Test Drinking Water for Ammonia Content

[oldunion]

The water doesn't taste strange from the tap, however, i put some in this large gatorade bottle. i went to the gym, and drank a portion of it. i brought it back home and put it in the fridge. today it had a very strange taste, and a very strong stench of ammonia. how can i test the water for ammonia content?

 

[gravenewworld]

YOu can use red cabbage that you can get from the grocery store as a pH indicator. Just buy some cabbage and boil it. If there is any ammonia in your water it should make it turn somewhat basic. Your red cabbage pH indicator should turn blue/bluish if your water is basic. This simple test can start you off in the right direction.

 

[oldunion]

YOu can use red cabbage that you can get from the grocery store as a pH indicator. Just buy some cabbage and boil it. If there is any ammonia in your water it should make it turn somewhat basic. Your red cabbage pH indicator should turn blue/bluish if your water is basic. This simple test can start you off in the right direction.

The water turned as blue as kool-aid, seriously. Who do i alert this to, and how serious is it.

 

[gravenewworld]

Seriously someone is either A) trying to poison you or B) you have something wrong w/ your water. Call your local h20 company and ask them to send someone to test your water. They will be able to do better tests and find out exactly what is going on.

 

[oldunion]

Seriously someone is either A) trying to poison you or B) you have something wrong w/ your water. Call your local h20 company and ask them to send someone to test your water. They will be able to do better tests and find out exactly what is going on.

ive informed my landlord. ammonia seeping into drinking water doesn't seem like a normal issue for some reason.

 

[GCT]

ok, stop right there. Tap water is slightly basic, and the "ammonia" stench may simply be due to the gatorade bottle. You're not supposed to drink tap water in the first place, except in rare cases. If the source is actually ammonia, you may also wish to consider whether it's from your refrigerator, since you didn't detect it from the tap water, or when you drank it out of the gatorade bottle.

 

[gravenewworld]

Did you wash the bottle and not rinse it enough and leave some soap in there? That could be causing the water to turn basic as well as making the water taste horrible.

 

[oldunion]

i did the test twice today, once was pouring water into a pan and putting it directly on the burner.

the second was done from a different water source in my residence, it also turned blue.

these were uncontaminated sources.

 

[rachmaninoff]

"Uncontaminated" water is strongly basic? Your cabbages are bad. Try a $5 pH test kit from walmart - they're sensitive to about 0.2 (log) degrees. You can also get a salicylic-acid based ammonia test designed for fish accurate to 0.1ppm (~$6 walmart) if you want. Test water staight out of the tap, after it's on for 10s, without waiting. I believe dilute ammonia offgases over time (evaporates faster than water, so the conc. rapidly decreases). But more likely you have some biological contanimants that are releasing/smell like ammonia. No, more likely there was something in your gatorade bottle to begin with.

The water doesn't taste strange from the tap, however, i put some in this large gatorade bottle. i went to the gym, and drank a portion of it. i brought it back home and put it in the fridge. today it had a very strange taste, and a very strong stench of ammonia.

Can you reproduce this?

 

[oldunion]

"Uncontaminated" water is strongly basic? Your cabbages are bad. Try a $5 pH test kit from walmart - they're sensitive to about 0.2 (log) degrees. You can also get a salicylic-acid based ammonia test designed for fish accurate to 0.1ppm (~$6 walmart) if you want. Test water staight out of the tap, after it's on for 10s, without waiting. I believe dilute ammonia offgases over time (evaporates faster than water, so the conc. rapidly decreases). But more likely you have some biological contanimants that are releasing/smell like ammonia. No, more likely there was something in your gatorade bottle to begin with.



Can you reproduce this?

ill try to get more conclusive proof than a cabbage test, because i know my landloard won't do ****.

 

[GCT]

They used to have ammonia based refrigerators, and at times the ammonia could leak, they still use it for industrial purposes I think. Hopefully yours refrigerator doesn't use ammonia. You might want to test that out also.

Buy some bottled water, check the before pH, leave it in the fridge for a while (days preferably), not many ways to make this perfect (other contaminants could get in)...drink a substantial portion of the water, ehh, just kidding ;) Check the pH once more, and conclude in general on how the quality of the water matches your contaminated "gatorade water" then the tap water. It may also help to use, multiple, for instance 3 pure bottled waters. Compare the results btw tap water, tap water placed in the fridge, pure bottled water, and pure bottled water in the fridge.