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Reddit mentions of First Alert WT1 Drinking Water Test Kit

Sentiment score: 9
Reddit mentions: 28

We found 28 Reddit mentions of First Alert WT1 Drinking Water Test Kit. Here are the top ones.

First Alert WT1 Drinking Water Test Kit
Buying options
View on Amazon.com
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    Features:
  • Tests for bacteria, lead, pesticides, nitrates/nitrites, and chlorine
  • Checks the hardness and pH of your water
  • Kit includes everything necessary to test drinking water
  • No mailing in samples or waiting for laboratory reports
  • Tests to EPA standards for drinking water
  • First Alert has been the most trusted brand in home safety since launching the first residential smoke alarm in 1958 (Based on a First Alert Brand Trust Survey in February 2018)
Specs:
ColorClear
Height9.2 Inches
Length5.9 Inches
Number of items1
Release dateMay 2007
Size1 pack
Weight1 Pounds
Width1.53 Inches

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Found 28 comments on First Alert WT1 Drinking Water Test Kit:

u/isaiditwasanaccident · 35 pointsr/sandiego

Here's the 2014 Water Quality Report. It's a good read.

The bulk of the water testing takes place directly at the 3 major water facilities in SD. As you may already know the lead contamination in Flint did not happen at the water treatment facility, but rather in the pipes that lead to homes. The city inadvertently changed the water pH and failed to add an additive that would prevent the old pipes from corroding.

The way the city of San Diego test for these metals is by sampling the water in 50 homes. According to their results, we are good and the water is safe. If you want to do your due diligence, buy one of these cheap drinking water tests that include testing for iron, lead and copper among other things.

I did, and confirmed some of their results.


-----------


EDIT 2: Perchlorate is more of a health concern, and it's not mentioned on the report. Is it regulated by the city?

  • Perchlorate is a salt (ClO4^−) that is naturally occurring in SD; and also a byproduct of military rocket fuel, and fireworks. It affects the thyroid gland can decrease production of thyroid hormones.

  • California EPA reports peak concentrations in San Diego that average 9.9μg/L. MCL is currently 1μg/L and was lowered from 6μg/L a couple of years ago.

  • EPA - Perchlorate Fact Sheet 2014


    EDIT: Lead and copper results from 2014.


    > Lead and Copper:
    >
    > Lead and copper enter drinking water primarily through plumbing materials. Exposure
    > to lead and copper may cause health problems ranging from stomach distress to brain
    > damage. In 1991, the EPA published the Lead and Copper Rule to control lead and copper
    > in drinking water. The rule requires us to monitor drinking water at customer taps. If
    > lead concentrations exceed an action level of 15 ppb or copper concentrations exceed an
    > action level of 1.3 ppm in more than 10 percent of taps sampled, i.e. the 90th percentile,
    > we would be required to undertake a number of additional actions to inform the public
    > and control corrosion.
    >
    > In 2014, 57 customers provided samples from their taps to the City of San Diego for lead
    > and copper analysis. The results of these tests are presented here; for each parameter,
    > one of the 57 sites had a result above the Action Level. Because less than 10 percent of
    > our results were above the Action Levels for Lead and Copper, no additional actions are required.
    > Lead and Copper Rule monitoring must be conducted every three years – our next
    > study will be conducted in 2017.
    >
    > If present, elevated levels of lead can cause serious health problems, especially for pregnant
    > women and young children. Lead in drinking water is primarily from materials and components
    > associated with service lines and home plumbing. The City of San Diego is responsible for
    > providing high quality drinking water, but cannot control the variety of materials used in
    > plumbing components. When your water has been sitting for several hours, you can minimize
    > the potential for lead exposure by flushing your tap for 30 seconds to two minutes before
    > using water for drinking or cooking. If you are concerned about lead in your water, you may
    > wish to have your water tested. Information on lead in drinking water, testing methods, and
    > steps you can take to minimize exposure is available from the Safe Drinking Water Hotline or
    > at epa.gov/safewater/lead
u/Taylor_OD · 8 pointsr/chicago

https://smile.amazon.com/First-Alert-WT1-Drinking-Water/dp/B000FBMAVQ/ref=pd_sim_79_5?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=BNCFD5MHAKWG0RD9Z30X

It cost like $15 to buy a water test. I drink a lot of unfiltered water so I got one. The test said I'm all good. Worth buying and seeing if you should invest in some type of filtration system.

u/EntireOrchid · 8 pointsr/homeowners

Test your water for lead if you are worried about it. That's really the result you care about. There may be small sections of pipe or solder that contaminate the water even if you don't have large sections of lead pipe.

u/bilged · 5 pointsr/legaladvice

Amazon sells well water test kits. Tests for a number of things - lead and other metals, bacteria, etc.

