Testing Very Hard Water with the Softener Prep Kit

You've likely arrived at this page because you've tried to test your water hardness with the Aquatell Softener Prep Kit and the colour isn't changing from red to blue. There are a couple of reasons this can happen. If you've added 30 drops and this colour change is not happening, you'll need to dilute your sample and try it again. We explain how to do this below.

Why is the test not working for me?

If your water is exceptionally hard it may just be that not enough drops have been added for the colour change to happen. But to conserve the test chemicals, you'll want to dilute the sample and try again.

If your water source is well-water (either municipal or private) then your water may contain enough iron or manganese to interfere with the colour change. Diluting the sample will usually correct this.

How to dilute and re-test your water:

To create the dilutions, you'll need the following:

• A bottle of low TDS bottled water. The TDS of the water should be 10 mg/L (same as PPM) or less.  Aquafina brand is perfect.
• a clean 1/2 cup measure (approx 120 mL)
• two clean kitchen bowls
• a clean spoon for mixing

Preparing the Dilutions:

• Find an untreated source of water in your home
• Run the cold water from this location for 2 full minutes, then fill the 1/2 cup measure
• Pour this into Kitchen Bowl #1
• Fill the 1/2 cup measure with Low TDS bottled water and add this to Bowl #1
• Stir with the spoon. Bowl #1 is a 50% dilution.
• Fill the 1/2 cup measure with water from Bowl #1 and add this to Bowl #2
• Fill the 1/2 cup measure with Low TDS bottled water and add this to Bowl #2
• Rinse the spoon with some Low TDS bottled water
• Stir Bowl #2 with the spoon. Bowl #2 is a 25% dilution

Testing and Calculations:

• Use the water from Bowl #1 and perform and hardness test on it as per the Softener Prep Kit instructions
• Watch for a colour change from red to blue
• When this colour change occurs, multiply the number of drops by 6. This is your hardness in grains per gallon (GPG)
• If a colour change has not occured with the addition of 25 drops, discontinue adding drops and proceed to the next step
• Rinse the sample bottle with Low TDS bottled water
• Use the water from Bowl #2 and perform and hardness test on it as per the Softener Prep Kit instructions
• Watch for a colour change from red to blue
• When this colour change occurs, multiply the number of drops by 12. This is your hardness in grains per gallon (GPG)

If testing the hardness of the water from Bowl #2 requires more than 15 drops, please discontinue the test, and contact us.