According to recent government studies, as many as 19 million Americans become ill each year from drinking contaminated water. Furthermore, over 286 million Americans get their tap water from community water systems, of which received more than 12,000 health-based violations just last year!
WARNING: Utilities Do Not Test Your Home’s Water
They are only required to test the water sent from their facilities, there is little to no data on what pollutants and heavy metals tap water can pick up on the way to your home. The only way to be sure you and your family are drinking healthy water is to test what comes out of your faucet.
Check Out Our Pick for the Best Home Water Test Kit
Tap Score is the only home water testing service with unbiased treatment matching and health risk analysis
Capable of indentifying more contanimants and measuring to lower levels than the cheap Amazon test strips or Home Depot home test kits
Build your own test kit tailored to possible local contamination like septic tanks or PFAS
Easy-to-read summary allows you to quickly identify the adverse health consequences from pollutants in your water supply
Certified for every US State, Water Utility and Business Sector, expecially useful for home loan requirements
Radiation testing is expensive but not necessary for typical home owners
Why Trust Waterful.org?
Our water scientists and engineers spends thousands of hours researching, analyzing, and testing products to recommend the best picks. We only make money if you purchase a product through our links, and we never accept free products from manufacturers .
What makes this even scarier is that the water systems only test at their facility, so any number of things can go wrong along the way from the source to your home (fractured pipes, corroded valves, excessive chemicals, hard water, etc.).
Therefore the only reliable way to know what you and your family are drinking every day is to have a certified, professional laboratory test your water for contaminants.
The Importance of Testing Tap Water
You need to ensure that you test routinely for certain common contaminants. Even if the authorities in your area control water quality so that it conforms to applicable regulations and standards, you should still test the water. Doing so serves two important purposes. First, you will have a periodic record of water quality. Second, this record will help you with compensation if the water supply is compromised.
Testing becomes particularly important if the water is located close to a septic system. You must also pay attention to the materials of your plumbing system since they come in contact with water.
If you notice a problem with staining, odor, and taste, then you should have the water tested for corrosion, hardness, manganese, iron, chloride, and sulfate. Other tests may also be necessary as you will soon discover.
It is imperative to test your water regularly. Here is a list of problems that can occur with your drinking water and the tests that you should perform in response to these problems.
| Health/Water Condition | Required Test |
| gastro-intestinal diseases | coliform bacteria, lead |
| the area has high radon | radon |
| difficulty with lathering soaps and scaly residues | hardness |
| salty taste | sodium, chloride, TDS |
| factory, landfill or dump located nearby | metals, chloride, sulfate, pH, TDS, VOCs |
| fuel odor or home located near a gas station | VOC |
| gas drilling operations in the area | strontium, barium, sodium, chloride |
| mining operation in the vicinity | corrosion, pH, metals |
| agricultural activities in the area | coliform bacteria, pesticides, nitrate |
| water treatment equipment wears quickly | corrosion, pH |
| corrosion in the plumbing system | lead, pH, corrosion |
| water is discolored, frothy or cloudy | detergents, color |
| bad taste or smell | metals, corrosion, hydrogen sulfide |
| stained laundry and plumbing fixtures | manganese, copper, iron |
| water softener required for treating hardness | iron, manganese |
Instead of waiting for problems to happen, it is better to take the initiative and keep testing regularly. Regular testing will ensure that your water is safe for drinking. With testing, you can also find problems with water that may not be apparent to the senses. Testing results often reveal water quality issues that are critical despite being invisible. You can then take appropriate remedial action to ensure reliable water quality and safeguard the health of your loved ones.
Testing provides you with vital information that can help you make informed decisions concerning your drinking water. You will be able to understand the suitability and safety of your tap water for various purposes besides drinking like agricultural use for instance.
The testing results can help you to understand the effectiveness of your treatment systems. You can also track changes in water quality over time.
Critical changes can occur with your tap or well water without you knowing it. Despite the major changes, there may be no obvious changes in the taste, smell, or appearance of water. The only way to keep track of these insidious changes is to test your water regularly. A drinking water test kit from a reliable lab is the need of the hour.
If you are thinking about water testing near me, then you are in luck since you can easily and conveniently send samples of your drinking water to Tap Score labs from anywhere in the US.
Common Tap Water Contaminants
Here are some of the most common contaminants that you need to test regularly.
Lead in Tap Water
Lead is a dangerous toxin that can attack multiple systems in your body. It is particularly harmful to children. One big problem with lead is that it is cumulative. It can build up in your bones, teeth, kidney, liver, and brain where it causes serious problems. Measurement of lead levels in the blood can give a warning of lead exposure.