Edit: I think this is the one I used.

u/ProlapseFromCactus · 5 pointsr/onguardforthee

This one's worked fine for me in the past, it gave me no false positives. I knew I could trust it because the region in which my old houses were located was notorious for its incredibly hard water, and that was the only factor for which my results came back as positive.

u/skiyuh · 5 pointsr/burlington

Might be worth doing a test of your water. Any alarming results could be taken to Public Works to hopefully find a solution to the problem.

https://www.amazon.com/First-Alert-WT1-Drinking-Water/dp/B000FBMAVQ/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1540909874&sr=8-4&keywords=tap+water+test+kit

u/pointytrees · 4 pointsr/Coffee

Well, IF the brass used has lead in it (not all brass does, and it is used less and less in brass) the small amount of mineral scale tends to form a nice barrier preventing it leaching into the water. A few flushes should work. If you are worried, test it. https://www.amazon.com/First-Alert-WT1-Drinking-Water/dp/B000FBMAVQ/ref=sr_1_3/141-8508703-2370814?ie=UTF8&qid=1502944258&sr=8-3&keywords=water+lead+test+kit

u/Talltimore · 3 pointsr/baltimore

This one, First Alert WT1 Drinking Water Test Kit. The guy at the environmental test company said those kits aren't really sensitive enough to get more than a "that's pretty good" or "that's pretty bad" despite the results you get. He said they tend to be consistent, though, so if you get good results you should be good, and if you get bad results, you should call someone like him. If you get fuzzy results, it comes down to how strongly you feel about getting it officially tested.

u/cincity · 3 pointsr/homestead

I'm also on a cistern and use commercial whole-house filters in 2 stages. Stage 1 is a "pre-clean" sediment filter and stage 2 is a carbon filter that helps remove cysts and odors. The pre-filtering helps the more expensive carbon filters last longer. I also have an automatic chlorinator and contact tank for added disinfection (could also use UV) and a RO filter for drinking water. The RO is overkill since water tests fine from the tap (good idea to test periodically!), but peace of mind and all. To maintain a good flow rate, I use 2 filters in parallel for each stage (4 total). It's all easily put together with PVC. I don't have first flush and water can get pretty dirty, but after filtering it's very clean and odor free. Filters typically last about 3 months before the pressure drops too low (for 2 people, so maybe 1 month for you?) and have to be replaced. High efficiency sink and shower fittings help reduce water usage and the effects of the lower pressure. I have the pump run up to 60psi to max out the filter life.

u/KeepItRealTV · 3 pointsr/NoStupidQuestions

Thanks. I live in an old building. I basically want to do a test for things that will kill me in the short or long run.

I found this.

https://www.amazon.com/Watersafe-WS425B-Drinking-Water-Test/dp/B00005AUHX

and this

https://www.amazon.com/First-Alert-WT1-Drinking-Water/dp/B000FBMAVQ/

Hopefully it's enough.

I realize this sounds crazy considering 99% of tap water is safe to drink (according to the comments in this post). I'd rather be paranoid then dead.

u/blfstyk · 3 pointsr/LifeProTips

First Alert WT1 Drinking Water Test Kit. I live in a 100-yr old building with original plumbing so I bought this and tested the water. Everything came out well within EPA standards. Our city water (San Francisco) is among the best in the country so your mileage may vary.

u/jeremiahs_bullfrog · 2 pointsr/EatCheapAndHealthy

All? Every store in my area has a water refill station. In my area it's near the coffee section. I'm not sure how much it costs, but it's way cheaper than buying bottled water.

That being said, why not just get water from the tap? If you're worried your water might be unsafe (most likely it's just fine), then test it. A quick search found this affordable test kit, which will tell you if you need to get a more comprehensive test done. Most likely you'll be well within safe standards and can safely use your city water.

Personally, I use a filter at home because I don't like the taste of our water. We have hard water, and there are still traces of something after our water softener. Our water is perfectly safe to drink, but a filter makes it much more palatable, so we use one. It's way cheaper than bottled water and way more convenient.

u/RealHot_RealSteel · 2 pointsr/Showerthoughts

As far as you know.

When's the last time you tested your tap water?

u/jaredharley · 2 pointsr/Denver

Yeah, the "flammable tap water" thing was from up in my area, Weld County. The situation was that all of these folks used well water for their houses, and they had higher-than-normal levels of methane gas in their water. It was a big hit with the local media, but the kerfluffle died out not too long afterwards.

I think you'll find a lot of information if you check out Denver Water's page on Water Quality - they provide information on the treatment process and the results of their tests. You can probably also request the water test results in print (In Greeley, we get them once a year with our water bills).

All in all, I've lived here a long time, and I've never had a problem with our water anywhere. In my opinion, it seems like municipalities in Colorado are much more concerned with water and water quality than in other places in the US I've lived previously. Heck, Coors even advertises that their beer is brewed with fresh "cold Rocky Mountain water"!

