Testing tap water is critical for families with children because metals such as lead and mercury cause neurological damage in infants and children.
Exposure to mercury and lead may also cause development of autoimmunity diseases.
In addition, other members of the family are vulnerable to kidney damage through exposure to water that’s contaminated with cadmium.
Testing tap water is the only way to know for sure whether or not your water is safe to drink. The process of testing the tap water isn’t always easy.
Of course, one tried and true way of testing tap water is to use your senses, such as sight and smell.
If the water looks unusual when poured into a clear container, or its emitting an odor of any kind, you already have an idea that it’s not something you should drink.
The problem is a lot of water contaminants can’t be detected by sight, smell, or taste. Bacteria, viruses, lead, and other chemicals can go undetected. That’s why testing tap water is so important.
How concerned should you be about testing tap water? The water from most municipal systems in the US is safe because it has to comply with the federal Safe Water Drinking Act.
You can be assured your water comes from a municipal system unless you’re using well water. The municipality is responsible for testing tap water regularly for contaminants, and alert the public of any potentially harmful contaminant levels.
Without testing tap water, you can feel relatively safe drinking it as long as it comes from a municipal system in the United States.
If that’s not quite enough, and you need to absolutely know for sure, here are some other ways of testing tap water.
Testing Tap Water At Home
You can test your own tap water at home using a testing kit. You collect the tap water using equipment contained in the kit, and then ship the sample off to a lab for analysis.
Our certified home water testing kits check for the presence of toxic heavy metals, lead, and E. coli. Testing water at home with a kit is easy and comes complete with everything needed to take the appropriate water samples.
With all of our testing kits, laboratory testing (including shipping) is included in the price. There are no hidden fees and no extra costs.
When testing water at home you can expect a professional, accurate, and certified analytical report with 5 business days of samples being received from the lab.
A good piece of advice when collecting water samples for testing is that it’s always best to gather first draw water. That’s the water that comes out as soon as you turn on the tap.
It’s also best if you leave your water pipes sitting overnight, and then collect the first draw tap water in the morning. If there are any contaminant leaching from the plumbing pipes into your water, this is when they would be at their highest point.
If you’re ready to get started testing your tap water, please see our selection of water testing kits with certified lab analysis.
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