Water Test Kits

Test first, in almost every case: start free with your utility’s report, screen the tuning numbers at home, and pay for a lab only when the result picks the filter.

Order a PFAS panel from a certified lab (mail-in kits count — the analysis is the same), follow the kit’s contamination rules to the letter.

Use a certified lab, and sample the EPA way — cold kitchen tap, first draw, after the water has sat still for at least six hours, with no flushing beforehand.

Send a sample to a certified lab every year for total coliform bacteria, nitrates, total dissolved solids, and pH — the EPA’s core four for private wells.

TDS — total dissolved solids — is the combined weight of everything dissolved in your water, measured in parts per million.

For chlorine, pH, hardness, and spotting big changes, strips are accurate enough and genuinely useful.