Hach Total Hardness Test Kit, Model 5-B, Water Analysis Kit for Drop Count Titration, with 2 Reagents, Measuring Tube, Square Bottle & Measuring Scoop, 145300

I bought the Hach Model 5-B Total Hardness Test Kit because I was troubleshooting my water softener and needed real numbers — not guesswork. Test strips weren’t cutting it. I needed to know exactly what my grains per gallon were. My raw water tested at 7–8 drops (around 7–8 GPG), and after running multiple regen cycles and adjusting salt settings, I was still getting 7 drops on the “soft” side. That told me immediately something wasn’t right with my system — seals, piston, resin, something. Without this kit, I would’ve assumed the softener was working because it was cycling normally. The drop-count method is super simple: fill the tube, add drops until it turns blue, and count. That’s it. Clear, repeatable results every time. No vague color matching or guessing like cheap strips. And it’s consistent — I tested from multiple bibs and got matching numbers. If you’re serious about dialing in a water softener or diagnosing problems, this kit is worth every penny. It gives you facts, not feelings. Helped me narrow down my issue and saved me from replacing parts blindly. Highly recommend for homeowners who like to troubleshoot their own equipment instead of just throwing parts at it.

This kit works great! My daughter has been complaining that her hair doesn't feel clean after shampooing. She said she needs a different shampoo. Then it dawned on me that my hair has been feeling the same way. I told my husband that I think we have hard water and something is wrong with our water softener. He replied, "No, our water is not hard, it is soft" Hmmmm A friend stopped by last week and said, "what did you do to your hair??? It is lighter than I have ever seen it and it looks like you have Orange highlights!!" I had not done anything, but I did notice that my hair color was a bit different lately (I am a brunette) and didn't know why. She looked closer and felt the ends of my hair and said, "you have hard water". So, I went on Amazon to order the testing strips, but read the many reviews and finally decided this kit would be more accurate than the strips. I received it the next day. Sure enough, it took over 20 drops for the mixture to turn blue. Yep, our water is HARD! The company that installed our water softener came out today. The kit he brought with him was almost identical to this one. I watched him and it took 25 drops for the water to turn blue~ the softener is not working at all. He took the unit with him to do repairs. " Rebed & Valve Repair". The parts are under warranty, so we just have to pay for service & labor charges. He will be back Friday with the repaired water softener. The bad news: The labor and service charge is going to be over $550!! Wow, that seems high for the Service Charge and Labor Only!! Ugh :( However, I do highly recommend this test kit. Instructions on the box were clear and easy to follow. Maybe if we had bought this test earlier to use on occasion, we could saved some money in repairs. After it is fixed, I will think I will continue to use this kit on a Monthly basis to make sure the softener continues to be working as it should. ;).

I've worked in Municipal water treatment for 30 years, and I've used them all. This is a good product, easy to use. Price is reasonable. Would have many many tests in this kit.

I trust this test kit and believe its results are accurate for testing hardness. Much better than test strips that change color - which may be better than nothing, but don't give me much confidence.

Ok, so it’s accurate and easy to use, but the Hach company provides absolutely NO DOCUMENTATION with what the various hardness levels are. The bar code sticker is placed over the English instructions (really stupid to do this). The paper instructions that came in the box have three different languages, but NO ENGLISH.

I moved to a new part of the country and bought a house with a water softener. I really hate the way softened water won't clean soap off (see note below), and didn't want to use it, but I found that the water here is very, very hard and so I was worried about the life of our water heater and such. My hypothesized solution was to turn the bypass valve between the softener and the incoming water partly on to give us water that was just slightly hard, but I needed a way to tell how far to turn it, and whether it really was mixing the water consistently. This kit was perfect for helping me do that. After doing some research, I set a target of 4 grains of hardness. I first tested the water where it came into the house and it was 20 grains. I called the company that had installed the system and they confirmed that this is about right for our municipal water system. Then I started playing with the bypass valve. As expected, it was also 20 grains with the bypass valve fully open. I set it 1/2 way open, gave it 3 days to move the old water through, and it dropped to 17 grains. At 1/4 it dropped to 12 grains, and so forth until I found the position that gave me my desired 4 grains. There is no way I could have done this without a good test kit like this. It was worth every penny. One comment about using the kit. As another reviewer said, it will change fully to blue in a single drop, but be sure to swirl the bottle for a few seconds after each drop. It sometimes take over a second to make the change. Note: I know the water softener companies tell you that the slick feeling you feel with softened water is your clean skin and the roughness you feel with hard water is the soap residue, but that is simply untrue. In fact, it is the opposite. Hard water chemically breaks down soap because the sodium in the soap is attracted to the calcium and magnesium in the hard water and that breaks down the molecular bonds of the soap, washing it away. The soap is hard to remove with artificially softened water because that water has exchanged sodium ions for the calcium and magnesium in your hard water. The high-sodium water doesn't attract the sodium in the soap and so doesn't break down the soap molecules. Google it and you'll find a full explanation.

Trying to use the dip and test type strips of other kits proved to raise more questions than answers when trying to determine how hard my household water was. The color of the strips never aligned with the charts shown and from one kit to the next, nothing was really showing consistent results. I also wasted more money on them than the cost of this kit, which I regret not buying right off the bat. Right to the point, this kit is easy to use and gives a clear answer as to your waters hardness level, which I needed to know in order to shop for an appropriate water softener. Once the water hardness was known, I then knew how to adjust the settings of my new softener. Testing my water afterwards with this kit then confirmed the softener was working. With such an ample amount of test kit components left yet, I have shared this kit with my neighbors and have plenty left over for several years of testing down the road.

Seems to work well and nice setup to do the chemistry.