If your water comes from a private well, there’s no city water-quality report coming in the mail — testing is on you. And testing it right matters, because well water cheats: hydrogen sulfide (that rotten-egg smell) escapes into the air within hours of drawing a sample, and dissolved iron starts turning to rust the moment it meets oxygen. A lab sample shipped across the country can come back “clean” for exactly the two things bothering you most. Here’s how to test well water properly: quick field tests at the tap, plus a certified lab for everything else.
Start With Your Symptoms
Your nose and your fixtures are already telling you what’s wrong. Match what you notice to what to test:
- Rotten-egg smell (worse in hot water) → hydrogen sulfide → test at the tap with H2S strips (below)
- Orange or brown stains on fixtures, metallic taste → iron, possibly manganese → iron field kit on a fresh sample
- White crusty scale, soap won’t lather, spots on dishes → hardness → hardness test strips
- Salty or brackish taste → high dissolved solids → TDS meter
- Slimy toilet tank, musty or swampy smell → iron bacteria → lab test
- No symptoms at all → still run the lab panel below. Arsenic, nitrates, lead, and radon have no taste or smell.
Step 1 — Test at the Tap (Do These Yourself, Same Day)
These change in the bottle, so test them fresh at the faucet — ideally the tap closest to where the well line enters the house, before any softener or filter.
Industrial Test Systems WaterWorks Hydrogen Sulfide Test Strips (50-pack)
Why we picked it: Dip-and-read strips that measure hydrogen sulfide from 0–80 ppm in seconds — the industry-standard field test for that rotten-egg gas. Honest note: the reading steps are coarse, which is fine for screening your well.
SenSafe Ida’s Iron Test — Ferrous Iron (Fe+2), 25 strips
Why we picked it: Ferrous-iron-specific strips (0–5 ppm) with no reagents or glassware — made for testing a fresh sample on-site before iron oxidizes. Tip: if you can already see rust in the glass, the iron has oxidized — draw a fresh sample and test faster.
For TDS meters, pH strips, and hardness kits, see the Water Test Kits section of our “What’s In Your Water?” buyer’s guide.
Step 2 — Send the Rest to a Certified Lab
Some things can’t be field-tested reliably: bacteria (coliform and E. coli), nitrates, arsenic, lead, manganese, radon, PFAS, and VOCs. For these, use a certified lab:
- Tap Score (SimpleLab) — mail-in well-water kits with results explained in plain English, recommended by Wirecutter.
- Your state keeps a list of certified labs — search for your NJ DEP certified laboratory list.
- Rutgers Cooperative Extension and your county extension office offer low-cost well testing options for homeowners.
EPA Drinking Water Standards — The Key Numbers
The EPA sets legal limits (called Maximum Contaminant Levels, or MCLs) for public water systems. They don’t legally apply to your private well — nobody is testing your tap for you — but they’re the best yardstick you have for judging your lab results. The taste/odor/staining guidelines are called Secondary Standards (SMCLs): not enforceable, but they’re why your water looks and smells the way it does. See the full list at EPA’s National Primary Drinking Water Regulations.
Primary Standards (health-based, legally enforceable for public systems)
| Contaminant | EPA limit |
|---|---|
| Arsenic | 0.010 mg/L |
| Lead | 0.015 mg/L action level (goal: zero) |
| Copper | 1.3 mg/L action level |
| Nitrate (as nitrogen) | 10 mg/L |
| Fluoride | 4.0 mg/L |
| Mercury (inorganic) | 0.002 mg/L |
| Cadmium | 0.005 mg/L |
| Total chromium | 0.1 mg/L |
| PFOA | 4.0 ppt (2024 rule) |
| PFOS | 4.0 ppt (2024 rule) |
| PFHxS, PFNA, GenX chemicals | 10 ppt each (2024 rule) |
| E. coli | zero — any detection needs action |
Secondary Standards (taste, odor, staining — not health-enforceable)
| Contaminant | EPA guideline |
|---|---|
| Iron | 0.3 mg/L (staining, metallic taste) |
| Manganese | 0.05 mg/L (black staining) |
| pH | 6.5–8.5 |
| Total dissolved solids (TDS) | 500 mg/L |
| Chloride | 250 mg/L (salty taste) |
| Sulfate | 250 mg/L |
| Hydrogen sulfide | no federal standard — rotten-egg odor noticeable around 0.05 mg/L |
If your lab results come back above any primary standard, treat it as a fix-it-now problem. Secondary exceedances are about comfort and your plumbing — worth fixing, but not emergencies.
New Jersey Well Owners — Read This
- New Jersey’s Private Well Testing Act requires testing for 31 parameters whenever a home with a private well is sold. If you bought your house recently, the lab report may already be in your closing paperwork — dig it out before paying for a new test.
- Radon in water is common in New Jersey’s bedrock areas. Include it in any lab panel you order.
Well Owners Outside New Jersey
The two-track method above works in every state — field tests at the tap, certified lab for the rest. What changes is where to get low-cost testing and what your region is known for.
- Pennsylvania: Over a million Pennsylvania homes and farms run on private wells, and owners are responsible for their own testing — about half of PA private systems fail at least one drinking-water standard. Penn State Extension runs free Safe Drinking Water Clinics and webinars that include free water testing (bacteria, pH, TDS, nitrate) through an accredited lab.
- Florida: Florida’s Department of Health recommends testing at least once a year. Sulfur (rotten-egg smell) from the Floridan Aquifer is the state’s signature well-water complaint, and homes near the coasts should include chlorides on their test panel to watch for saltwater intrusion.
- New York: New York has no NJ-style testing law — start with your county health department and Cornell Cooperative Extension for low-cost testing options.
Wherever you are, every state has a Cooperative Extension system (usually through the state university) offering low-cost water testing — search for “[your state] cooperative extension well water testing” to find yours.
What To Do With Your Results
Match the problem to the fix in our “What’s In Your Water?” buyer’s guide — every category is organized by what’s in your water. Still stuck? Send us a message through our Contact page describing your symptoms and test numbers, and we’ll point you at the right category.
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