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What do you offer over this? http://www.amazon.com/WaterSafe-Water-Test-Kit-Lead/dp/B000Q6QWZA http://www.amazon.com/WaterSafe-Water-Test-Kit-Lead/dp/B000Q...

by pnathan 11y ago

What do you offer over this? http://www.amazon.com/WaterSafe-Water-Test-Kit-Lead/dp/B000Q6QWZA http://www.amazon.com/WaterSafe-Water-Test-Kit-Lead/dp/B000Q... What kind of guarantees can you deliver that you're not yet another company without accountability- this is important stuff, and accountability for correctness is kind of a big deal. The array of brands offering home test kits on amazon is incredible. I don't know any of them, and I don't know their reliability; nor do I know enough about this space to select the correct one. How do you differentiate yourself?

personjerry 11y ago
This seems to test water rather than dust.
- jrussino 11y ago
  3M sells these lead test swabs for surfaces: http://amzn.com/B009NQNL0I http://amzn.com/B009NQNL0I Once again, not exactly "analyzing your dust" but I think this is the current consumer-grade solution to the problem of "are there dangerous levels of lead in my wall paint/ceramics/etc?"
- ocdtrekkie 11y ago
  I suspect that the point here is the ratings and reviews the water test has gotten. That it doesn't work for a lot of users and they're simply out the money.
- pnathan 11y ago
  > We’ll also test your water for lead, mercury, pharmaceuticals, and other toxins. OP is also offering water testing capabilities. n.b., this is a great idea, but I really want a way to trust that the lab is doing the Right Thing, and false positives/negatives are acceptably low.
saulrh 11y ago
Convenience is a big seller. Instead of having to sift through the range of available options, pick them all out, get them in the mail, open them, read the instructions, run them and hope you don't mess up, interpret the results and hope you don't mess up, and then write down all the results without getting anything confused, you just mail off a bag full of dust and a small can of water. Even if you're exactly as unreliable than the DIY amazon offerings, you could easily save an entire day with the all-in-one service.
- pnathan 11y ago
  Having reliability seems more important when it comes to these things than being able to iterate fast.
  - hanniabu 11y ago
    I'd say both are important. Lower budget people would probably prefer a quicker cheaper less reliable test while higher budget people would prefer a more reliable and in depth test. I'm sure there will be cross over but my intuition is that maybe a third of each category would cross over, so by offering that alternative would expand your potential customer base by 40% using the previous assumption. Also, it'd be interesting if you could keep an anonymous database of any harmful results by area code with an easy interface on your website for people to search. You can add some call to action to get people to search their zip code and see what harmful substances were found in areas near them. This could lead to higher sales if there are negative results found. Maybe you can follow the same type of strategy where you ask them for their zip code and you can show them information of the risks in their area based off of scraped data from their municipal websites. I know my city has certain metrics that fail every few months, so providing information like this would be a great way to get them paranoid and want to follow up with a test from you. Of course, the next logic step after the test, whether something harmful was found our not, is to send them information on items such as water filters from a company you partner with for affiliate advertising. Then for failed tests like mold or lead, you can send affiliate advertising material for lead and mold removal. Basically, send them to a page on your website with the same information as this pamphlet you sent them and on it you'll have affiliate links to earn extra money.
hagope 11y ago
Lead is just one of many toxins in water...
HillRat 11y ago
Many of those tests are actually more likely to generate false positives than false negatives; I had our home tested by a professional with XRF gear, and his tests indicated much lower levels of lead (late Victorian house, so we knew we had some) than the swab tests suggested. The main problem I see with this concept is that lead levels vary throughout living spaces, so you would need multiple samples. I'd think multiple, labeled, swab cloths would be more effective from a testing perspective.

by pnathan 11y ago

personjerry 11y ago

This seems to test water rather than dust.

jrussino 11y ago
3M sells these lead test swabs for surfaces: http://amzn.com/B009NQNL0I http://amzn.com/B009NQNL0I Once again, not exactly "analyzing your dust" but I think this is the current consumer-grade solution to the problem of "are there dangerous levels of lead in my wall paint/ceramics/etc?"
ocdtrekkie 11y ago
I suspect that the point here is the ratings and reviews the water test has gotten. That it doesn't work for a lot of users and they're simply out the money.
pnathan 11y ago
> We’ll also test your water for lead, mercury, pharmaceuticals, and other toxins. OP is also offering water testing capabilities. n.b., this is a great idea, but I really want a way to trust that the lab is doing the Right Thing, and false positives/negatives are acceptably low.

saulrh 11y ago

Convenience is a big seller. Instead of having to sift through the range of available options, pick them all out, get them in the mail, open them, read the instructions, run them and hope you don't mess up, interpret the results and hope you don't mess up, and then write down all the results without getting anything confused, you just mail off a bag full of dust and a small can of water. Even if you're exactly as unreliable than the DIY amazon offerings, you could easily save an entire day with the all-in-one service.

pnathan 11y ago
Having reliability seems more important when it comes to these things than being able to iterate fast.
- hanniabu 11y ago
  I'd say both are important. Lower budget people would probably prefer a quicker cheaper less reliable test while higher budget people would prefer a more reliable and in depth test. I'm sure there will be cross over but my intuition is that maybe a third of each category would cross over, so by offering that alternative would expand your potential customer base by 40% using the previous assumption. Also, it'd be interesting if you could keep an anonymous database of any harmful results by area code with an easy interface on your website for people to search. You can add some call to action to get people to search their zip code and see what harmful substances were found in areas near them. This could lead to higher sales if there are negative results found. Maybe you can follow the same type of strategy where you ask them for their zip code and you can show them information of the risks in their area based off of scraped data from their municipal websites. I know my city has certain metrics that fail every few months, so providing information like this would be a great way to get them paranoid and want to follow up with a test from you. Of course, the next logic step after the test, whether something harmful was found our not, is to send them information on items such as water filters from a company you partner with for affiliate advertising. Then for failed tests like mold or lead, you can send affiliate advertising material for lead and mold removal. Basically, send them to a page on your website with the same information as this pamphlet you sent them and on it you'll have affiliate links to earn extra money.

hagope 11y ago

Lead is just one of many toxins in water...

HillRat 11y ago

Many of those tests are actually more likely to generate false positives than false negatives; I had our home tested by a professional with XRF gear, and his tests indicated much lower levels of lead (late Victorian house, so we knew we had some) than the swab tests suggested. The main problem I see with this concept is that lead levels vary throughout living spaces, so you would need multiple samples. I'd think multiple, labeled, swab cloths would be more effective from a testing perspective.