Analysis of tap water. Tap water analysis

Most of the samples that are analyzed in the laboratory are found to be in excess of . The reason for this is the old rusted sections of the pipeline. Often such water is cloudy and yellowish in color. It is worth purifying water from iron particles if you want to avoid irritation and allergic reactions on the skin, as well as red smudges on plumbing and pipe blockages.

For many regions common problem water from the tap is increased hardness. Such water is harmful both for drinking and for washing in it. Hardness salts tend to accumulate in the body, displacing useful material and leading to serious diseases of the heart and genitourinary system. In addition, on the surface of pipes, plumbing and heating elements household appliances from hard water there are calcareous growths - scale. It is very difficult to clean it Appliances You will often have to wear it for repairs or even buy new ones.

To avoid unpleasant consequences due to the poor quality of the water supply, a timely analysis of the water and, if necessary, the installation of a suitable filter will allow.

How to collect water for analysis

1. Water must be taken into a clean plastic bottle with a volume of 1.5 liters. It is advisable to use a plastic bottle from under plain water. It is strictly forbidden to use plastic bottles in which Pepsi-Cola, kvass and other flavored drinks were poured.
2. Before set, open the tap and pour water for 5-10 minutes. This is necessary to remove stagnant water from the pipes.
3. The bottle and cork before taking water must be rinsed several times with the water that will be taken. Use detergents it is forbidden.
4. Try to pour water in a thin stream, along the wall of the bottle. This method will prevent the saturation of water with oxygen, as a result of which ferrous iron can be oxidized to ferric iron.
5. Water should be poured under the neck and tightly wrapped with a cork. The presence of air under the cork is undesirable.
6. If it is not possible to immediately bring water for analysis, it must be removed in the refrigerator. The storage time of water in the refrigerator should not exceed 48 hours.

Bring water for analysis to the office of our company ( directions and phone numbers).

Russian legislation imposes rather stringent requirements on the quality of water supplied to the city water supply. At the water intake stations, constant monitoring is carried out for compliance with the requirements of GOST and sanitary and epidemiological standards.

In terms of the quality of water supplied to the consumer through the water supply system, Russia is in the distant 50th place in the world. good quality tap water is supplied to many cities. But only in our capital, and recently in St. Petersburg, you can afford the luxury of getting drunk right from the tap.

Stages of water treatment in a water utility

The water utility involved in the preparation and distribution of water, before supplying it to the consumer, performs preliminary cleaning:

• mechanical - sand, silt and other suspended particles are removed;
• chemical - to neutralize and dissolve inorganic impurities, as well as reduce hardness to acceptable standards;
• bacteriological - to destroy bacteria, ultraviolet irradiation, ozonation or the cheapest and therefore the most common chlorination are used.

That's just the quality most often remains at the station. In the area between the preparation site and your faucet, there may be worn pipes that are re-contaminated with iron and other metal compounds. When conducting repair work(especially with violations of technology) various pollution that are made from pure water a completely unknown liquid.

How bad everything is, you can find out by doing an analysis tap water coming from your faucet in any certified SES laboratory.

Requirements for tap water

The federal law imposes certain requirements on the drinking water supplied to the consumer through the pipeline, which are enshrined in the norms of SanPiN. These include:

organoleptic characteristics:

• smell - there should be a complete absence of it, the maximum allowable is 2 points (when heated to 20 °, it is difficult to feel a neutral aroma);
• taste - according to SanPiN standards, 2 points are allowed (at the same 20 °, a slightly noticeable aftertaste);
• turbidity - maximum allowable 1.5 mg / l, best of all completely transparent;
• color - preferably completely colorless, although up to 20 ° is allowed on the platinum-cobalt scale;
• temperature is the best indicator for cold water considered from 7° to 12°.

Chemical properties:

• hardness - no more than 7 (10) meq/l;
• alkalinity - should be in the range of 6.0-9.0;
• dry residue (the amount of dry matter remaining after evaporation of the sample) - considered normal up to 1000 mg / l;
• oxidizability - up to 5 mg-eq / l the water will be clean, after 5 it will be dirty.

radiological indicators - determine the presence of radionuclides.

Doing your own analysis

It is quite easy to check the organoleptic properties of tap water. To do this, it is worth looking at the light, it should be transparent and colorless. After that, we determine the smell, you should not feel anything.

The smell of chlorine does not count. bad indicator water quality, although it is quite harmful to humans. Chlorine easily creates compounds hazardous to health.

The most difficult moment is the definition of taste. If you decide, you should keep in mind that the water should taste neutral or have a slight pleasant aftertaste.

The easiest way to determine the hardness of water is by washing your hands. The better the soap lathers and the richer the foam, the softer the water.

Please note that if the water has a clear smell, taste, then drinking it according to SanPiN is strictly prohibited. If in doubt about the assessment, heat the sample to 60 °, the taste and smell will become as pronounced as possible.

If, after conducting an independent analysis, you are convinced that the water is clean and tasty, this does not mean at all that it can be drunk directly from the tap. Such water will be safe only after boiling and subsequent settling. The high temperature will kill the vast majority of microorganisms, and after settling, excess salts will also settle at the bottom, giving the water hardness.

But an independent analysis will never show you a complete picture of the composition of what is in the water supply. The best way out is to conduct a chemical analysis of tap water as soon as possible in order to feel calm.

Laboratory analysis of the composition of tap water

The best and most reliable means of determining quality is to turn to professionals. You can conduct an examination in the bacteriological laboratories of SES, accredited private companies for water analysis, as well as at the points of sale of filters for water purification.

