http://www.zerowater.com/store/productinfo.php?&id=158

"Z-Tester™ (Electronic Water Tester or TDS Meter)

The independently made Z-Tester displays the total dissolved solids (TDS) in water. With this water tester, you can now put a number on what your taste buds know: water tastes different from city to city and from brand to brand in bottled water. The reason for the different tastes is that what you usually drink is water (hydrogen and oxygen) and other dissolved chemicals. The tester will empower you to be able to evaluate the cleanliness of whatever water you’re drinking... bottled, tap, filtered, etc. The cleanest water will show a reading of "000". When you start drinking ZeroWater, you will finally be drinking water that’s only water!"

N.B. It doesn't tell you what the dissolved solids are.

Usual disclaimers, no connection, don't own one, only saw it on the infobahn.

Jeff

I don’t see it as a very useful thing as it can’t tell you if the water is safe to drink. It says it tells you if there are chemicals in the water. But the real concern is bacteria and maybe viruses. I don’t see on the site that it addresses these things.

Agree with BobS, these meters usually measure conductivity of the water and infer what is dissolved in it. But this could be minerals in the case of hard water or salts, both should show high TDS, but may be fine to drink. Bacteria also show up, but i have only seen this in the context of distilled, reverse-osmosed water that has had everything else taken out and the water has very low conductivity to start with.

All it can do is measure resistance. For the price it sells for I can’t see it doing more then that. Nothing to actually tell what impurities are in the water, just that it’s not 100% clear water. Better to buy a water filter and filter it.

I would imagine you may use it to test when your water filter is getting clogged up and allowing things to pass through it. That is if you test the water from your filter when you first replace the filter element to get a reference point and watch for changes. But it still doesn’t say it can detect a bacteria or virus (the things you want to filter out.) I don’t know if they are going to show any resistance change in the water?

I use these for well pump tests. It is useful over time as the well
is pumped hard enough to draw down to see changes in concentration
of dissolved solids, temperature, and PH. It tells you generally
if the geology is such that increased use will produce less or
more stuff in the water.

If the water looks to be at reasonable levels of TDS etc, then
samples are sent to the lab for exact findings. These tests can
cost upwards of $4000 for drinking water quality.

SO--- these tools are interesting, but not very useful for the
lay person.

TDS - Total Dissolved Solids, not bacteria, not suspended sediments. Most of what is dissolved in water is in the ionic form (charged) and shows an increase in conductivity (which is what a TDS meter really reads). Not at all useful for determining drinking safety unless the concentration is so high that osmosis is a problem (ie Gatorade).

Respectfully,

Jerry

Would these things test for heavy metals, like the kinds you would find in mining areas?

Sue

Susan,

My understanding is no, they do not test for heavy metals.
Pleas see JerryFountain post aboveyours as hewas able to articulate specifics better than myself.

Joe