question about water and testing with Ward labs

I am anxious to start brewing with my own water and I am ready to send it off to Ward labs for testing. My first question for those using tap water... do most people use hot or cold water. I imagine hot water would make things go a little quicker, but then you run into the issue of picking up any sediment that may be in the hot water heater which could vary significantly batch to batch. Many times, I imagine that I will just use the hose outside which will comes from the cold water line. Should I just send Ward a sample of my cold tap water? Also, not sure if it will impact anything, but i will not be filtering. I will be using campden to remove chlorine and chloromine.

I used cold water, straight from the tap. If you go to a hose, get one of the ones for RV's, which are meant for drinking water.

"If you go to a hose, get one of the ones for RV's, which are meant for drinking water."

^Do not take that advice lightly. I don't even use the regular garden hose to clean my equipment after brewing. The water that comes out of it is horrible.

Stupid question about Ward Labs......do they send you a sample kit or do you just send them your own container? If you use your own what kind of container do you send them?

Thanks!

Jason

@ Jason... There was a post on here about the process for having them ship you a container and box and prepaid postage slip. That info is a little dated now, as they will only send you the sample container and a generic return label (it was stated in the past that they supplied boxes and prepaid shipping tags, but they only do this now for larger, non residential requests). I submitted the order online and UPS dropped it off 2 days later. I suppose I can just use the box it came in to send it back. I also think there was some confusion regarding the idea of free shipping. It is actually a business reply option, which just means you pay the shipping when they invoice you. It appears that this is only an option for larger customers these days.

Duh! Don't know why I didn't think about a plastic water bottle. That would make too much sense. Thanks guys!