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Maggie’s Water Test kit question

roggom

Senior Chief
Full Member
Minuteman
Mar 29, 2011
2,624
89
Northern Colorado
So the filter LED on my fridge went off, in 6 months on a new fridge. I just reset it as I went 51 years drinking tap and Im still alive.

Anyway, got me thinking about actual safe water testing.

When I was a yungin on the USS Independence, one of my duties on watch was to walk around the ship and test the drinking water all over the carrier.

I remember it had several little vials, test strips and we incubated some for a few days. Anyone know what kit this was or something similar and legit.


All the kits I see online seem like bullshit. Folks test tap, pool, well and the strips dont change.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
 
So the filter LED on my fridge went off, in 6 months on a new fridge. I just reset it as I went 51 years drinking tap and Im still alive.

Anyway, got me thinking about actual safe water testing.

When I was a yungin on the USS Independence, one of my duties on watch was to walk around the ship and test the drinking water all over the carrier.

I remember it had several little vials, test strips and we incubated some for a few days. Anyone know what kit this was or something similar and legit.


All the kits I see online seem like bullshit. Folks test tap, pool, well and the strips dont change.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

test strips - probably just pH. residual or free chlorine would be good too.

well water - send to lab for fecal coliform, make sure septic is not short - circuited to drinking water.

Public water - go on-line and check testing by the water supplier. They are required to test and report on metals, solvents, radionuclides, etc. and nowadays, they added in "perfluorinated substances" too
 
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So the filter LED on my fridge went off, in 6 months on a new fridge. I just reset it as I went 51 years drinking tap and Im still alive.

Anyway, got me thinking about actual safe water testing.

When I was a yungin on the USS Independence, one of my duties on watch was to walk around the ship and test the drinking water all over the carrier.

I remember it had several little vials, test strips and we incubated some for a few days. Anyone know what kit this was or something similar and legit.


All the kits I see online seem like bullshit. Folks test tap, pool, well and the strips dont change.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

The filter light on your fridge is triggered by how much water went through it since the last time the light was reset. It doesn't detect contaminents.

Our water is from our own well, and I have it tested twice a year. Some people recommend quarterly testing. There is a water lab nearby and they give me sample bottles for free. They charge $20 for the basic bacteria test. They can also test for anything you want (VOC's, heavy metals, iron, etc) and the prices are reasonable. Their tests quantify and characterize any contaminents. It is the same lab the local well contractors use, but they charge $80 to collect the sample and have it tested for bacteria.

Find the authority that does well permitting where you live. They will have a list of approved labs.

I looked into the home test kits, and decided they didn't provide what I need/want. YMMV
 
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Don't know your brand of refrigerator but some of them are on a timer, the light just comes on every 6 months. Even if the water isn't hooked up. The manufactures are trying to sell filters like HP sells inkjet cartridges.
Unless you're in Jacksonville, FL. Then that filter has been plugged for a couple of months.
 
Thanks guys for the response. I guess my request is because we had a flood in CO a few years ago and it messed up some of the water supply, A simple boil and it was good to go. Just was checking for a legit home testing kit for an emergency. The kit I used in the Navy did pretty much the basic chemical, metals and bacteria. Was looking for something similar.
 
Whats jax and a plugged filter have in common?? As thats where i am and just curious
 
You aren't gonna get what you really need in a home test kit.

It's pretty easy to get a false positive on a BacT test. If you don't collect your sample correctly, you can contaminate the sample. You end up false positive. A single algae cell can throw a false positive.

In SHTF, just assume all water is suspect. Boil it.
Don't buy into old wives tales about flowing water, water running over rocks, water filtered through sand etc.

PFAs, heavy metals, pharmaceutical pollutants, are all very tricky to detect and require heavy duty lab equipment.

The last seminar I attended was heavy with talk of emerging pollutants. If your water source is downstream of a population center of any size, you can assume it is polluted with any number of emerging pollutants. There are numerous PFAS hot zones around the country. We have all been accumulating them in our bodies for decades now. We really aren't sure about their effects on humans, but it's known that they accumulate.
Same with pharma waste, we don't really know how to treat that waste, and only just begun to actively search for it in waste streams.

It's hard to beat activated carbon(charcoal, not the briquettes) for treating water, but you'll still need to disinfect.
Chlorine is effective, and will naturally leave the water if let sit for a little while. Unfortunately, CL2 also creates more compounds that are pollutants, when used in the presence of other organic compounds. As an example in the presence of NH3(ammonia) CL2 creates chloramines...nasty little compounds. So it isn't a good idea to chlorinate "dirty" water.
Start with as "clear" a water as you can find.

If you are concerned with water in SHTF scenarios. I suggest doing some study on Water and especially Wastewater principles. I'd study wastewater principles, if you understand how to turn shit, into clean water, then dirty water to clean water is super simple.
 
You aren't gonna get what you really need in a home test kit.

It's pretty easy to get a false positive on a BacT test. If you don't collect your sample correctly, you can contaminate the sample. You end up false positive. A single algae cell can throw a false positive.

In SHTF, just assume all water is suspect. Boil it.
Don't buy into old wives tales about flowing water, water running over rocks, water filtered through sand etc.

PFAs, heavy metals, pharmaceutical pollutants, are all very tricky to detect and require heavy duty lab equipment.

The last seminar I attended was heavy with talk of emerging pollutants. If your water source is downstream of a population center of any size, you can assume it is polluted with any number of emerging pollutants. There are numerous PFAS hot zones around the country. We have all been accumulating them in our bodies for decades now. We really aren't sure about their effects on humans, but it's known that they accumulate.
Same with pharma waste, we don't really know how to treat that waste, and only just begun to actively search for it in waste streams.

It's hard to beat activated carbon(charcoal, not the briquettes) for treating water, but you'll still need to disinfect.
Chlorine is effective, and will naturally leave the water if let sit for a little while. Unfortunately, CL2 also creates more compounds that are pollutants, when used in the presence of other organic compounds. As an example in the presence of NH3(ammonia) CL2 creates chloramines...nasty little compounds. So it isn't a good idea to chlorinate "dirty" water.
Start with as "clear" a water as you can find.

If you are concerned with water in SHTF scenarios. I suggest doing some study on Water and especially Wastewater principles. I'd study wastewater principles, if you understand how to turn shit, into clean water, then dirty water to clean water is super simple.
After reading this post I had a vivid memory of being in the GRIT.
I'd rather drink skunk oil than to smell that again.
 
After reading this post I had a vivid memory of being in the GRIT.
I'd rather drink skunk oil than to smell that again.

You don't know stink till you handle the municipal flow from the most prolific brewery city in the USA. I think we are up to over 70 breweries in town now.
It's a funk like you can't imagine, and I've been in the turd wrangling business for 32+ years now.
 
You don't know stink till you handle the municipal flow from the most prolific brewery city in the USA. I think we are up to over 70 breweries in town now.
It's a funk like you can't imagine, and I've been in the turd wrangling business for 32+ years now.
All I can say is that people don't know gag reflex until they've been in a shit plant.
Kubota Corp fucked our plant up and the people have to go in every few weeks and literally pick the screens clean.
For those that don't know what I'm talking about.
Imagine sewage byproducts stuck in a honeycomb screen and you have to clear each hole, EeeeeWwwwgawd it's fucking vile.
 
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