhead tapping into the aquifer allows contaminated surface water to shoot rapidly downward into aquifer by way of a compromised water well.

After flood waters recede, check your water supply to see if any of the following conditions exist:

• Has the quality of your water changed (odor, color or taste)?
• Did the flood waters come close to your water source?
• Did your well actually get flooded?

If your particular situation meets any of the above criteria and you suspect that the quality of your drinking water may have gotten compromised, you should seriously consider taking the following steps:

• Immediately stop using the well water for human consumption and use only bottled or boiled water for things like drinking, cooking, and washing.
• At the very least have your well tested for coliform bacteria and should the test come back positive, definitely have your well disinfected.  Then test, again, to make certain the disinfection process worked.

WaterSafe City Water Test Kit

COMPLETE Water Quality Test Kit - 13 Parameters

COMPLETE Water Test Kit w/ Lead & Pesticide Tests

This free water test kit offer comes to you courtesy of the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development through the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program with the Allegan Conservation District.

Why test for nitrates?

While not considered a substantial health risk in lower quantities and concentrations, as they occur naturally in many foods and get used to preserve and cure meat products, but concentrations in excess of 10 mg/L (1 mg/L = 1 part per million) in drinking water pose a health risk to young children under the age of 6 months old, expecting mothers, nursing mothers, and the elderly.

Why 10 mg/L?

The United States Environmental Protection Agency set the ‘action’ limit for nitrates in drinking water at 10 mg/L, meaning a public water system would need to immediately take steps to reduce nitrate concentrations in the water

Due to most water well contamination by nitrates and nitrites coming from surface runoff, shallow wells therefore stand the greatest chance of having higher than acceptable levels of nitrates and nitrites. Health officials and well water professionals typically suggest that all drinking water obtained from wells get tested annually for — at the very least — nitrates, nitrites, and coliform bacteria.

Also, if you just had a new well installed, or work done on your existing water well, you should have the water tested prior to using water from the well for drinking or cooking purposes.

For more information on the free water testing offer in Allegan County, Michigan, you can visit their web site www.allegancd.org or you can contact Ana at at 269-673-6940, ext. 5.

Source http://www.mlive.com/wayland/index.ssf/2016/04/free_water_testing_will_be_off.html

Below you will find a simplified list of instructions on how to properly disinfect a drinking water well using a template and nucleation assisted crystalization process.  Please keep in mind, though, that all wells have differences and no two well water situations are exactly alike.  So, if this list does not provide you with enough guidance, contact your local environmental department and they can usually provide you either with more detailed instructions on their web site or the names of reputable, licensed well water professionals in your area.

1. Pump water from the well before disinfecting allowing all sediment, debris and other visible 'junk' to flow out of the well.  Leaving that stuff in the well during the disinfection process diminishes the cleansing effect of the chlorine bleach.
2. Add unscented chlorine bleach (on other words, just plain old laundry bleach... which usually has around 5% chlorine and no added fragrances) to the well and test the water coming out of the well.  You will want to add enough bleach until testing shows 50 to 100 parts per million (ppm) of bleach in the water.  The chart below will give you an approximation of how much unscented laundry bleach you may need to use.

Depth of Well	3 in.	6 in.	9 in.	12 in.
50 feet	3 ounces	8 ounces	25 ounces	50 ounces
100 feet	6 ounces	20 ounces	50 ounces	100 ounces
150 feet	8 ounces	30 ounces	75 ounces	150 ounces

After adding the bleach make sure you route the well's discharge water (the water produced by the well when turned on) back into the well so that the chlorine bleach mixes thoroughly in the well.  Mixing should take place for at least 15 to 20 minutes.

3. Reconnect the well's output hose to its normal connection (the one leading to the house) and open all faucets in the house individually.  Once a strong chlorine odor appears, close the tap.  Do this for each tap in the house.
4. Allow the chlorinated water remain in the well and house lines for no less than 2 hours, and preferably longer if you can.  The longer the chlorine stays in the lines, the better the odds of a successful well disinfection.  Usually around 24 hours works well for this purpose, though some experts say letting the system stand as long as possible makes the most sense.
5. After waiting no less than 2 hours and hopefully closer to (or longer than) 24 hours, open all taps/faucets in the house and allow the well to pump all of the chlorinated water out.  This step is called flushing the system.  Once the smell of chlorine has gone away, close the taps and your well should be ready for use.
6. To confirm that the disinfection process has worked, you will want to test water from the well in about a week to see if the source of bacteria still exists down in the well.

Important Note:  The instructions above serve as a rough guide for how to disinfect a drinking water well.  Obviously all wells have idiosyncrasies that make them unique so if the above instructions fail to take your well water situation's specifics into account, definitely err on the side of caution and seek the assistance of a trained water well professional!