Lead in water is so detrimental that there is no known level at which it can be regarded as safe. The lead test kit available at Tap Score can help you to ascertain the levels of this immensely harmful metal in your water.
According to the World Health Organization, lead is believed to be a primary factor behind 1.06 million deaths worldwide in 2017.
Lead exposure is particularly harmful to the central nervous system and the brain, and it can result in convulsions, coma, and even death.
Lead buildup caused behavioral disorders and mental retardation. Lead accumulation impairs IQ, shortens attention span and leads to antisocial behavior. This toxic element is highly damaging to the reproductive system and causes immunotoxicity, renal impairment, hypertension, and anemia.
You should not leave anything to chance. Order a lead testing kit from Tap Score today.
Arsenic in Tap Water
Arsenic exposure over the long term can lead to cancer in the kidney, bladder, lungs, and skin. It can bring changes to the skin like deeper pigmentation and thickening.
Consumption of high levels of arsenic causes toxic effects like severe vomiting, problems with blood circulation, nervous system damage and even death.
Arsenic also damages the brain, leads to loss of sensation, causes tingling, changes skin tone, enlarges the liver, reduces red blood cell production and damages your remaining red blood cells.
There is strong evidence that arsenic can cause circulatory disease, heart attacks, and high blood pressure.
Fluoride in Tap Water
Although fluoride may lower the incidence of tooth decay, there are concerns over its effects on neurological development.
Excessive fluoride can cause conditions like skeletal fluorosis and dental fluorosis that are damaging to joints and bones. The teeth and bones lose elasticity and become brittle due to which there is a higher risk of fracture. Thickening of the bones may reduce joint mobility and cause joint pain as well.
High fluoride levels damage the parathyroid gland leading to a condition called hyperparathyroidism. This condition is characterized by abnormally high secretion of parathyroid hormone that depletes calcium in the bones and increases the risk of fracture.
Excessive fluoride is particularly damaging to the neurological development of children and infants. High fluoride levels can reduce IQ in children.
The Association of Oral Medicine and Toxicology states that fluoride can lead to skin problems, arterial calcification, heart failure, high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, thyroid dysfunction, osteoarthritis, TMJ, bone cancer and neurological impairment.
Chlorine in Tap Water
Chlorine reacts with natural compounds present in water to create by-products called trihalomethanes. These dangerous chemical compounds generate free radicals in the human body. Free radicals trigger cell damage and increase cancer risk.
According to the Environmental Defense Fund, these compounds are believed to be responsible for a significant percentage of cancer cases in America.
The US Council of Environmental Quality has stated that people drinking chlorinated water run a 93% higher risk of getting cancer compared to people who don’t.
Researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Harvard University observed that chlorinated water consumption is responsible for 9 percent of bladder cancers and 15 percent of rectal cancers in the US.
Bacteria/Coliform in Tap Water
Coliform bacteria are widely found in nature. The bacteria are also commonly found in human and animal waste. Although most are harmless, some species can lead to mild illnesses while others can even lead to serious illnesses.
The presence of coliform bacteria in water does not mean that the water will necessarily cause serious illness. It shows that a pathway exists through which bacteria are seeping into the water. There is a risk of suffering mild or serious water-borne illness as a consequence.
One of the subgroups of coliform bacteria is Escherichia coli, also abbreviated as E. coli. This subgroup is usually found in the intestines. Therefore a positive test for E. coli is alarming because it means that animal or human waste is entering drinking water. Although many E. coli strains are harmless, some can trigger serious illness and even death.
Disease-causing bacteria cause gastrointestinal symptoms like diarrhea, cramps, fever, and abdominal pain.
PFAS in Tap Water
PFAS are polyfluoroalkyl substances that include manufactured chemicals like GenX, PFOS, PFOA and several others. These compounds have adverse health and environmental consequences. Since they are very stable, these compounds don’t break down easily and therefore keep accumulating.
GenX is an important manufacturing material since it is an integral part of cell phones, laptops, non-stick coatings, cookware, cabling, and several other similar items. Since GenX is so widespread you will need a GenX test kit to test its level in your tap water. With a water tester at your disposal, you can stay one step ahead of these harmful compounds.
These chemicals are known to cause cancer in animals. They also trigger severe immunological effects as well as kidney, liver, and reproductive organ damage. These compounds lead to low birth weight and PFOS is noted for thyroid hormone-disrupting effects.
The State of Rhode Island Department of Health also states that PFAS can cause fertility problems, increase blood pressure, disrupt the hormonal system, increase cholesterol levels, suppress the immune system and increase your chances of getting cancer.
