What's In Your Bottled Water?
Not all bottled water is equal. Search your brand for an instant report card on its source, treatment, minerals, additives, pH, heat & storage resilience, microplastic risk, and sustainability — plus our independent grade, scored against the industry average.
Popular brands
What your report card covers
Every brand is graded on the things that actually matter for what you drink — and each one links to the science behind it.
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.
Treatment & Processing
How the water is handled before bottling. Light, natural filtering keeps water close to its source; heavy reverse osmosis or distillation strips it down to almost nothing and then rebuilds it.
Mineral Content
The dissolved minerals (calcium, magnesium, electrolytes) measured as TDS. Natural minerals add taste and benefit; heavy purification strips them out.
Additives & Enhancements
Anything added back after treatment — salts, electrolytes, or minerals for taste, plus ionization to raise pH. Sometimes genuinely helpful, sometimes just marketing.
pH Balance
How acidic or alkaline the water is on a 0–14 scale. A neutral-to-slightly-alkaline range (around 7–8) is generally considered ideal for drinking.
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.
Microplastic Risk
Tiny plastic particles that shed from packaging into the water. Driven mostly by the bottle — single-use PET plastic sheds far more than glass or aluminum.
Sustainability
The environmental footprint of the packaging and shipping — single-use plastic and long-distance transport carry the heaviest impact.
HU Grade
Our independent overall grade pulling every factor together.
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 vetted against our independent rating standards.