Feel safe with your water. If you're still concerned (or want to prove to your mom that the water's safe), you can always buy a water testing kit, although I don't know how accurate or effective they are, never having used one myself.

u/optimisma · 2 pointsr/HomeImprovement

I don't know how well I can answer your questions, as I'm new to lead issues and abatement. You've probably educated yourself on a lot of what I'm going to say, but I'm going to throw it all in this comment, anyway.

I live in a 110 year old house that is basically a ball of lead. The plumbing had lead joints, the service line is old and lead, the windows have lead, the doors have lead, the walls have lead, and the city is concerned that our water mains are shedding lead. And now, my child has a very slightly elevated lead level. Prompted by her most recent blood test, we are attempting a sensible lead abatement plan for our home.

First, figure out where the lead is. You can pick up water testing kits as well as swabs for surfaces. Once you know where the lead is, you can assess your risk and choose an abatement plan.

For instance, we have a small amount of lead in our water, which is likely a consequence of the service line. We got a bid for replacing it, and that was about $10k, plus the cost of fixing the yard that would be torn up. We went with a 10 year filter for the whole house, and that was about $900 including tax and installation.

Use the surface swabs on your windows that were installed before 1980, and if you have woodwork that was painted white, check that, too. It became popular to paint dark woodwork white in the 50s/60s to brighten up houses, and people used lead paint. We have solid wood doors and a ton of trim that is absolutely smothered in many coats of paint, and sure enough, it's super leady.

With windows, the act of opening and closing the windows can cause friction on the paint, which produces inhalable dust. If your family isn't experiencing significantly elevated lead levels, you have the option to simply wipe down the windows with a damp cloth to remove the dust. If you are more concerned, have the budget, or just want new windows, you can replace them. Check to see if your local municipality has a lead abatement grant for windows. In my city, they offer a $350/window grant to replace windows that test positive for lead (along with a few other qualifiers), and that really puts a dent in that cost.

With other painted surfaces, you're likely to be fine with encapsulation, which is a fancy way of saying painting over it. Lead is only really dangerous if you inhale the dust or eat the chips, so if you paint over it, it can't create dust. This will likely mean that you'll need to do a little scraping, which will obviously create dust, so you need to use a quality mask, and then clean like mad when you are done. Wet mop, dry dusting/sweeping is not good enough.

I'm in the process of restoring the woodwork because I prefer a stained finish, and for all the trim that isn't especially decorative or historically significant, I'm just replacing it. For our lovely doors, I sent them out to be dip stripped because it just wasn't worth the risk of my daughter sucking in all the dust while I removed the paint.

Because I have a young child, I'm not fucking around with lead, but the majority of people with lead paint in their homes are going to be just fine if they don't sand lead paint, carefully wipe up the dust with a wet cloth in areas that have lead paint (like windows), and prime/paint over the lead paint.

u/battles · 2 pointsr/chicago

This kit will let you test for all sorts of common contaminants, including lead.

u/spartanwanderer · 2 pointsr/China

Yes, there are those but you mentioned filters. I find the big bottles of water to be overwhelmingly more common, and you can just flip a coin as to whether the company that bottles it follow regulations. I'm actually taking this back from meiguo to make sure the company my school buys from is okay, as I've noticed the plastic circles you punch through have become almost too easy to open recently and one was already opened when it was delivered.

First Alert WT1 Drinking Water Test Kit

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FBMAVQ/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_OXL5tb0YNPYD8

u/ssublime23 · 1 pointr/news

How bad are these? http://amzn.com/B000FBMAVQ

u/Heartburn_tonight · 1 pointr/NewOrleans

You may want to test for lead in
Paint
and Tap Water

u/IllKissYourBoobies · 1 pointr/news
u/xandarg · 1 pointr/organicindoorgrowers

Hmm, I'd be shocked if one of us discovered a substance we could get at home that would create an as-of-yet-undiscovered precipitation reaction that would precipitate chloramine out of water! The reaction with citric acid you mentioned, is another one I now remember I've heard. All the points you make are right on, so if you figure something out, let us know! BUT the first step in my mind is finding a way to verify any potential results, so we're back to a cost effective way of measuring chloramine levels in a given water sample.

The cheap test strips for drinking water and aquariums seem to only test for chlorine (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FBMAVQ/)($13), and the expensive ones seem to indicate they CAN be calibrated to check for chloramine (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I4TFU1I/) ($1,099). This seems made specifically to test for chloramine, but it's unavailable (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00R3EF7ZY/).

I'll bet small quantities of citric acid are fine, and small amount of humic acids are definitely beneficial (humic acid is naturally occurring in compost and is great for soil). How much is too much, idk, since I don't add any directly/intentionally.

u/johnventions · 1 pointr/chicago

In a previous water related thread, someone posted this one

u/ritchie70 · 1 pointr/Frugal

There are test kits you can buy. For example:

http://www.amazon.com/First-Alert-WT1-Drinking-Water/dp/B000FBMAVQ

Make sure you find one that tests for the things that concern you. There are also labs that you can mail water to but I didn't quickly find a link.