Based on the result of the analysis, you can find out if you need to install a multi-stage filter at home for additional water purification and determine which specific cleaning cartridges will be required for this. If the installation of a filter is required, then after its installation it is desirable to carry out another laboratory test.

Usually they check the epidemiological safety, the harmlessness of its chemical composition, organoleptic properties. Run the water for 5-10 minutes before taking a sample. After that, you need to send a thin stream to the wall of a glass or plastic container until it is full. The sample will require at least 0.5 liter of glassware, although some laboratories may require a different volume of liquid.

It is undesirable to use old bottles from sweet drinks or aggressive solutions.

The container must be filled to the very top (eliminating, if possible, the presence of air). If it is not possible to immediately pass for analysis, it is necessary to put the sample in the refrigerator, but not more than for two days. Be sure to write the date, time and place where it was taken on the sample.

Keep in mind that testing tap water is somewhat different from testing samples from wells, wells, and any other source. In the purified sample, it is necessary to determine the presence of particles of combined chlorine, which are quite hazardous to health, and the amount of residual free chlorine.

Tap water must be safe in terms of epidemic and radiation, harmless in terms of chemical composition and have favorable organoleptic properties. Tap water analysis will determine the quality drinking water, which must match hygiene standards before it enters the distribution network, as well as at the points of water intake of the external and internal water supply networks. Water pipelines are designed to provide human needs for water for drinking and hygiene purposes. This is the reason for the increased requirements for the quality of the liquid flowing from the taps in any apartment. Before getting here, the water goes through several stages of purification: mechanical, chemical and bacteriological. In order to understand how clean it became after that, an analysis of tap water is carried out, which the Lab24 company proposes to perform.

Why it becomes necessary

At the treatment station, mechanical suspensions are removed from the water, inorganic impurities are dissolved and neutralized, chlorination is carried out and hardness is reduced. However, then it enters the city's pipeline system, where not everything is so good. The main reasons that negatively affect the quality of the water in them are:

• Natural wear of pipes, which contributes to the entry of substances potentially harmful to humans from the soil into the system;
• Excessive saturation with metals during the passage of dilapidated sections of the system;
• Marriage during repair work, when various contaminants enter the pipes.

Thus, it is vital to conduct laboratory tests of water samples from the source to the access point in the apartment. By ordering a similar service at the Lab24 research center, you can make sure that the water flowing from the tap meets the requirements of SanPiN, and therefore is safe for health.

How the analysis is done

A complete analysis of tap water, made in "Lab24", which has the appropriate accreditation, provides for a whole range of activities and studies in order to accurately determine its properties by several indicators:

• Organoleptic characteristics;
• Safety in terms of concentration of various chemical elements;
• The absence of harmful microorganisms, viruses and dangerous bacteria;
• The level of radioactivity.

Studies are carried out within five working days, and upon completion, a test report is issued. Based on it, the relevant state structures give an opinion on the area of ​​possible use of water, the analysis of samples of which was carried out in the laboratory. The customer has the opportunity to receive the results in person at the office, in electronic form or on purpose, through a courier for an additional fee. If necessary, a translation into a foreign language is made.

Contact us through the website or call the contact numbers. We will conduct the necessary research in the shortest possible time and with the highest quality, and the price will be quite acceptable for you.

Very often we trust some arguments without even thinking about refuting them. Experts say that the quality of water from centralized water supply complies with all state norms and standards. Is that so? Where does our tap water come from and can it be consumed without health risks? Water analysis will answer this question.

Water sources for central water supply

V different regions In our country, there are main sources of water supply to the water supply system. For example, for residents of Moscow, water enters the apartment) from water resources rivers that form in the regions adjacent to Moscow: directly Moscow (the Moscow River with tributaries and the Moscow Canal), Smolensk, and Tver.

100 km from the city, experts take samples for water analysis so that when it reaches treatment facilities experts were able to take the necessary measures. Most treatment facilities in Moscow are equipped with modern equipment and do their job conscientiously. However, there are some nuances.

Consider the main stages of water purification:

• Purification of water from large debris
• Passing through sand traps, cleaning from suspensions
• The main stage of activated sludge treatment
• Water disinfection: using ozonation, UV lamps or chlorination.

Then the water enters our tap, and when drained into the sewer, it goes through all these stages again and exits downstream. It would seem that it sounds environmentally friendly. However, it should be understood that such a serious purification system exists only for the centralized water supply of the capital. In other cities, treatment facilities are much less powerful and modern.

Main contaminants of tap water

Even if you live in Moscow and are convinced of the integrity of the work of treatment facilities, remember
better check the quality of your water. In our practice, there were cases when water at the entrance to the house
met all the declared standards, and when leaving the tap did not comply with sanitary rules
and standards for organoleptic indicators, that is, it was completely unsuitable for drinking. The fact is that the quality of water is highly dependent on the pipes through which it flows. It is the operation of water supply networks that affects the quality of water. Pipes can rust, slime, and accumulate some pollutants such as , and .

New houses also do not exclude this possibility, often builders save on building materials even in the construction of luxury housing. Many use as a material for conductive systems different types plastics that may contain phenols. Thus, the main indicators for the analysis of tap water are:

• Iron
• Manganese
• Permanganate oxidizability
• Active chlorine
• Total microbial count
• Rigidity

How to protect yourself?

If you have health problems or have appeared in your home Small child, remember, that
there is no such thing as too much caution. Check your tap water quality with a professional analysis. If you find any problems, contact the professionals to select the appropriate filter equipment.
The study of water relevant to the water supply system is carried out in each of the analyzes, starting with the “basic”, among those presented on our website.