How To Send In Water For Ward Labs Test

[SPLASTiK]

Got my bottles but they sent me regular labels, not prepaid.

 

[HenryHill]

Ok...... so maybe it was a simple mistake on one of our parts (mine or Ward's). I'll make sure to get the prepaid label next time. I certainly didn't mind paying for the S/H - I still think it is a good deal. I am glad to hear that they really do include the s/h with the cost - it makes it even more of a bargin. It is kind of unusual to find a company that will offer a service, provide the results to a general consumer and not require payment upfront.
Now If I can just get my results, I'll have something much better to do than continuously checking HBT.
Thanks again Henry,
jason

Got my bottles but they sent me regular labels, not prepaid.

Yeah, none of us continually comes back to HBT.

As I said, mine didn't say it was prepaid but the USPS (post office) took it and sent it, no problem.

 

[JKoravos]

I got my results last night. 4 business days from the time I sent out the samples. Not too bad.

 

[conpewter]

Sweet, last time I supplied my own bottle and box, it will be much easier to get the stuff and send it back with no shipping. I'll be doing another test when I can plumb a line straight from my inlet without going through the water softener bypass valve and the regular pipes when I switch over to brewing vs. regular household use.

 

[Whiskey]

My two bottles came in a white envelope, with a shipping label, no return box.

No biggy, it seems to vary though. I checked and my shipping order and confirmation e-mail all showed that I did order the box. I plan on sending a straight from the tap sample and one tricked through my carbon filter, this will give me a base line and also a 50% sample of what I brew with.

 

[Want2Brew]

Great info, Thank You for sharing it. I have one question. In the OP it says that you also got the iron test. Did they do the iron test form the same bottle that they did the W6 tests form? I looks like that is what you are saying but I want to be sure that they can do the W6 + the iron test(s) from the same sample bottle before I order my sampling supplies. Thanks for the help!

 

[JKoravos]

They did the iron test from the same sample bottle as the other household minerals.

 

[B-Dub]

I think I blew it on shipping. The local shipping store charged me $14 to ship from CA to NE.

Running out of time I had no choice but to go for it or wait for a week or more.

I will be sending for the envelope and sample tubs next time!

 

[Pat_13]

Thanks for the info, I sent mine in water bottles and paid USPS $10 to ship. So this will save me a few $

Looks like there are a few lables:

Shipping Labels
Shipping Labels (pre-paid USPS)
Shipping Labels (pre-paid UPS ARS)

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

My two bottles came in a white envelope, with a shipping label, no return box.

No biggy, it seems to vary though. I checked and my shipping order and confirmation e-mail all showed that I did order the box.

Same here. I just emailed them to get the box. I am not under a time constraint so I will just wait for the proper supplies.

 

[yogensha]

This should be sticky.

I'm getting close to my first AG batch and the water reports available from my municipal water supplier only contains completely unimportant things like arsenic and uranium

This is a fantastic and extremely valuable service.

 

[pfeuffer]

BTW, the prepaid labels are not the same as "free shipping" - you will be charged the postage when they bill you for the tests. That said, it's a nice option, and easier than dealing with the PO.

 

[Ryan_PA]

Thanks so much for posting this Henry. I am anxious to get my water report since I am on well water for brewing, but more important is the understanding of the water quality for my daughter. The Dr. recommended this to test for fluoride levels since we are not on water co. controlled sources.

Thanks again man.

 

[motobrewer]

Thanks for posting this, helped me a lot.

 

[erikrocks]

I dragged this thread back out because I have a question:

I have a private well and I'd like to get a mineral composition test from Ward's. Should I go with W-5 (which includes Iron) or W-6 (no iron)?

Thanks.

 

[CrystallineEntity]

FYI

W-5 Household Complete Mineral Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$26.50

W-6 Household Mineral Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$16.50

It's listed wrong in the original post.

-Aaron

 

[motobrewer]

Ok, so, I think I just f-ed it up.

