Kiss of death for consumer products being developed is to hear “I’d take it with me when I go camping” during a focus group, unless, of course, the product is designed specifically for camping.
Looks very similar to the one that came with my ZeroWater water filter pitcher. These are very handy to check if your water filter is still doing its job. My ZeroWater pitcher is still reading zero on the same filter I have had for a year! Yes, it does work, I tested it on tap water. Funny enough bottled water has far more particulates than my tap water.
Actually, this is not a surprise. One of the signs of the apocalypse:
“And the heathens will gather in droves to purchase basic sustenance available to all but packaged in wasteful, environment-damaging noisemakers made from fossil fuels. And it will be impure. Lo, they will bloat, and collect adipose tissue about their bodies as they watch moving pictures showing other people as frightful as themselves. They will load massive quantities of impure sustenance upon their frightful poison-belching contraptions, and return to the very spot where they can collect this sustenance for free. And God will weep, and his tears will burn the heathens…until their flesh melts and the cycle begins anew. With smaller fossils.”
Keep in mind this a TDS meter (total dissolved solids). This does not test for anything, it simply estimates how much of a liquid is made up of dissolved solids.
It can not test water quality. Better than nothing, sure, but it’s important to realize that a TDS meter actually measures a narrow range of electrical conductivity (much less accurate and much smaller range than an EC meter) and estimates, in ppm, the TDS count. Unlike a more expensive EC meter, a TDS meter like this largely ignores certain particulates (sugars for example, as well as a lot of pharmaceuticals).
These are best used to compare water. In this respect they shine. You could do a rough test of water before and after a filter. Measure water from different faucets within your home.
I use one to when I am mixing liquid fertilizers. They’re very useful in this respect because you can mix very precise batches. Since they under read on sugar count they are very useful with plants, which can take a lot more sugar than they can NPK.
One thing to note. Ideally you should calibrate these after about ten uses. The readings start to drift. 1000 PPM calibration solution can be purchased on Amazon
Shhh next thing you will be telling people most bottled water is just filtered or MAYBE RO tap water WHICH IT IS and you are paying for the eon polluting bottle and shipping not the water.
It will measure hardness (dissolved minerals), it will measure for petroleum hydrocarbons (if dissolved in the water, not floating on top), it will measure salinity … it will measure any organic or inorganic ions dissolved in the water. The problem is you don’t know what it is that is dissolved in the water.