Mercury in Tap Water
Mercury can cause several neurological problems and other conditions like lack of coordination during movement, “pins and needles” sensation, loss of peripheral vision, muscle weakness, impaired speech hearing, shorter attention span, reduced IQ, poor memory, tremors, irritability, mood swings, insomnia, headaches, twitching, muscle atrophy and poor performance in cognitive tests.
High doses of mercury doses lead to respiratory failure, kidney damage and even death. You can use the metals test kit available at Tap Score to test for all sorts of heavy metals including mercury.
WARNING: Utilities Do Not Test Your Home’s Water
They are only required to test the water sent from their facilities, there is little to no data on what pollutants and heavy metals tap water can pick up on the way to your home. The only way to be sure you and your family are drinking healthy water is to test what comes out of your faucet.
Check Out Our Pick for the Best Home Water Test Kit
Tap Score is the only home water testing service with unbiased treatment matching and health risk analysis
Capable of indentifying more contanimants and measuring to lower levels than the cheap Amazon test strips or Home Depot home test kits
Build your own test kit tailored to possible local contamination like septic tanks or PFAS
Easy-to-read summary allows you to quickly identify the adverse health consequences from pollutants in your water supply
Certified for every US State, Water Utility and Business Sector, expecially useful for home loan requirements
Radiation testing is expensive but not necessary for typical home owners
Why Trust Waterful.org?
Our water scientists and engineers spends thousands of hours researching, analyzing, and testing products to recommend the best picks. We only make money if you purchase a product through our links, and we never accept free products from manufacturers .
Drawbacks of Hard Tap Water
Hard water may not be hazardous for your health but it does have more than its fair share of annoying drawbacks.
Hard water can have the following negative effects:
Hard Water Builds up Scale in Appliances and Plumbing Fixtures
The accumulation of scale looks unpleasant and may give a bad taste to your water.
Hard Water Causes Brittle Hair and Dry Skin
Your hair may feel slimy while your skin may become dry due to the excess of calcium and magnesium. These elements in hard water nourish neither your skin nor your hair. They are just a nuisance.
Hard Water Can Fade Clothes
Your clothes may lose their color quickly with hard water. Your bed sheets and clothes may even feel gritty because of hard water. A hard water test kit will enable you to send a sample for hardness testing with full ease. Order hard water test strips today.
Hard Water Results in Expensive Repairs
Hard water is harsh on steel pipes. Mineral deposits from hard water may eventually choke your water pipes. You will resort to expensive plumbing repairs more frequently.
Since the flow of water is partially blocked due to the buildup of mineral deposits, the water pressure is higher. This can damage your water pipes and lead to leaks that will require expensive repair jobs. Water leakage will increase your water bills.
The good news is that you can get around these problems by ordering water hardness test strips from Tap Score.
Review of Tap Score Home Water Testing Kit
Tap Score Home Testing Kit makes water testing easier than ever. If you find yourself typing “water quality-testing near me” on Google, then take heart because, with the Tap Score water test kit, help is finally close at hand.
Using the kits is as easy as it can get. You simply have to fill the vials with your tap water and submit them to the Tap Score lab for analysis. You can find the best home water test kit at Tap Score. If you don’t know how to test the water, then you can rely on the cutting-edge testing labs at Tap Score to do the job for you.
How to Test Water Quality
Thanks to this independent and comprehensive testing procedure, you can test your water for hundreds of dangerous substances that may be lurking in your water. There is no longer a need to be paranoid. You can now pinpoint noxious compounds in your water with certainty thanks to this testing kit and take remedial action.
You can now be fully cognizant of invisible toxins floating in your water and take informed decisions to safeguard your health and the health of your loved ones. Tap Score provides an accurate and reliable water analysis that you can count on for safeguarding the health of your family.
With the Tap Score water testing kits, you will get unique benefits that cannot be found in other testing procedures. The test results are provided in a format that is easy for the layman to understand. What’s more, the results are also the most comprehensive and provide a meticulous breakdown of all substances in your water and their concentrations. You can get all of these benefits and more just by ordering a water testing kit for home from Tap Score.
This might appear to be very basic and something that you might expect from any test report but this is simply not the case. Many reports are a confusing jumble of numbers and chemical names that don’t make it any easy for you to understand what is going on.
Tap Score makes water quality assessment for you and helps you to understand the potential impact that the different chemicals in the water can have on your loved ones.
Thanks to the easy-to-read summary that is written in simple language, you can quickly ascertain the possible adverse health consequences from pollutants in your water supply. Other reports simply don’t take the trouble of guiding their customers on the possible consequences. They content themselves just by printing out a perplexing array of numbers and data that is not exactly easy to decipher.
