How to Dilute Urine for an Upcoming Drug Test

Urine drug tests can screen for various drugs, particularly opioids and marijuana. If you’re wondering how you can dilute urine for a drug test or just looking for a comprehensive dilute urine definition to understand better how to pass your screening, this article is for you.

What is Diluted Urine in Drug Tests?

A urine drug test is conducted by analyzing a urine sample to determine whether it has legal and illegal drugs. When urine becomes diluted, its chemical concentration becomes weak, rendering it useless for a drug screening. Testers can no longer analyze diluted urine samples that have very high water concentrations for drugs.

What Can Cause Urine to be Diluted?

By drinking a good deal of water, your body becomes overly hydrated. All of that plain water will circulate throughout your body, with a good portion of it eliminated through urination. Drinking too much water causes your urine water content to spike, and thus causing it to dilute.

Water weakens urine’s concentration, significantly reducing its visibility for drug substances. Diluted urine samples have very high water levels with too few, almost none, drug content.

How Much Water Causes a Dilute Drug Test?

Urine drug tests can be accurate, often revealing the drugs you have consumed within the detection window. However, as you already know, water dilutes urine pretty fast. Suggestions about how much water to dilute urine for drug tests vary widely. Some suggest that eight glasses within two hours are enough, while others say that you’ll need to consume a couple of gallons and urinate several times before dilution can occur.

As a general rule, you’ll need a considerable amount of water to flush drugs in your urine samples thoroughly.

How Long Do You Need to be Clean to Pass a Urine Drug Test?

The most natural way to pass a drug test without remedy is by abstaining from using drugs completely, at least within the detection window.

Here’s a table showing the urine tests detection window for various drugs:

Substances Urine Drug Test Detection Window
Marijuana Up to 30 Days
Morphine Up to 3 Days
Codeine Up to 3 Days
Heroin Up to 3 Days
Ketamine Up to 11 Days
Ecstasy Up to 4 Days
Cocaine Up to 3 Days
Meth Up to 7 Days (1 Week)

Negative Urine Drug Test Result – What Does It Mean?

A negative urine drug test means that drugs were not present in your urine samples. It could also mean that your urine drug levels were insufficient to warrant drug use. If you frequently use drugs and have gotten a negative result, your deliberate abstinence or diluted urine samples could be the cause.

If I Pass a Home Drug Test, Will I Pass a LabCorp Test?

If you’ve done a home drug test for urine using testing kits and have screened negative, there’s no guarantee that you will pass lab conducted drug test. LabCorp and other testing centers use state-of-the-art technology to get accurate results. Remember that they will also resort to other drug testing methods such as blood and hair follicle tests.

What Does a Positive Drug Test Result Mean

A positive urine test result indicates that drugs are present in your urine samples. When going through screening for work, you don’t have to worry about how much urine is needed for a drug test for employment. What you do need to focus on having is clear pee good enough to test negative. If you’re doing your test to qualify for a job or some license, a positive test result isn’t going to go in your favor, even if you know you’re a responsible user.

Dilution Techniques for Drug Tests

A drug screening does not take into account how much pee is needed for a drug test. What it takes into account is urine quality and composition. If you’re someone who’s a frequent consumer of legal drugs such as marijuana and you suddenly have to go through mandatory urine testing, there are actions that you can take to cleanse your urine successfully.

    • Dilution (Excessive Water Intake)

This method is the most widely used due to its simplicity and effectiveness. All you need to do is to drink pure water in large amounts before taking your test. As mentioned above, water diminishes drug levels in the urine, causing to render negative drug results.

    • Detoxification

Drug detox is a method of naturally flushing out drug substances in your body. Some methods used are drinking detoxifying herbal teas or beverages and eating foods rich in fiber to remove toxins out of the system.

    • Delaying

Delaying is by far the most natural method, but not many can have this option. It involves delaying the test until the drugs are thoroughly flushed out from your body. The detection window for urine tests depends entirely on the substance that you use. Refer to the table above for information.

Tips to Avoid Negative Dilute Drug Tests

If you want to go through your urine test without doing a cheat, or if you’re an employer who’d like to suggest tips for your employees or applicants on avoiding urine dilution, here are some tips that can be helpful:

  • Do not drink water excessively to avoid it from accumulating in your urine samples.
  • Advise your employees to use 1st-morning urine specimens as samples as they are the most concentrated.
  • Check for personal items on the testing site. Employees who want to pass have been known to cheat by sneaking water or other substances into their urine samples in an attempt to dilute them.
  • Use surprise to your advantage. Schedule random drug testing so your people won’t have enough time to carry out urine dilution methods.


Urine dilution is a matter of increasing the concentration of pure water in your system. During drug tests, diluted urine may indicate deliberate tampering. However, this should not always be the case. Diluted urine can also mean that the tester is just an enormous water drinker who drinks excessive amounts of water daily. Nevertheless, urine dilution always produces negative results during urine testing.

How to Dilute Urine for an Upcoming Drug Test

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