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

Exactly what I needed. Tests for the most common hardness in my area. It doesn't test for iron, but there's kits available for that. We have very hard water ( 29.2 gr. per gallon with 0.2 clear water iron) and use this to check my softener's efficiency. Checked the reserve capacity settings of my new softener by letting it run down to zero available gallons, doing the laundry, dishwasher,showers,etc. and then checking the hardness before it regenerated. Still less than 1 grain per gallon after all that. Helps to know if you need to set your softener to high efficiency or high capacity. Saves me a lot of wasted salt and water from having the wrong settings. This is far and away the handiest kit I've seen. More accurate than the test strip kits. Instructions are straightforward. I've used titration equipment previously in a lab setting and this is very basic by comparison. But it works admirably for it's price. Our local water department has sophisticated water testing facilities and this inexpensive kit is spot on with their results. It won't check to the tenth of a grain, but who really needs that in a homeowner setting. There's enough material to do more tests than I'll ever use. Seems I have a lot of friends now that need their water checked.

Works as expected, glad I chose this testing kit over the other types

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.

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.

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" HmmmmA 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. ;).

This kit is way better than the strips to test for hard water. The drawbacks of some strips is the color is ambiguous and you can't judge the level of hardness. This kit is way more scientific and a lot more easy to read if you have hard or soft water. You also get a ton more reps out of this while the strips cost more.+ simple to use+ cheap- none

Works great! My plumber says, be careful and don't break all the glass.

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.