So, I got a "pre-paid mailing label". It was just a label. I took it to the post office, and they're like, $20 for 2 day air, $5 for 3 day. Not prepaid...

So I paid $5, then realized it won't be there until friday, when they don't take samples. So my sample will sit until monday. They say over 24 hours is bad.

Did I just waste ~$50?

 

[babalu87]

Go with W-6 so you can find out your Iron content (important for your pipes)

A BIG +1 to Ward Labs

The received my sample Monday of this week
Last night I had an e-mail with my results.

 

[physfarm]

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but now they have a specific form and set of directions for home brewers. At http://www.wardlab.com/ under About Us then General Information, they have a link to a pdf:

http://www.wardlab.com/samplingsheets/wsis.pdf

where it states

We have supplies available; however they are based on large quantities being shipped at one time. Thus we are requesting that you help us hold down the costs by using your
own container(s).

I assume that they would prefer we pay our own shipping as well. They do say that disposable plastic water bottles work good though, so the packaging isn't a big deal (and shipping wont' be too high either). I suppose you can still request the sampling supplies and shipping label as it doesn't explicitly say you can't, but it would probably be frowned upon.

 

[Bobby_M]

Weird. I just sent them an email about an hour ago suggesting that they offer a brewery water test with only the ions we need, plus chlorine/chloramine. I didn't realize they knew how much brewer business they get. I guess they do know.

 

[physfarm]

I just sent them an email about an hour ago suggesting that they offer a brewery water test with only the ions we need, plus chlorine/chloramine.

Have they got back with you on that? I was getting ready to send my filtered water off to see where I was at. I could wait a bit if they were going to offer a brewery option.

 

[Bobby_M]

Their response was sort of generic just saying that they already put instructions on there for homebrewers. I had suggested they take off a few of the non-essential elements off the W-6 and replace it with chlorine/chloramine but I guess they aren't interested. Just get the W-6.. good enough I suppose.

 

[speedyox]

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but now they have a specific form and set of directions for home brewers. At http://www.wardlab.com/ under About Us then General Information, they have a link to a pdf:

http://www.wardlab.com/samplingsheets/wsis.pdf

where it states



I assume that they would prefer we pay our own shipping as well. They do say that disposable plastic water bottles work good though, so the packaging isn't a big deal (and shipping wont' be too high either). I suppose you can still request the sampling supplies and shipping label as it doesn't explicitly say you can't, but it would probably be frowned upon.

Updated Link to the sample instructions:

http://www.wardlab.com/images/SampleForms/wsis.pdf

 

[ajdelange]

This looks like a good place for me to remind people that Ward Labs reports list sulfate "as Sulfur", not "as Sulfate" which is what all the popular spreadsheets expect. Multiply the Ward Labs value by 3.

 

[jkarp]

This looks like a good place for me to remind people that Ward Labs reports list sulfate "as Sulfur", not "as Sulfate" which is what all the popular spreadsheets expect. Multiply the Ward Labs value by 3.

Has Ward recently changed their report? Mine is listed as: Sulfate, SO4-S

 

[ajdelange]

SO4-S is read "Sulfate as sulfur". Been that way as long as they've been doing this AFAIK (though I just noticed it a couple of weeks ago).

 

[Bobby_M]

AJ is right.

 

[jkarp]

Confirmed with Ray Ward. His reply:

The concentration is the same. We report sulfate as SO4-S. If you want SO4 then you have to multiply our test by 3. Molecular weight of sulfur is 32. Molecular weight of SO4 is 96 (32 of sulfur and 16 * 4 for oxygen). Ray

 

[jdauria]

By "disposable plastic drinking water bottles" on the Ward Labs form, are we talking about bottled water bottles?

 

[mabrungard]

Yes, the smallest bottled water bottle you can find. The last samples I sent to Ward were bottled in White Labs Yeast vials. About 4 oz per sample is enough for their testing. It saves on postage too.