water quality test

[Wisnu]

Disclaimer: this test is just iseng-2. No idea how good the quality of the test kit. This test is not to test the suitability for drinking.

Many people, including me, consider tap water unsuitable for drinking and recommend using bottled water. We do the same, for cooking and drinking we always use bottled water from the most popular brands. Yesterday I bought a pond/fish tank test strip "7-way water test strip" , the purpose was to test the quality of my new DIY koi pond with bog filter. Left to right for carbonate, pH, hardness, total chlorine, free chlorine, nitrate and nitrite levels. Just for fun, we compared it with bottled water and also tap water. Surprisingly, the nitrate levels (6th box from the left) of bottled water were the highest although still suitable and safe for ... koi.
We repeated the test, the results were similar.

 

[Balifrog]

Never been really convinced about the quality of bottled water here. Even in Europe it is not top, see the Nestlé spring water scandal in France.
We buy Aqua 19L water bottles which we transfer in 5 L bottles, easier to handle. I don't water them ugly stands or dispensers in my kitchen !
The Miss always insist not to use the 500 last ml, I say ok, ok...I mean I am not going to start an argument on that.
Knowing I was sceptical, one day she said " pour the last 500 ml in a white ceramik bowl and wait an hour"
And oops, yes after some time strange elements had setlled on the bottom of the bowl.....

 

[youssef24eg]

I only knew this tap water last year big problem in bali after using it many months for cooking but i still used it also for washing a lot of veg and fruits .. so should i continue do that or also use bottle watered or boil it and use it for wash .. or do u recommend a test to do to check how bad it is ?

 

[Balifrog]

I use bottled water for all cooking (potato, pasta, rice) but I wash fruits and vegs with tapwater.
And BTW, this is JM from Sanur. We may know each other ?

 

[mas_dam]

2 Years ago I tested my South Jakarta groundwater (Air Sumur) for drinking water parameters. While results are of course only momentarily, I was happily surprised! It's actually possible to filter this to drinking water.

I did the tests as LABKESDA and was satisfied with their service and fair prices. Private Labs would usually test against the same parameters defined at Permenkes 2/2023 and charge far more (I asked a couple of quotes). I like to assume that the test is fairly simple and the government lab can be trusted to carry this out reliably.

There is a chemical and a microbiological test.
Nitrat (N03-N) tested 33.06 mg/L (with max. value set at 20 mg/L).
The limit in the European Union seems to be significantly higher at 50 mg/L, in the USA at 10 mg/L.