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Water Filter Update

The results are in: our water’s fine. And since it tastes fine, too, no filter’s necessary.

  • Lead: Negative
  • Bacteria: Negative
  • Pesticides: Negative
  • Nitrates: .5 ppm (very low)
  • Nitrites: 0 ppm
  • pH: 10 (very high)
  • Hardness: 120 ppm (very high)
  • Chlorine: 2 ppm (low)
The bacteria test. Purple=negative. Yellow=positive.

The bacteria test. Purple=negative. Yellow=positive.

We used a Watersafe kit to test it. In addition to the lead and bacteria tests, the kit included tests for things that I wasn’t really worried about, like pesticides and nitrates/nitrites (not lot of farms around here) and hardness, pH, and chlorine (which really only affect the taste and your pipes).

IMG_1076

Nitrates/Nitrites and pH/Hardness/Chlorine. These two tests were a little useless, but fun.

The City of Cambridge mails us water quality reports every year, so the only thing I really wondered about was lead. Since that can come from the pipes in your house, it wouldn’t show up on the city’s report. Probably not a large problem anymore, but it’s good to be sure.

IMG_1078

Lead and Pesticides. These two look uncomfortably like pregnancy tests, don’t they?

All in all, I’m glad we tested our water. Now, instead of wasting our money on filters that then get thrown away every few months, we can be comfortable with it as is. And the test only cost $18 (including shipping), less than a three-pack of Brita filters. Maybe I should test our water at work, too….

Comments

Comment from Sharon
Time September 4, 2009 at 9:29 am

Interesting. So to be clear: if I know that I have copper pipes in my house and from the house to the street (because we had it installed), then I can be confident that there’s no lead in my water.

I had no idea that fridge door filters were in efficient. That’s good to know.

Comment from Brenda Pike
Time September 4, 2009 at 12:57 pm

Pretty much. That’s the only place where it would differ from the town’s water quality reports, which I think they have to mail you on a yearly basis, by law. They probably have it somewhere on their website, too.

Pingback from Looking Back at 2009 « Pragmatic Environmentalism
Time January 4, 2010 at 9:06 pm

[…] Water testing – I’m happy to know now that we don’t need to filter our water. […]

Pingback from Why the Run on Bottled Water in Boston? « Pragmatic Environmentalism
Time May 3, 2010 at 10:20 pm

[…] are sent out to residents yearly. And if that’s not enough, you can just test it yourself, like I did. The test costs less than a three-pack of Brita replacement […]

Pingback from Energy 2.0 » Blog Archive » Why the Run on Bottled Water in Boston?
Time May 4, 2010 at 10:42 am

[…] are sent out to residents yearly. And if that’s not enough, you can just test it yourself, like I did. The test costs less than a three-pack of Brita replacement […]

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