While other reports simply resort to printing concentrations and whether or not they exceed regulatory limits, Tap Score goes much further. Realizing that you need extra help, Tap Score indicates through images whether the substance represents a serious health concern or just a potential problem to be monitored.
Tap Score has the most comprehensive database of water pollutants so that nothing will remain unnoticed. Also, Tap Score tabulates the health consequences of ingesting these substances so that you can fully comprehend the ramifications of the report.
You can also order all kinds of water quality test kits for confirming the presence of substances that you suspect are prevalent in your water supply. If for instance, you live in a rural area, there is a high likelihood of pesticides in your tap water. You can order the pesticide test kit to know exactly where pesticide levels stand.
You should also ensure that you test the pH level of your water since this has a direct effect on your health. A pH tester for water will be most useful in this regard. Be sure to order quality testers for home soon.
Why Tap Score Is Better
Other testing companies do not provide any viable suggestions for getting rid of contaminants that show up on your report. This aspect is where Tap Score truly differentiates itself from the competition and excels. Rather than just throwing a big bunch of numbers, Tap Score also provides suggestions for premium products that will remedy the contamination problem. Even here, Tap Score does not rely on a one-size-fits-all approach. It shows you the best products for the pollutants that infest your water. In other words, you get a customized list of reliable products that can help you to improve the numbers and along with it, water quality. You get the optimal mix of products that are ideal for your unique scenario. You can rest assured that Tap Score does not earn commissions from the products that it suggests. All products are suggested purely merit-based. This is a much-needed practical solution that you will be hard-pressed to find anywhere else.
Don’t Fall for Questionable Test Strips
Tap Score is a much better option than salesmen masquerading as water experts. These salesmen purport to uncover contaminants using nothing but test strips of their own that do not work reliably. This is just another ruse to show you a list of pollutants so that they can pressure you into buying their product.
This is especially true of the Home Depot home water test kits: they practically give them away because you become bait that they can sell to water salesmen without actually providing any useful information because their testing is not robust.
Tap Score, on the other hand, does not sell any products so it does not have a vested interest in showing an inflated and inaccurate list of contaminants. On the contrary, Tap Score runs a well-equipped and state-of-the-art water testing lab that provides very accurate results and tests a far wider spectrum of pollutants than dubious test strips that salesmen carry with them.
Using water testing strips for chemical contaminants has major flaws:
- They do not test with enough accuracy.
- They do not test at low-enough levels.
- They do not test for many contaminants that also matter.
- They often create false alarms.
- They are messy and frankly, confusing.
How to Test Well Water
Testing well-water is now a cinch since all you have to do is to send vials containing samples of your well water to the lab. Well-water test kits for home are simple to use. Just follow the easy instructions mentioned in the leaflet contained in the package that has your well-water testing kit.
Tap Score Water Tests
Here are the different tests that Tap Score can carry out for you.
1. Extended Plus Water Test
This is by far the most comprehensive and all-encompassing water test that you can perform. This process tests the water for a wide spectrum of pollutants so that no substance is left out. Your water is tested for all possible contaminants and you can hence have peace of mind knowing that you are fully covered.
When the test is complete, you will get a report that shows the contaminants in your drinking water, their concentrations, and their impact on your health, a customized list of recommended devices to get rid of these toxins and risks to household appliances. In short, it is the only report you will ever need to find out everything that you ever wanted to know about your drinking water. And that’s not all. You are shown the health consequences and also the devices that you can deploy for maximum water safety.
2. Full Radiation Water Test
Did you know that over 170 million Americans drink water contaminated by radiation? You can easily guess your odds for the same.
To allay your concerns about radioactive materials in your drinking water like strontium, uranium, radon, radium and more, you can order the radiation test kit.
3. PFAS Water Test
PFAS are nasty and they have catastrophic health consequences. Unfortunately, they are incredibly persistent since they do not disintegrate easily. Therefore, they keep accumulating in your body and contaminated water supplies. Unfortunately, these chemical are ubiquitous and found in a very wide range of products.
4. Fluoride Water Test
As discussed above, fluoride is responsible for a slew of adverse medical conditions. Unfortunately, it is added to water supplies and even exists naturally. You can use the fluoride test kit to send in samples to the lab.
This test will put your mind at ease concerning fluoride.
5. Hardness Water Test
Although hardness is not exactly a health hazard, it can lead to extensive damage to your pipelines, faucets, clothing and other appliances as discussed above. It will leave your hair slimy and body dry as you step out of the shower – this is not why you take a daily shower.
