ASTM C1602/C1602M
Standard Specification for Mixing Water Used in the Production of Hydraulic Cement Concrete
What water is acceptable for mixing concrete, including recycled process water reclaimed from the batch plant and truck washout.
Who needs it
Ready-mix producers, especially those recycling wash water, plus specifiers and inspectors on projects with corrosion or strength sensitivity.
What the test involves
It separates potable water, which is accepted without testing, from non-potable and combined sources, which must be qualified by testing their effect on strength and set time. It also addresses optional limits on dissolved solids and on chlorides, sulfates, and alkalis, which matter where embedded steel corrosion or alkali reactivity is a concern. Producers reclaiming water are required to monitor it rather than assume it stays constant.
Common misconceptions
- 'If you can drink it, you can mix with it' is the rule of thumb, but the reverse is not true — plenty of non-potable water is perfectly acceptable once it has been qualified.
- Recycled plant water is not automatically a quality problem. It is a controlled input with its own monitoring requirements.
- Ice used to cool concrete in hot weather counts as mixing water and has to be accounted for in the water-cement ratio, not treated as a free additive.
Official source
We summarize scope and purpose only. The full text belongs to the issuing body — read it at the official source. ASTM International