Testing for higher levels of chlorine

We believe the WaterWorks High Range Free Chlorine product works well for this application.  It requires no special testing supplies, reagents or complicated test procedures and detects up to 120 parts per million free chlorine.

Free chlorine versus total chlorine?

When disinfecting a water well, you will normally want to test for free chlorine since a 'stable' free chlorine residual typically means a water sample no longer contains a significant number of biological contaminants.

Hello, Kyle, and thank you for your inquiry.  You raised a few interesting points and asked a few interesting questions... to which we have several (hopefully helpful) responses:

• General Metals Testing Approach -- This approach will give you a 30,000-ft view of your metal problem since several different metals may resemble the 'taste of iron' when dissolved in drinking water.  We suggest using a general metals testing product such as the SenSafe Heavy Metals Check which detects a broad spectrum of dissolved heavy metals and gives a total concentration of all the metals it detects (Note: The product will not identify individual metals or tell you how much of each metal it detected in a water sample).
• Focusing on Iron -- If you feel certain you have iron in your water, then the WaterWorks Visual Iron Test Kit may work well for you.  It differs from most iron tests in that it detects 'total iron' by converting Fe+3 iron to Fe+2 so the test reagent can detect it.  Most pool test kits we have seen, unless you get into troubleshooting versions, will only detect Fe+2.  Please note, however, that if your water does not contain iron at all (in either form), this test will also show blank results.
• Thorough (Laboratory) Well Water Analysis -- As a general rule, we believe newly dug wells should get tested for a full battery of tests before getting put into use.  Companies like National Testing Laboratories offer a number of mail-in water testing packages and typically provide results in about a week to ten days. Before running off and ordering the most expensive test package possible, though, you may want to contact your local Department of the Environment and ask them what sort of well water contaminants or issues they know of in your area... and choose a testing package based on the information they provide.

Once you get your iron in water and/or metals in water problem resolved, please keep one thing in mind: Many contaminants in well water -- some of them harmful -- have no associated taste, appearance or odor.

Only periodic testing of the water will let you know if a water quality aspect of your well water has changed.

Lead in Water Test

Water Metals Test Strips

Total Iron Visual Test Kit

At this time we do not know of an at-home water test kit for detecting asbestos levels in drinking water.  Therefore suspect such testing would need to get carried out in a laboratory environment using more sophisticated testing methods.

A Few Quick Facts About Asbestos in Drinking Water

• Asbestos occurs naturally in the environment as a fibrous mineral.
• The heat resistance capabilities of asbestos make it very useful for a number of common products such as brake pads, protective gear for people working in high heat environments, and roofing materials.
• You may even find asbestos impregnated in cement piping used to transport water from distribution sites to customers' homes.
• Asbestos contamination in water gets measured as 'fibers per liter' and the contamination action limit for asbestos in drinking water is 7 MFL (million fibers per liter).
• Water treatment facilities bust notify their customers if routine sampling reveals greater than 7 MFL asbestos in the water they distribute.
• For more detailed information on asbestos and asbestos in water, we suggest visiting the USEPA Water Web Site.

To our knowledge, the iron in your well water ought not cause a problem for the Arsenic Quick Test Kit.

We have heard of only one common well water component that causes know interference with the Arsenic Quick line of water test kits: Hydrogen Sulfide.

Arsenic Quick test kits eliminate (negate the effects of) lower amounts of hydrogen sulfide in a water sample but hydrogen sulfide levels in excess of 2 mg/L (ppm) will interfere with testing.

Unsure if your water contains elevated levels of dissolved hydrogen sulfide?  The WaterWorks Hydrogen Sulfide Low Range test kit detects levels from 0.3 up to 2.0 mg/L (ppm).

As for which Arsenic Quick Test Kit to choose, we suggest opting for one with a wide detection range (i.e. one that starts below the EPA action level of 10ppb and can also detect levels much higher than 10ppb).  For most people looking to get a general feel for how much, if any, arsenic their water contains, the original Arsenic Quick Test Kit (packaged as 2 test, 5 test and 100 test versions) works quite well.

Hello, Margaret, and thank you for your inquiry. Of all the at-home drinking water test kits that we carry, the one named SenSafe Water Quality Test Kit offers the largest different tests and its WaterWorks and SenSafe brands of included water test strips have an excellent reputation -- and are manufactured here in the United States.

If you want a more complete testing of your well water, or have good reason to suspect contamination, we suggest taking a look at mail-in test kits from National Testing Laboratories. In particular, the Well-Check Water Testing Package covers a great number of the possible contaminants a person may possibly find in their well water.