Have you tested this home’s water before?

How long ago?

How much does the test cost?

Not really a directly helpful suggestion, but r/hydrohomies might be able to offer ideas for purifying / testing city water as efficiently as possible

I’m actually going to jump on this with you. My home water in Cranston, so also Providence water has been hard AF. Staining toilets and showers in ways it never ever did prior.

Water tests are typically performed no charge at various places in the hopes of selling you a water purification system. Lowes I think does this also.

Hello! I have not tested the water here before. I'm not yet aware of how much a test may or may not cost - when I did some Google searching, found that health.ri.gov mostly references well water testing but I/we do not have a well. Also https://health.ri.gov/find/labs/drinkingwater/ speaks to RIDOH Certified Drinking Water Testing labs - but it also says they do not endorse or recommend any of the certified laboratories listed (???) so honestly I was just confused and figured to ask here for thoughts and recommendations.

Thank you! I'm a fellow r/hydrohomies subscriber and will keep them in mind if we decide to explore more extensive filtration. Appreciate you mentioning that community! : )

1. I usually test the water when we buy a new home - whether it is well water or city water - to be safe.

2. Last time I tested water (it happened to be well water but I’m not sure it would matter), I gathered samples from faucets and brought the samples to the health department.

Maybe call BAL and tell them you’d like a price quote on testing your drinking water?

4017850241

>n the hopes of selling you a water purification system. Lowes I think does this also.

Noted; thank you! I've def. walked by the spinning carousel of test kits at the Home Depot check out before but along the lines of what you mentioned, figured there was a bit of a catch, so to speak. I'll have to stop by Lowes or Home Depot and grab one to check out the details. Appreciate the comment!

Whoa! Now that you mention it, our toilet does get a discolored ring around the water line in about a weeks' time, and that is a pretty new development. It's a fairly new toilet (2 years old, maybe) so it's not like it is old and scratched or anything. And we work from home so it's not like the water is stagnant in there for any extended amount of time. I hadn't associated the two events before.. thanks for sharing this (although I'm sorry that you are also experiencing this annoyance!)

Thank you for sharing your experience and for mentioning BAL and providing their #, that's very nice of you! I'm going to check out their site and plan to give them a call in the near future - my curiosity is piqued as to what the test results will be, that is for sure!

You’re welcome. :)

Have you looked at the PFAS map?

https://www.sierraclub.org/pfas-rhode-island-water

:-0 !! I had not; PFAS is new to me by name and I'm ruffling through some of the content now - wouldn't ya know that North Providence falls into the "Red = Total PFAS detected at a total greater than 20 ppt" category. I'm learning a lot today; thank you very much, kind Redditor!

Currently having issue with a new heating system we just installed..and it's just never worked right. Long story short we were being told we have hard water and that's why it isn't working right. Anyway I'm in warwick so its providence water and I used rhode island analytical and had them come test the water for me so know I have a chain of custody for the samples and lab results that will hold up should court be necessary. Just had a fairly basic testing done and included hardness. Total was $300.

Providence water actually has very soft water. Kent county might add other things when they process it, and also does not exclusively use providence water, they use water from other sources as well, which could make your water hard.

I'm over by the airport and they say we get it straight from providence not kent..but water hardness was 3..not hard..but not soft either...it's by all accounts damn good water

I'm over by the airport and they say we get it straight from providence not kent..but water hardness was 3..not hard..but not soft either...it's by all accounts damn good water

Oh you are with Warwick water department then. Always forget about them. That's strange, might be picking stuff up in the pipes, because when I worked there we were told the water was very soft. Usually that question came up when people were installing dishwashers with integrated water softeners, with pw you dont have to use it. And in fact should use a lot less detergent so the machine works better, like half of a normal dishwasher tab.

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Any of the certified labs will give you good results. They just can’t endorse one over another to avoid favoritism.

Providence water from the source is extremely high quality, but that doesn’t mean there’s not something going on with your pipes (including distribution pipes). You could try testing for copper, lead, etc. at a state certified lab if you’re concerned. Skip the free Lowe’s tests-they’re not reliable. Lead tests used to be offered at PW headquarters but I’m not sure if they still are.

I would honestly just say to contact your local public works. They regularly do water testing, and when I had a similar issue in Pawtucket they basically said "hey, we're in that area next week, we can just drop by and add you as a test point".

If I were you, I’d go straight to the water testing from Prov Water. It’s possible there’s something going on with local distribution in your area or in your home. They’d be able be able to compare numbers and possibly come up with a specific answer for you.

Just out of curiosity, where in Cranston are you? My wife and I just moved to the Eden Park area from Warwick. We’ve had the opposite experience; our water is much less hard here than it was in Hoxsie.

Western side off Scituate Ave