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    Bottled Water Field Guide

    What's In Your Bottled Water?

    Find a brand, compare its source and packaging profile, then inspect what a third-party lab actually tested. Our grades are estimates, not measurements of contaminants in your bottle.

    Popular brands

    The bottle index / 12 profiles

    Choose with the evidence in view.

    HU scores are estimated source and packaging profiles, not contamination measurements or safety ratings. A higher score does not mean a tested bottle is contaminant-free. Lab findings, when linked, describe a particular tested sample and panel.

    Brand / packagingHU estimate

    These rankings use Hydrology University’s own category estimates. They are not Oasis scores. How Oasis scores its separately tested reports

    What your report card covers

    HU grades summarize estimated profiles, not safety or measured contaminants. Each category links to further reading.

    1

    Source Transparency

    Where the water actually comes from — a protected spring, an artesian aquifer, or purified municipal tap water — and how clearly the brand discloses it.

    2

    Treatment & Processing

    How the water is handled before bottling. Filtration and reverse osmosis change mineral content; the process alone cannot establish which contaminants remain in a specific bottle.

    3

    Mineral Content

    The dissolved minerals (calcium, magnesium, electrolytes) measured as TDS. Natural minerals add taste and benefit; heavy purification strips them out.

    4

    Additives & Enhancements

    Anything added back after treatment — salts, electrolytes, or minerals for taste, plus ionization to raise pH. Sometimes genuinely helpful, sometimes just marketing.

    5

    pH Balance

    How acidic or alkaline the water is on a 0–14 scale. pH affects taste and corrosion, but a higher pH alone does not show that water is safer.

    6

    Heat & Storage Resilience

    How well the packaging survives the trip to you — weeks in trucks, warehouses, and store shelves, then days in a hot car. Heat and sunlight make plastic leach antimony and plasticizers into the water long after it left a spotless bottling line.

    7

    Microplastic Risk

    Small plastic particles can enter water from packaging, caps, processing and the environment. Packaging is a risk clue, not a measurement of particles in this bottle.

    8

    Sustainability

    The environmental footprint of the packaging and shipping — single-use plastic and long-distance transport carry the heaviest impact.

    9

    HU Grade

    An estimated average of eight source and packaging profile categories; not a lab test.

    WaterVo™
    Pure Choices. Better Living.
    HU Trusted Supplier

    Once you know what's in your water, you need to do something about it. WaterVO is Hydrology University's recommended supplier for residential filtration systems, atmospheric water generators (AWG), and home hydration equipment evaluated against our published rating standards.

    Filtration systems Atmospheric water generators Whole-home solutions
    Visit WaterVO.com
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