“How to test water hardness” is an important question that exasperated homeowners ask when faced with an onslaught of water hardness issues. Thankfully, with Tap Score, the matter is now easier than what you may think.
The starting point in dealing with hard water is to get it tested so that you can find out the hardness level as well as the concentration of dissolved solids that cause hardness. A hard water test can give you the answers that you need to solve the problem. Just request a water hardness test kit and you will soon have the answers that you need.
6. Drugs and Pharmaceutical Test
Over half of all Americans are using prescription drugs. Eventually, all of these drugs are flushed down the toilet bowl. It should come as no surprise that our water is now a terrible concoction of every pharmaceutical drug imaginable.
The list of adverse side effects on every single one of these drugs is scary enough. It is hard to comprehend the adverse effects that you and your loved ones will suffer by drinking water laced with the most dangerous drugs. This is just the start. Your drinking water has more nastiness in store for you. There are also synthetic personal care products that contain some of the most deleterious chemicals you can imagine.
Fortunately, you can gauge the level of these toxic pharmaceuticals with the help of this test. The test will also show you the concentration of each drug in your water and its negative side effects.
7. Microplastics Water Test
Plastics are everywhere and they are nearly indestructible. Hence these carcinogenic and endocrine-disrupting neurotoxins won’t go away for thousands of years and will continue to accumulate and pollute our water supply in particular. Scientists are shocked to discover mutations and cancers in wildlife thanks to plastics in our rivers and oceans.
But it gets worse. The plastic keeps disintegrating into smaller bits as time progresses leading to microplastics. These awful bits of toxins are an immense hazard for life forms in water. It can perforate their organs, destroy their digestive tract and render them incapable of eating real food.
In humans, microplastics are known to cause gastrointestinal, genotoxic, cardiovascular and reproductive problems. Skin diseases, cancers, liver dysfunction, respiratory problems, vision failure, kidney dysfunction, and neurological problems are just a small sampling of the health problems that microplastics can instigate in people.
Since microplastics are now so widely prevalent, testing for them has never been this important.
8. Certified Home Loan Water Test
You can make great use of the certified home loan water test kit while buying a new home, applying for refinancing or a mortgage. This test will determine the levels of E. coli, total coliform, lead, nitrite, nitrate, and arsenic in your property’s water supply.
This test is an important aspect of transactions concerning your residential property since the quality of water supply and its health consequences have a direct effect on property value as well as mortgage and refinance costs. The test meets all the regulatory requirements that the USDA, FHA, and VA require for property dealing.
9. Bottled Water Test
Bottled water testing has never been so convenient. Just send vials of bottled water samples of your favorite brands to the lab and wait for the results.
The lab will send you results for critical aspects of bottled water that may be a cause for concern. Arsenic, lead, heavy metals, plastics, coliform bacteria, pH levels, alkalinity and fluoride levels are all tested. The plastics in the water test will help you to understand the issues that you might face with your favorite bottled water brands.
Water Testing Add-Ons
Tap Score is also very versatile and provides much-needed flexibility to concerned homeowners. You can also find add-ons for testing a wide array of substances in the comfort of your house. This will save you money since you do not have to perform lab tests for these substances.
Water test strips of all kinds are available so that you test the water yourself. Using these test strips is very easy and explanatory. You will be able to do it on your own if you have no prior experience. You just have to follow the instructions provided in plain language.
You can get add-ons for the following substances to bring down the cost of lab testing.
- Coliform bacteria – the coliform test kit is available for detecting leakages in your water supply from septic tanks and sewerage pipes.
- Iron-reactive bacteria – these pathogens can lead to corroded pipes, yellow water, and metallic tasting water. Tap Score provides an iron test kit for this testing.
- Hydrogen Sulfide Bacteria – these bacteria are responsible for the pungent rotten egg smell. The bacteria test kit is your first step in controlling this nuisance.
- Slime Bacteria – don’t let these bacteria deposit disgusting slime that will encrust your appliances, faucets, pipes, and fixtures.
- Chlorine – you can test for the two main forms of chlorine in water: chloramines and hypochlorite. The chlorine test kit is what you need to counter chlorine in your water.
- Nitrate – it’s a necessary test if you are expecting a baby since nitrates can greatly diminish red blood cells in infants.
- Hydrogen Sulfide – although hydrogen sulfide is not a health hazard, its foul stench is intolerable.
With a water test kit at hand, you can check for some of the most common contaminants yourself without the need for lab services. You will save both time and money in the process. Order water test kits that you need from Tap Score today.
Click Your City/State for Tap Water Safety
WARNING: Utilities Do Not Test What Comes Out of Your Faucet
