The first step to eliminating the effects of hard water around the home is to determine how hard your water is exactly. The best way to do this is to use a well water test kit that provides a good indication of the level of calcium and magnesium minerals in your water - well water typically has higher levels of these minerals in that other sorces of water.
As a guide, 60% of the UK and 85% of the US population live in a hard water area. This is a big problem, as dealing with hard water costs homeowners hundreds of dollars in expensive heating bills, as well as the headache of dealing with water deposits, and scale that forms around heating elements in kettles, dishwashers, boilers and in pipework.
The most common way to test is by using a hard water test strip, which is basically a small piece of specially treated paper that is dipped into the water to be tested, which then changes colour. This colour change is compared against a chart, where the hardness of water is related to the corresponding colour which is affected by the mineral concentration in the water.
A more accurate way is to use a use a water test kit which is usually a small bottle with specially formulated tablets. The idea is to take a sample of your water with the bottle, and then add the tablets to dissolve into the water. Again, there will be a colour change, this time of the water itself, which is compared against a chart indicating how hard the water is.
Probably the most accurate way, however, is to use a test kit which uses liquid drops which are added to the water sample. These have been proved to be most accurate when testing for hard water, and work time and again to reveal the true mineral content in a water supply.
This 4 out of 5 star product (pictured above) is a big seller on Amazon for anyone looking to discover what their home water supply contains. Many people have used this basic test kit with great success to test the hardness of their water which also helps to indicate if there are any other potential contaminants.
Manufacturer Details:
Watersafe Well Water Test Kit was specifically designed to help you test quickly and easily for the most common contaminants found in private well water, including: hardness, pH, iron, copper, lead, bacteria, pesticides, nitrates, nitrites, chlorine. If your home draws from private well water, regular testing (recommended yearly or more) is the only way to ensure the purity of your water and safeguard the health of your family.
From the experts at Watersafe, comes an affordable, easy-to-use and accurate test to determine the safety of your well water! Our new product is an essential addition to every home drawing from private water wells, giving you lab-quality results right in your own home. The EPA recommends testing your private well water at least once a year, so don’t wait! Put your mind at ease and help secure your family’s health with a Watersafe Well Water Test Kit.
How Does it Work?
The kit contains test strips that provide an easy and accurate indication of the water quality being tested. The strips are simply dipped into the sample of water and read off against a chart to provide the amount of hardness, pH, iron, copper, lead, bacteria, pesticides, nitrates, nitrites and chlorine to EPA standards.
Pros and Cons
This product is only a basic version and does not test for every possible component in a water supply. If you are looking to know about every single component that it contains, a top tip is to contact your local water supplier who will ask for a sample of your water which will then be tested in a laboratory environment. The main issue with this is that it’s usually quite expensive and many of the results from these tests can be rather confusing.
If you’re looking to know about the basic components of your water then it’s a good product to get started with. The kit is easy to use and has received good reviews from previous customers who have used it. Well worth a try!
Product Comparison
Other test kits such as the “SenSafe Water Quality Test Kit” provide more information on water quality but are more expensive and probably not really necessary if you’re just looking for a basic kit to start off with.
The WaterSafe Well Water Test Kit is a great way to know the hardness of your home water supply and start to be able to deal with the issues it causes. To learn more about this product click on the link below:
http://astore.amazon.com/hard0b-20/detail/B00028PDO8
