Free water testing
One Free Water Test,
Every Number Read Out Loud
A water test should take about thirty minutes at your kitchen sink, cost nothing, and leave you holding the actual numbers. That is how we run ours across the Treasure Valley, whether you buy anything afterward or not. We measure first. Nobody quotes a system in an Idaho home until the meter has read that address.
Meridian based. Ada, Canyon and Gem counties are our core area, plus Elmore, Payette, Owyhee, Boise, Valley and Washington by arrangement.
01
What thirty minutes at
your sink looks like
We knock, and the whole thing happens at the kitchen sink. No van full of gear wheeled through the house, no sales binder opened on the table before a single sample is pulled. We fill our vials from the tap you actually drink and cook from, because that is the water that matters, not the water leaving a source well across town.
Then we run the field checks in front of you. You watch the hardness titration shift color drop by drop, and you see the reading land where it lands. Most homes in Boise, Meridian and Nampa come back between 8 and 15 grains per gallon, and water isn't soft until it drops under about 3, which is why the scale on a heating element ends up looking like dried oatmeal. We call the numbers out as they come, in plain terms, and we write them down for you.
There is no charge and no obligation. If the water is fine, we tell you that and pack up, and it happens more than you would think. Our job on that first visit is to measure, not to sell you something on the way out the door.
02
The six things we check
before anyone talks equipment
Testing one thing and quoting off it is the oldest move in this trade. A strip gets dipped, hardness reads high, and a softener is on the invoice before anyone asks what else the water is carrying. We test broadly instead, because the reading that changes your week is often not the one you booked us for. Some checks finish at your counter. A few need a certified lab, and for those we send a sample out and wait for real numbers before designing anything.
Field results, read at the counter
| What we test | Why it matters | Around here |
|---|---|---|
| Hardness in grains per gallon | Scale, stiff laundry, spotted glass, soap that will not lather | 8 to 15 gpg |
| Chlorine or chloramine | Taste, smell, dry skin, and it chews through rubber seals | Routine on city supply |
| Iron and manganese | Orange and black staining, and it fouls softener resin | Well by well |
| Dissolved solids and pH | How aggressive the water runs toward your copper | Measured on site |
| Nitrate, on wells especially | Roughly 5 percent of Idaho groundwater monitoring sites exceed the EPA limit of 10 mg/L | Lab confirmed |
| PFAS, where there is cause | Regional detections trace to firefighting foam at Mountain Home Air Force Base and Gowen Field | Certified lab only |
Not every home needs all six sent to a lab. On Boise, Meridian or Nampa city water, hardness and chlorine usually tell most of the story. On a private well, especially near farmed ground in Canyon County, we look harder, because nitrate, arsenic and uranium carry no taste, no smell and no color, and a well that tastes lovely can still read past a limit you would never accept if you could see it.
03
Why we test the whole
water, not one number
Hardness alone won't tell you whether iron is waiting to blind the resin, or whether the thing that should actually worry a family is nitrate, which a softener was never built to touch. A softener exchanges hardness minerals and does that one job well. It does nothing for nitrate or PFAS, and those need different treatment, reverse osmosis at the drinking tap or the right media at whole house volumes, driven by certified lab results rather than a field strip. Sell off a single reading and you can install a machine that runs exactly as designed on water it was never designed for.
We see this constantly in second opinions. A system sized off one number, humming along, on a well it does not match. So we test broadly and leave the written results with you either way. Take the sheet to another company and compare. We would genuinely rather you did.
Idaho came into 2026 off one of the warmest winters since records began in 1896, with snowpack at or near record lows. Less water moving through means less dilution of what is already down there, and this is one of the fastest growing regions in the country besides. If your last test is a few years old, the number has moved. Get a fresh one, free
"People expect us to show up with a clipboard and a price. We show up with a test kit. Half the time the interesting result isn't hardness at all, it's the iron nobody mentioned, or a well that smells like sulfur every August when the table drops."
04
You keep the results,
whoever you hire next
The sheet is yours. We read every number out at the sink so nothing is a mystery, then we write it down and hand it over before we leave. If you want a night to think, or a second quote, or a word with a spouse who is at work, that is exactly why the numbers stay in your kitchen and not in our van. A test you cannot see the results of is not really a test.
If the answer is a system and the budget is the obstacle, ask about the rental program. It exists so cost never turns anyone away: the same equipment, the same install standard, paid over time instead of up front, and we still handle the service. Nobody should keep showering in water we both measured and both know is bad because of the sticker price on the fix.
We test across Ada, Canyon and Gem counties as our core area, and out to Elmore, Payette, Owyhee, Boise, Valley and Washington by arrangement, covering Boise, Meridian, Nampa, Caldwell, Kuna, Star and Eagle. Hours are Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, with weekends by appointment. Read what is in Treasure Valley water, or see the systems a test can lead to once you know your numbers.
What people ask before they book
No charge, no obligation
Find out what is in
your water this week
Thirty minutes at your kitchen sink, anywhere across Ada, Canyon and Gem counties. Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, weekends by appointment. If your water is fine, we will say so.