FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I noticed some of my plants weren't growing well so I got a TDS meter to test my water.

The "distilled" water from my local grocery store reads as 170ppm.
My tap water came up as about 67ppm.
Water from my fridges water dispenser (and the filter inside) has read from between 51 and 56ppm.

I'm a little frustrated since I did lose some sundews and couldn't figure out why, but on the other hand it does make me feel better about some of my plants not doing great since I have someone else to blame . Seeing my tap water that clean is nice too. I would have liked for it to be just a little tiny bit lower, but the water from my fridge isn't so bad...

Those of us who still purchase distilled water might want to consider investing in a TDS meter. Apparently not every business can be trusted to actually give you what they're claiming to sell you...

Nope, it just says distilled water on it. I did test some drinking water from a 5 gallon water cooler (Primo distilled with minerals added for taste) and it measured as 10. I don't want to name this brand just yet since I think I might have another unopened jug at home. I wanted to test that one along with a few other purified or distilled waters to make sure my meter is accurate and that I didn't just get this jug contaminated without realizing it. Going from a (theoretical) 0 to 170 seems like a bit of a jump though...

I encountered that problem recently. Water from the fountain measured at 154. Very important to test. I think the companies think that no one will notice.

I would just use your tap water from your fridge. Or use a zero water filter.

Yikes! Thank goodness my tap water is 39ppm!

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It certainly aint distilled water at 170ppm.
Cheers
Steve

I tested a different brand of water labeled as distilled and it came back at 0ppm. RO water from the same brand is at 2ppm, so it looks like my meter is accurate.

The spare gallon of this "distilled" water I had was at 162ppm, so I guess whoever is responsible for making this water is doing something they're not supposed to do.

Yeah I check every jug/bottle of water I buy. Never had issues with grocery stores, but a near disaster with a LFS who didn't take care of their RO/DI unit well scared me into the habit.