The era that gave Brooklyn its cornices also gave it lead solder and, on many blocks, lead service lines. The panel is simple: a first‑draw and a flushed sample from your kitchen tap, tested for lead and copper by a New York State ELAP‑certified laboratory, then interpreted in your report — including whether any signal is your faucet, your building's plumbing, or the line in the street.
Added to any $395 audit · payment after · lab certificate included
One sample gives you a number. Two samples give you a diagnosis.
Filled before the tap's first use of the day, after water has sat in your pipes overnight. This is your worst case — and mostly a signal about your own fixtures and interior plumbing.
Filled once the standing water has cleared. This is closer to what the building's line actually delivers — a supply‑side signal.
A high first draw that falls sharply on flush points to a fixture — often a sub‑$100 fix or a filter. A flush number that stays elevated points upstream, toward plumbing or the service line, which changes who you call. Same lab fee, twice the information.
We also look up your building on the city's lead service line map as part of every panel, and read it against your numbers.
A true first draw needs water that's been sitting six‑plus hours — which a 2 p.m. audit can't fake. So the panel flexes to your schedule instead:
Book an early slot, skip the kitchen tap until we arrive, and we take both samples ourselves at the start of the visit.
We leave two labeled bottles and a two‑minute instruction card. Next morning, before the tap's first use: fill bottle one, run the water sixty seconds, fill bottle two. Done before the coffee.
We collect the bottles when we pick up the overnight logger — or they go straight to the laboratory in the prepaid mailer we leave with them. Either way, chain of custody stays clean and you do zero errands.
Results typically return within two weeks. You get the lab's own certificate, plus a water page added to your report: what the numbers mean, the fixture‑or‑line read, and an exact filter spec if one is warranted.
Self‑collection isn't a shortcut — it's how New York's own residential lead‑testing programs work. The bottles, the instructions, and the certified analysis are what make the number trustworthy.
It's true, and it's good — the city offers residents a free self‑collect lead test kit, and if $195 isn't in the budget, take the free one. Genuinely.
What the panel adds: the two‑sample protocol run correctly, copper alongside lead, the service‑line lookup, interpretation with a specific recommendation instead of a bare number — and it rides along with your audit, so there's nothing to remember to mail in six weeks from now. We'd rather tell you about the free kit and earn the difference than hope you don't find it.
No amount is considered safe, so lower is always better. For context: NYC schools take action at 5 ppb; the federal action level for water systems is 10. Your certificate states the measured value to the decimal.
The lab runs it alongside lead. The federal action level is 1.3 ppm; elevated copper in old buildings usually points to corrosive water working on the pipes — useful early information, rarely an emergency.
You get a calm plan, not a scare: the right NSF‑53 certified filter spec for lead now, the fixture‑or‑line diagnosis, who to contact if it's upstream of you, and a retest after the fix. We don't sell filters — we name the spec and you buy it anywhere.
It's the most common reason families add the panel. Until your results are back, the free habit is universal: run the tap about thirty seconds after long sits, and use cold water for formula. Your report makes it specific.
Yes — arguably more. The two‑sample gap tells you whether the fix is a $60 filter you can install today or a building conversation, and the written result is exactly the document a landlord or board responds to.
For the founding cohort we're bundling it with audits so every home gets the full picture. If water is truly all you want, email us — we'll figure something out.
We don't sell a microplastics test, on purpose — there's no standard method or health benchmark yet, and we won't charge you for a number that can't change a decision. The full reasoning is on the method page. The consult covers where exposure actually comes from and which filters address it if you want to act anyway.
Typically within two weeks of the samples reaching the lab. Your air report doesn't wait for water — the water page follows as an addendum the day the certificate lands.
$395 audit + $195 water panel · payment after · eight homes only