I have been extremely successful with my sourdough starters by simply using my filtered water from my fridge, but I decided to test it just in case. You can grab a PPM (parts per million) tester on Amazon for 12$ and they’re extremely accurate. We restated several bottled waters and our tap and they were consistent. They’re also the same tests that local offices use.

The US considers anything below 300 good, but legally allows up to 500. That’s wild, but that’s also why you should do this test and make sure your filter systems are working correctly or if you should be consuming your water at all.

There are many concerns about high total dissolved solids (PPM’s) in drinking water. Some of the biggest issues are that high total dissolved solids can lead to kidney stones, especially when hard water levels are over 500 PPM, and other health problems like heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, tumors and diabetes.

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When we did our Tap Water unfiltered it was 34. That’s really good for tap water, but our home was built 2000, so I’m sure that is partially why the score was so low. Newer pipes mean less contamination.

Then we checked our filtered water from the fridge and it dropped to 25. Look, 25 would be a great number if our tap water was normally like 200, but that was a little higher than we were hoping, UNTIL we started testing bottled waters and they were all around 25. Great Value Walmart drinking water was the lowest at 21.

So, this could explain why I’ve been more successful with my sourdough. Also, just to mention, the hot water from our tap was 60. Gary always tells the kids not to use the hot tap water to brush their teeth etc. because it’s full of nasty bacteria because of the temperatures the pipes reach. I always thought that was silly, but this test proved him to be exactly right. So, it’s better to heat cold water to temp than use hot tap water to consume.

Now that I know our tap water is 34, I’ll probably start using it more to cook and feed the pets. I have been feeding all of the pets filtered jug water from Walmart for years.

It’s just good to know. I’m going to purchase a new filter for our fridge this week even though the light isn’t on yet and it hasn’t alerted us, because I know it’s been about 6 months and we use a LOT of water, especially from the built in pitcher. I fill my coffee pot and everything with it. I just want to see if it brings it down. I may also purchase a bottle filter just out of curiosity. I will report back on any major changes and tell which filter I purchased.

Go grab a test here. It could explain why your sourdough starter is sluggish! And yes, it’s reusable!