I put my beans in a coffee cup with a half inch of water (tap unless your water is f'd up) put them on top of my router with a piece of junk mail on top to keep it dark and they usually crack within 1-3 days. I like that I can look in on them and once they sprout a tap root into the solo cups...
ACI is kind of the Apple of the tent world. Everything just works together and yeah you'll pay a little more but it's a great value proposition.
In my eyes anyway.
You'll want to know about chlorine/chloramines and Ph mostly. I just moved to the city and whilst I never had a problem with water before, I do now that's to our medieval infrastructure. It's probably fine right out of the tap but you should know if it is or isn't. My Ph is 9.2 out of the tap...