Re: Ph of water-heads -- lots of water tested

Hey all,
well I bought a bunch of different bottles of water this weekend at the store and tested them all last night. Here are the results:

Aquafina: Litmus paper = 5.5 , pH100 electronic meter = 6.08

Klarbrunn (pure drinking water): Litmus paper = 5.5 , pH100 electronic meter = 5.41

Fiji (Natural Artesian water): Litmus paper = 6.0 , pH100 electronic meter = 7.50
(label claimed it is typically balanced at 7.5, and it was. Very expensive though ~$1.40 per liter)

Ice Mountain Distilled water (steam distilation): Litmus paper = 5.5 , pH100 electronic meter = 6.30

Ice Mountain Natural Spring water: Litmus paper = 6.2 , pH100 electronic meter = 7.98

Ice Mountain Drinking water (with minerals added for taste): Litmus paper = 5.5 , pH100 electronic meter = 7.44

IGA Pure & Natural Distilled water (steam distilled): Litmus paper = 5.5 , pH100 electronic meter = 6.10

Reverse Osmosis (from machine in store): Litmus paper = 5.5 , pH100 electronic meter = 5.56

50-50 mix of Fiji and RO: pH100 electronic meter = 6.93

Tap Water (unfiltered, Madison WI): Litmus paper = 6.6 , pH100 electronic meter = 7.37

Tap Water (Brita Filter pitcher): Litmus paper = 6.6 , pH100 electronic meter = 7.84


Conclusions: Klarbrunn is just a super cheap small bottle water, and it looks like you get what you pay for there. I did not expect any of them to go bellow 6.0, so I was very surprised on a few of them. I definitely recommend staying away from the Reverse Osmosis water. I was very impressed with the Fiji water and how precise the pH was, and the mineral content was given on the bottle. It's also an all natural source, but as mentioned it's very expensive. The Ice Mountain natural spring water was a very pleasant surprise because it's a cheap gallon of water. About the same price as the liter of Fiji water. I was also pleasantly surprised by the tap water results. I guess I'm very lucky to live in a place where the tap water is alkaline. But more importantly I like the fact that a cheap filter system like Brita actually makes the water more alkaline as it goes through the charcoal filtering system. If anyone has a particular brand they would like me to try and find (these were all the basic kinds at my typical grocery store) let me know. Also, if you want to take a water bottle and mail it to me I can check out any brand or even a sample of your tap water for you. I hope this helps everyone have a better idea of the pH of the water they are using. Most litmus papers do a bad job of measuring the pH of water because they were designed for buffered solutions, and water is definitely not a buffered solution. So the pH100 electronic meter is the accurate results to look at, the litmus paper is mentioned to let you see how far off it can be. Feel free to email me if you have further specific questions, or want me to look at some particular water, mslarsen@wisc.edu . Talk to you all soon, Mike