Before you buy an under sink water filter system, it is important to know what contaminants you have in the potable water flowing to your sink. Water test kits will provide the necessary insight into your water. I have researched several test kits available on the market and used effectiveness, consumer reviews and value for money to determine the best drinking water test kit in each category.
Test Kit Effectiveness
The quality of potable water can be improved by removing or reducing contaminants we know may exist in some quantity in the water. Ideally as a minimum, you will need a kit that will test for:
- Chlorine (Cl)
- Fluoride (F)
- Lead (Pb)
- Iron (Fe)
- Copper (Cu)
- Nitrates
- Bacteria
- Pesticides
As a bonus, the test kit can also determine TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) and total alkalinity or pH. Although not a requirement since potable water for these parameters are normally in the “acceptable” range, it doesn’t hurt to confirm these numbers:
- TDS – should be between 0-500 PPM; the lower the number the higher the water quality.
- Total Alkalinity – should be between 6.5 – 8.5; water pH less than 6.5 is more ‘acidic’ and likely to be contaminated with pollutants while water pH greater than 8.5 are more ‘basic’ and can have an unpleasant smell or taste
Another element factoring into the effectiveness of a test kit is the accuracy of the results and the ease of use.
So, a test kit testing the aforementioned contaminants, highly accurate and very easy to use will score a normalized value of “1”.
Test Kit Reviews 
What are people saying about the test kits? I have analyzed specific product reviews and classified them as excellent, very good, good and bad. Acknowledging that this could be somewhat subjective, I have factored in my own experiences and expertise when categorizing the reviews.
A test kit review will be scored as follows:
- = 1.00 for excellent
- = 0.75 for very good
- = 0.50 for good
- = 0.25 for bad
Test Kit Value for Money
As test kits go, the prices range anywhere from 15 to 70 US dollars. Value for money is determined based on the test kit product cost, normalized effectiveness score and the normalized reviews score. It is calculated as follows:
Effectiveness Value Units (EVU) = Effectiveness Score x 100
Reviews Value Units (RVU) = Reviews Score x 100
Value for Money Score (VFM) = (EVU + RVU) / Cost
The higher the VFM, the better
Top 2 Test Kit Product Results by Category
There are many test kits out there and it was difficult to determine where to start my research so I narrowed my search to those products that were easily available online from a reputable company/vendor such as Amazon, Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart and other equivalent sources.
My assessment yielded the following Top 2 test kit product results in each of the categories discussed above.
The Highest Effectiveness
The Best Reviews
The Best Value for Money (VFM)
Best Overall Drinking Water Test Kit 
Based on the above results, the best overall drinking water test kit from my perspective is the following:
| Product | Vendor | Additional Product Information |
| Drinking Water Test Strips – 16 in 1 Kit | TESTPERT | available from Amazon and Amazon.ca |