Ward Labs water report (east side Cincinnati OH) unbalanced

[MapleGroveAleworks]

Hello all, I received my Ward Labs report and keyed into BruN Water this morning and it's very unbalanced.

pH: 8.8
Cations/Anions: 4.7 / 5.3

Sodium (Na): 28
Potassium (K): 11
Calcium (Ca): 46
Magnesium (Mg): 11
Total Hardness (CaCO3): 161
Nitrate (NO3-N): 0.3
Sulfate (SO4-S): 22
Chloride (Cl): 33
Carbonate (CO3): 5.6
Bicarbonate (HCO3): 170
Total Alkalinity (CaCO3): 147
Total Phosphorus (P): 0.05


I entered everything into the spreadsheet and it's very off, so I am assuming this can't be right. I emailed Ward Labs to ask if they can re-test for me, because I am not sure what to do with this information.

My method:

Just moved into a new home. Bought this drinking water hose:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000EDUTMW/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Also bought a Camco RV filter: (Do I need this?)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006IX87S/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Ran the water through the hose/filter for about 5 minutes.
Put a bit of soap in a used bottle of water and rinsed out for about 5 minutes over and over. Then filled up the bottle from the hose/filter combo.

Any thoughts on my process that would have created these results, or any other tips would be appreciated, thank you very much.

 

[mabrungard]

The report says its unbalanced...4.7 meq for the cations and 5.3 meq for the anions. 0.6 units difference. Something is either missing from the analysis or the lab work is off.

Its not ideal, but it will still be close enough to work with in a brewing chemistry program. Be aware that the imbalance is just a red flag. But it doesn't prevent you from using the information.

 

[ajdelange]

Every water that you send off for analysis is perfectly balanced. It has to be. The balance numbers the lab reports are simply a quality control check. As long as you didn't do something like adding strontium chloride to the sample and as long as the water doesn't contain it naturally, it should balance pretty closely. 0.6 mEq/L is not that bad an imbalance but it is not that good either. It is just about at the edge of where I would complain. Ward Labs will often re-test where it is apparent that they didn't do a very good job. I'd say you have a pretty good case here but note that 10 mg/L strontium would contribute 2*10/88.7 = 0.22 mEq if it were measured but it isn't. I'm not suggesting that this is what is responsible for your imbalace but it gives you an idea.

They still do not completely understand the relationships between pH, HCO3- and HCO3-- and that contributes some to the imbalance but not much in this case - less that 0.1 mEq/L.