Anyone send their water to be tested for mineral content?

Stevorino · 02-13-2009, 02:48 PM

I'm thinking about starting to add salts to my water and such. Anyone send in their water to be tested? Where to and how much did you pay?

sparkyaber · 02-13-2009, 02:51 PM

Good question, my city water report gives no information about hardness or mineral content. It only gives the information about radon, clorine, etc.

Stevorino · 02-13-2009, 02:59 PM

I know the guys at the brewing network have talked about it -- but I didn't know if it was something normal to do or not...

Dennis1979 · 02-13-2009, 02:59 PM

I want to but to get a real decent test done, one that tells you not only what minerals are in there but also if there are any bad chemicals, is expensive. Say $200 or so. If its a local water source, you can probably get the info free from the water district and the issue of chemicals may not be an issue at all in a city-water situation. In my case I have a source of water that comes from an underground spring 400 feet down. I pump it out of the ground myself. The water is clear and I drink it all the time but I would like to get a test done just to know what all is there.

Here is a link to a testing facility that I found and seemed like a good place to use. Welcome to Envirotek

Dennis

Bokonon · 02-13-2009, 03:30 PM

The lab that everyone seems to use is Ward Laboratories, Agricultural Testing, Consulting, Kearney, Nebraska

I'm planning on getting my water tested one of these days.

W-6 Household Mineral Test $16.50
Sodium
Calcium
Magnesium
Potassium
Carbonate
Bicarbonate
Chloride
Sulfate
Nitrate
Electrical Conductivity
Est. Total Dissolved Solids
pH
Total Hardness (Lime)
Total Alkalinity

**ShortSnoutBrewing** · 02-13-2009, 04:16 PM

I've used Ward Labs. Test above tells you everything you need to know. They sent a free test jar and response was super fast.

Bokonon · 02-13-2009, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kilted Brewer

I've used Ward Labs. Test above tells you everything you need to know. They sent a free test jar and response was super fast.

Kilted: Do you use a carbon filter or anything? I think I'm going to finally submit my water for testing and I'm not sure if I should take the sample after my carbon filter or before. Ideally I'd do both, but I don't want to fork over the cash for that. Would be nice to see if the filter is affecting the water in some way

Stevorino · 02-13-2009, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bokonon

Kilted: Do you use a carbon filter or anything? I think I'm going to finally submit my water for testing and I'm not sure if I should take the sample after my carbon filter or before. Ideally I'd do both, but I don't want to fork over the cash for that. Would be nice to see if the filter is affecting the water in some way

Good question -- what do you send in?

**olllllo** · 02-13-2009, 04:55 PM

If you request, they will send you a sample jar. But you can use a drinking water bottle.

Jumbo82 · 02-13-2009, 05:10 PM

my old company had an in-house lab. they allowed employees to test their home water once a year for free. I got a full analysis with the idea of possibly using it for brewing. i read the results, water was fine, haven't done anything with it since. maybe one day...