How To Test Water Quality In Your Home

The quality of your home's water might not be as good as you expect it to be. Whether it's a malfunctioning water treatment plants or the use of fertilizer near your water pipes, it's important to keep a tab on the water quality of your home. But, how do you test the quality of your water at home? Here are a few simple ways you can do so in the comfort of your home.

Use Your Senses

Often all you need to test the quality of water is to use your senses. Start by smelling a glass of tap water. Do you smell bleach? Water treatment plants often use bleach, but an excess of bleach could be of concern. Smell rotten eggs? There might be sulfur bacteria and hydrogen sulfide gas in your pipes which could be a sign of water contamination.Check the color of your water through a clear glass. A brown or cloudy appearance could mean that there's rust in your pipes. An excess of particles should be reported to your local municipality.Tasting the water can also help determine if there's anything wrong with your water. A metallic taste could mean rust, while a bleach taste could signify an excess of chlorine. Keep in mind that you should spit out your water if the taste is too foul.

Test For Yourself Using A Home Testing Kit

There are a variety of home testing kits for water quality. These include test strips, color disks, among many others. In most cases the test strips will be enough to get a baseline of your home's water quality.

Test Strips

These single-use stripes change color when exposed to the water. The colors on the test strip will change depending on the concentration of the chemical in the water. To use, hold the strip under a stream of water or swish it around a bottle of water. After waiting for a determined amount of time, compare the test strip colors to the ones found on the color chart of the product.These kits are simple to use, but they can be less accurate compared to other tests available on the market. Often times the results can be even less accurate if the user does not follow the instructions of the test properly.

Color disk kits

Color disk test kits are available for a variety of chemicals. These include water hardness, pH, iron, chlorine, among many others. Typical coor disk test kits work by adding a few drops of liquid reagent or powder to a water sample in a tube. Once in the tube, the water will change and the user will have to rotate the color disk to best match that color.Color disk kits are a bit more expensive when compared to test strips. However, they tend to be more accurate due to the amount of steps and waiting times that need to be used.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text el_class="pt-md"]

Obtain A Water Quality Report For Your Neighborhood

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. This report will contain the average concentrations of different chemicals and minerals in your area's water.

What Do I Do To Improve The Quality Of Water In My Home?

A Freshpoint filtration system should help improve the taste in your water while also removing impurities. If you wish to remove hard minerals to further improve the quality of your home's water, a whole house softener and filtration system provides the benefits of cleaner and softer water.If you're interested in improving the water quality in your home, contact Jason's Water Systems today for a free water analysis and for more information about our products.