Water hardness

[brokenknee]

Sold my home and should be closing on my new property in a couple of weeks. Had a water test done but it does not say what the hardness of the water is.

Just wondering if this is a separate test or can it be determined from the supplied information?

Here is a snipe of the water test results;

 

[TheMan419]

Don't know if you can find it from that info or not. However when we put in a new water softener a while back we bought some kind of test strip from the big box home improvement store. Ran the strip in water that was not softened and it turned a different color depending on how many grains of hardness you had. That way we knew how to set up the softener.

 

[Mendonsy]

Around here the companies that install water softeners will test it for you, although they will always tell you it is really bad even when it is not. Those test strips from the hardware stores do work, but they will only give you a general range. That's probably good enough to tell if you have a problem worth worrying about. I suggest you test for hardness (usually lime content) and also for iron content.

 

[s219]

You can order a pretty accurate test kit on Amazon. This is the one I got:

Hach 1453 Total Hardness Test Kit, Model 5-B: Air Tool Maintenance Kits: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

Avoid the kits with color strips/etc, as they are not real good (unless it's an iron test). For this kit, you count the number of drops added until the water changes color. It's very easy to get an accurate reading.

 

[dstig1]

That is a basic well test. They are looking for safety issues with your well water - bacterial or chemical contamination (nitrates generally related to runoff from farm fertilizer, for example - often a problem in farm country where the water table is close to the surface). You'll notice the last 2 columns talking about "EPA" requirements. Hardness testing is done separately. Our softener guy did it. Very honest decent guy. No question ours was seriously hard (not a surprise around here), but he said no iron, so that was good. Like others said, you may get a line of BS from some. If you can find someone you trust, then you should be good with them. Otherwise maybe just get your own test like S219 pointed you to.

 

[/pine]

It won't give you any technical data but you can do a simple "soap test"...if a little soap goes a long way the water is soft...if it rinses right off the water is hard...

 

[mddorange]

You can take a small bottle of water to any Sears store that sells Water Softeners and they will do the same "drops" test for you for free. Of course they will try to get you to buy a Water Softener but all you have to say is; "I will think about it" and walk away.

 

[oosik]

What dstig1 said. There are basically two tests for water. Bacterial quality - yours indicates its acceptable and chemical quality - yours only had nitrates/nitrites run. Nitrates/nitrites is a test to see if agricultural fertilizer is in your water. Your water is acceptable for that also.

There is a whole flock of chemical tests that can be run - which are normally not done on a "standard" sample. Iron, calcium, fluoride, magnesium etc, etc. A "standard" chemical test can be quite expensive if it includes most chemical compounds that might be present in the water in your area.

The liquid soap test is a quick & dirty method of determining hardness. Two drops of Dawn in a quart jar half full of cold water. Shake vigorously - does it foam up and almost fill the vacant portion of the jar with foam - if so, your water would be considered soft. Does it only produce a small amount of foam - this water would be considered hard. This does not give any quantitate results - only a visual representation.

This test also has "nasty" spin offs. Quart jar - half full of cold water - add NO detergent - shake vigorously. The water foams up - you have sewage in your water.
Don't try this last test at home folks - its EXTREMELY easy to get false results. This test should only be done by personnel that have experience.

 

[speedbump]

I sell these and have used them. They work very well and are quite inexpensive.
Product Categories Well Water Test Kit

 

[Stimw]

Having lived the last 20 years on wells and having water softeners I would never go back to water without softening!
I put a Whirlpool from Lowe's ($349.00 on sale!) in my last house about 3 years ago and it worked so well that I put the same kind in my new house a year and a half ago.
Old house had iron, new house is just HARD and both houses have great water afterwards.
I also used a carbon filter on the iron house which made a big difference. I drank many gallons of that water!

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Sold my home and should be closing on my new property in a couple of weeks. Had a water test done but it does not say what the hardness of the water is.

Just wondering if this is a separate test or can it be determined from the supplied information?

Here is a snipe of the water test results;


View attachment 487826

My local Fleet store tested the hardness of a water sample I brought in.

 

[speedbump]

Having lived the last 20 years on wells and having water softeners I would never go back to water without softening!
I put a Whirlpool from Lowe's ($349.00 on sale!) in my last house about 3 years ago and it worked so well that I put the same kind in my new house a year and a half ago.
Old house had iron, new house is just HARD and both houses have great water afterwards.
I also used a carbon filter on the iron house which made a big difference. I drank many gallons of that water!

The bad thing about carbon and iron is that the iron plugs up the carbon and shortens it's life quite a bit. But a softener is a softener. There are better and cheaper heads out there, but no matter how long they last, they all do the same thing and operate the same way.

 

[Stimw]

The bad thing about carbon and iron is that the iron plugs up the carbon and shortens it's life quite a bit. But a softener is a softener. There are better and cheaper heads out there, but no matter how long they last, they all do the same thing and operate the same way.

I just used the changeable carbon filter cartridges that sell for about 2 for $10.00
I also learned to put a regular filter before the softener to keep from stopping up the softener orifices with any sand or sediment.

 

[speedbump]

I just used the changeable carbon filter cartridges that sell for about 2 for $10.00

I never give much credit to those 10" filters. They were designed as one faucet filters. Now they call them "Whole house filters"

 

[JRobyn]

I use a small filter with a relatively coarse spun media cartridge as a "roughing filter" before my larger whole house filter. I can change the inexpensive little cartridges 2 or 3 times before I change the big one. It's great at catching the larger junk.

 

[teejk]

I think you can get a pretty good idea of "hardness" simply from your local geographical map...have owned houses in limestone country...high ph and the typical water softener was required... and now live in granite country...low ph and the typical water softener would be a waste of money but more expensive systems are required.

 

[brokenknee]

thanks for the replies, the house I am buying does have a rented water softener so I would have to assume it does have hard water. I think water softener rental is way overpriced so I plan to purchase a water softener and install it myself. I have basic plumbing skills and have installed water softeners in the past.

I have never had a water test performed like that before and was expecting it to show how hard the water is. I was hoping for the water hardness so I could set the softener correctly.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a brand of softener? I would like to stay under $700, It is my opinion that the water softener companies are overpriced. I would think I could get something comparable online for a lot less.

 

[Mendonsy]

The Whirlpool softeners that Lowes carries seem to work well and aren't terribly expensive. I have one that is just over two years old and has worked perfectly so far. As I recall it was under $400.

 

[Stimw]

I bought a Whirlpool from Lowe's ($349.00 on sale, $399.00 regular) at my last house and was so happy I bought another one for my current house!
Also talked a friend into buying one so that's 3 that work great.

 

[Gunny]

I'm working on my second Whirlpool softener. The first one lasted about 16 years so when it went bad early this spring, I just bought another one. I figured that 16 years was a pretty good ROE and by buying another one of the same size, it was a 15 minute job to jerk out the old one and roll the new one in place.