Home Water Test Analysis, Interpreting Results (update)

With all the bull shite going on about quality of drinking water, I got ours tested, Baton Rouge area, analysis done by LSU Ag Center, water testing Lab.

I had a hardness test, A TDS test and a metals test. The results are a list of 31 metals/organics, listed by mg/L.

How do I derrive the hardness, and the TDS ?

I see online that TDS is mostly calcium, sodium, potassium, phosphates, the sum of.

I see that hardness is basically the sum of the same.

Both are about 4.5 mg/L

Soft water should be less than 17 mg/L, and TDS should be less than say 500 mg/L. Both of mine are around 4.5.

Is this correct, seems they are way low ?

And yes we have a lot of "scale" around the faucets, and in the shower.
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So I emailed the guy at LSU with some questions, re hardness and TDS.

His response:

In your particular case, the Hardness is a formula where you plug in the calcium and magnesium concentrations.

The formula is: 2.497 x calcium concentration + 4.118 x magnesium concentration = Hardness

For your Sample 1, this would be 2.497 x 0 + 4.118 x 2.85 = 11.7

For your Sample 2, this would be 2.497 x 4.04 + 4.118 x 0.32 =11.4

For your Sample 3, this would be 2.497 x 3.94 + 4.118 x 0.25 = 10.9


Total Dissolved Solids is determined by filtering a known volume of sample to remove particulate matter, then evaporating the filtered water at 105C. The residue is TDS. I recall your samples were extremely clear, i.e. very little particulate matter, so in your particular case Total Solids is going to be really close to Total Dissolved Solids.

FYI, Sample 1 Dasani water

Sample 2, cold tap water

Sample 3, refrigerator water, and yes it is a new frig with a replaceable filter (filter aint doin shite) based on these results.

Hardness below 17 is considered SOFT.

So all 3 samples only had a variance of .8 mg/L.

So tap = Frig = Dasani