Hach Total Hardness Test Kit, Model 5-B, Water Analysis Kit for Drop Count Titration, with 2 Reagents, Measuring Tube, Square Bottle & Measuring Scoop, 145300

This kit works great! My daughter has been complaining that her hair doesn't feel clean after shampooing. She said she needs a different shampoo. Then it dawned on me that my hair has been feeling the same way. I told my husband that I think we have hard water and something is wrong with our water softener. He replied, "No, our water is not hard, it is soft" Hmmmm A friend stopped by last week and said, "what did you do to your hair??? It is lighter than I have ever seen it and it looks like you have Orange highlights!!" I had not done anything, but I did notice that my hair color was a bit different lately (I am a brunette) and didn't know why. She looked closer and felt the ends of my hair and said, "you have hard water". So, I went on Amazon to order the testing strips, but read the many reviews and finally decided this kit would be more accurate than the strips. I received it the next day. Sure enough, it took over 20 drops for the mixture to turn blue. Yep, our water is HARD! The company that installed our water softener came out today. The kit he brought with him was almost identical to this one. I watched him and it took 25 drops for the water to turn blue~ the softener is not working at all. He took the unit with him to do repairs. " Rebed & Valve Repair". The parts are under warranty, so we just have to pay for service & labor charges. He will be back Friday with the repaired water softener. The bad news: The labor and service charge is going to be over $550!! Wow, that seems high for the Service Charge and Labor Only!! Ugh :( However, I do highly recommend this test kit. Instructions on the box were clear and easy to follow. Maybe if we had bought this test earlier to use on occasion, we could saved some money in repairs. After it is fixed, I will think I will continue to use this kit on a Monthly basis to make sure the softener continues to be working as it should. ;).

Easy to use and seems to be accurate.

The best water hardness test kit on the market. Easy to use and accurate. Was recommended to me by a water softener company that uses this kit every day. I bought it because a plumbing company told me our water had 24 grains of hardness!!!!! Unheard of in this area as usually the hardest water is around 12 grains. I did find our water had about 4 grains of hardness and discovered the water softener wasn't working properly! Highly recommend this to anyone needing to find out the truth about their water quality.

Beats the strips. Works well and there's many more uses in it.

Ok, so it’s accurate and easy to use, but the Hach company provides absolutely NO DOCUMENTATION with what the various hardness levels are. The bar code sticker is placed over the English instructions (really stupid to do this). The paper instructions that came in the box have three different languages, but NO ENGLISH.

Trying to use the dip and test type strips of other kits proved to raise more questions than answers when trying to determine how hard my household water was. The color of the strips never aligned with the charts shown and from one kit to the next, nothing was really showing consistent results. I also wasted more money on them than the cost of this kit, which I regret not buying right off the bat. Right to the point, this kit is easy to use and gives a clear answer as to your waters hardness level, which I needed to know in order to shop for an appropriate water softener. Once the water hardness was known, I then knew how to adjust the settings of my new softener. Testing my water afterwards with this kit then confirmed the softener was working. With such an ample amount of test kit components left yet, I have shared this kit with my neighbors and have plenty left over for several years of testing down the road.

Great product and there's enough to retest your water, your neighbor's water, your parent's water, your...you get the idea...its probably a lifetime supply. The only caveat is that I apparently have trace amounts of iron in my water which throws the dye color off (thanks ChatGPT). One can still use it, but the color results are different than indicated in the instructions. (There is a version of this kit available for water with iron). I will retest my water a couple times over several weeks to fine tune the grain setting on the water softener...just in case.