Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I purchased an espresso machine for a birthday present and wanted to know if our water softener was doing the job to keep the water soft. I live in the Rockies and water hardness in my town is 200 - 300 ppm (or 11.7 - 17.5 grains per gallon). That's HARD water. I tested my softened water and straight tap water. The test strips worked to a tee. I gave the product 4 stars because it took longer than a minute to get the result. Additionally, on the strip I used for tap water the reagent never completely turned orange, even after sitting on the kitchen counter all night. If you buy these be aware that only the tip of the test strip has a reagent which shows hardness. The box instructions show a strip with 5 different hardness levels, which was a bit confusing. I kept waiting for the hardness levels to appear til I realized how the strips worked. All in all, good product.