Well water TDS

[JollyRodger]

I bought this for my future RDWC setup

I'm reading 0 ppm on both 500 and 700 scales and 0 ec out of my well water. I thought there had to be something wrong with the meter so I ordered a calibration kit. The meter reads 2.8 in the 2.77 ec solution. It reads slightly high in the ppm scales, but within spec. Can this be right? Do I have well water with no dissolved solids?

 

[Chris Scorpio]

Test a bottle of water

But hard to believe yer well water is like that

 

[Hdinkleman]

I bought this for my future RDWC setup

I'm reading 0 ppm on both 500 and 700 scales and 0 ec out of my well water. I thought there had to be something wrong with the meter so I ordered a calibration kit. The meter reads 2.8 in the 2.77 ec solution. It reads slightly high in the ppm scales, but within spec. Can this be right? Do I have well water with no dissolved solids?

is your well water being run through a RO filter before entering your house or before exiting the faucet lol?

 

[Hdinkleman]

Test a bottle of water

But hard to believe yer well water is like that

hard to believe it reads 0, that would mean there was absolutely no build up in his pipes either.
bottle that water and sell that lol

 

[JollyRodger]

What should bottled water read? As far as I know there isn't any filter other than a paper inline at the well head.

 

[Chris Scorpio]

Most bottle water say on it, or you can go to manufacture site to see the pH and parts on it

 

[Bush Doctor 77]

Depends on where you live, but that is low. Most bottled water is 175ish PPM. Test distilled for your zero.

 

[JollyRodger]

I know I can test a zero but either I have the best well water known to man, or my meter isn't reading at low tds. So testing a known zero doesn't really help. I need to test something low and known.

 

[Chris Scorpio]

Try some bottle water

I just did some Arrowhead and it was 144ppm

 

[Bush Doctor 77]

I know I can test a zero but either I have the best well water known to man, or my meter isn't reading at low tds. So testing a known zero doesn't really help. I need to test something low and known.

Does your water leave a deposit if you boil a pot dry? Certain chemical compounds can mess up EC. I've worked in 2 water analysis labs, and neither used meters for TDS.

 

[JollyRodger]

Can't say I've ever boiled a pot dry. The wife of grocery shopping now, so I told her to bring home a bottle of water. We'll see how it goes.

 

[Hdinkleman]

examples-

my soft well water at a different residence where my outdoor plants are is 70 ppm

my tap water at home is at 120 ppm

buy a gallon of reverse osmosis water at walmart for a dollar and test that water, it should be less than 5 ppm

 

[JollyRodger]

She came home with Aquafina RO water. Not helpful. So I went and got pond water. Still reads zero. I'm going to return the meter for another one. But what's interesting is if I put even the smallest amount of salt in the water, like 20 grains, it'll read. I got it to read as low as 70 ppm on the 700 scale. 0.1

 

[JollyRodger]

examples-

my soft well water at a different residence where my outdoor plants are is 70 ppm

my tap water at home is at 120 ppm

buy a gallon of reverse osmosis water at walmart for a dollar and test that water, it should be less than 5 ppm

Testing something that should be about zero won't help. I'm just reading zero for low ppm water

 

[JollyRodger]

In the interest of not leaving this thread hanging, I've resolved the issue... or lack thereof.

I purchased a cheap TDS pen to check against my blue lab. The pen reads 33ppm for my well water. That's awesome!
I added some salt to my water and got a reading of 220 ppm, stuck the blue lab in it, and also read nearly the same. It was reading 202 ppm.

So apparently the blue lab works, just not at low ppm. It is however within its limits of accuracy. This is ok with me. I'll always be well within it's working range when checking my hydro solution.