Does anyone make an electronic PH/chemical test/monitor for a swimming pool?

[NotMe]

Does anyone make an electronic PH/chemical test/monitor for a swimming pool?

I'm getting tired of playing lab tech testing pool chemicals by the manual method.

TIA

[clare]

Hanna Instruments makes a wide range of PH testers the phep HI98107 is very good - PH 98103 Checker is less expensive.

[nestork]

Regardless of what the advertising says, please be advised that no one makes a pocket pH tester that will give you reliable results week after week for months on end.

Every pocket pH tester on the market has to be calibrated once a week or so, and that means buying "pH buffer solutions" from the company that made your tester. All a pH buffer solution is is a liquid with a accurately known pH, and they typically make them in pH 4, 7 and 10.

You put your pocket tester in the pH=4 buffer solution and turn one dial or press one button until the tester reads 4. Then you do the same thing with the pH=7 buffer solution, and adjust the dial or push the button until the meter reads 7.0. That's it. Now your pH meter is properly calibrated, and will take accurate readings for a week or so. The preceding is how you'd calibrate a pH tester if you're typically measuring the pH of acidic liquids, like wines or juices.

If you're typically testing alkaline liquids, then you'd do the same thing, only using the 7 and 10 buffer solutions, which are neutral and alkaline.

You're supposed to throw your buffer solution out after each calibration because they say you supposedly can't use it more than once...

..but that don't make no sense to me because all it is is a liquid with a known pH, so why would the pH of the buffer solution change just as a result of testing it?

Also, I have yet to have anyone explain to me why I even need to buy buffer solution. If I calibrate my meter accurately, and then measure the pH of Tropicana Orange Juice as 4.9 and Parmalat Homogonized milk as

11.7, why can't I then keep using Tropicana Orange Juice and Parmalat Homogonized milk as my buffer solutions, and simply calibrate my meter so that it reads 4.9 and 11.7 respectively, and that'd be good enough. Yes, you'd have to keep checking to make sure that the pH of the Tropicana Orange Juice or Parmalat Milk you're buying isn't drifting, but after testing the pH, you can at least consume these things so the testing doesn't actually cost you anything, whereas no one is going to drink the buffer testing solution.

Hach Company also makes pocket testers for pH, total salinity, temperature and all of that kinda stuff. I expect they're no better nor worse than Hanna's pocket tester; both companies are big names in the field of pH testing.

[gfretwell]

We use guv'mint issued Hanna HI 991300 meters to check water quality and you have to calibrate the pH every time you use them or your results are just a random number generator. I don't really believe most of these digital pH meters. We have 10 people sampling one bucket of water in our QI sessions and get 10 results.

[trader4]

I agree with those that say yes they area available, but how accurate, what drawbacks you find after you shell out the bucks, IDK. They might offer a little more convenience, but they aren't going to make the pool chemistry any better. The color based reagent ones are well within the requied accuracy.

I don't have a problem with using the conventional liquid based test kits. I use two:

Cheap $7 one that does PH, acid demand. total alkalynity and CL. I use that couple times a week. For $7 at the local pool store, it lasts a couple of seasons.

Taylor 2006, $70. It does:

CL total/free PH acid/base demand Total alkalynity CA hardness CYA

That's everything the pool store guys do. It's going on it's third season now, plenty of original chemicals available for another couple years. Just needed more CYA solution so far, got enough for several years for $8 on Ebay.

I know some are going to say you can take the water to the pool store for free. But this way, I can test it any time I want, without making a trip. And I feel kind of awkward, when the kid at the pool store tests the water and tells me "You need 20lbs of Balance Pak 300, that's $50, so I say no because I know I can get baking soda at Costco for $12

[gonjah]

Here's the one I use. I calibrate it about once a week or so.

It's spot on with the pool store's test but, you do have to calibrate them often.

[nestork]

Here in Winnipeg, having a swimming pool in your back yard is like having air conditioning in your car...

..you need it for about 4 weeks; last two weeks in July and first two weeks in August, and that's about it. Any other time of the year, you just roll your window down or put on a t-shirt and pair of shorts and you're OK. Lots of people have A/C in their cars, and some even have swimming pools in their back yards, but they only get used for 4 weeks or so a year.

Women want A/C in their cars because if they sweat, their make-up runs down their face, and that makes them look kinda like the zombies from "Night of the Living Dead". Most women I know don't want to look like a zombie from "Night of the Living Dead". No offense to zombies.

[NotMe]

I'm in N. Texas where there winter is the 2nd week end if Feb and the other three seasons are hot, very hot and jalapeo.

My grand kids have drawn a picture of our house. It has a frount door a back door (very little in between) and a pool.

[clare]

The Phep is self calibrating - you do need the buffer - but it can be purchaced from any scientific supply - you don't need to buy it from Hanna - and calibrating once a month is overkill.

If it gets contaminated with something that is not the same pH it changes - and you only need 2 drops to calibrate a pHep. We used them for years to check the ph of radiator coolant. A 4 oz bottle of calibration fluid would last you 10 years.

[clare]

We found the 98107 to be repeatable within 2 points or better with calibration done monthly. Actually a lot better than their higher priced units. Get about 3 years out of one if taken care of, using to check antifreeze pH in an automotive repair shop - used anywhere from once a week to 10 times a day or more.

[gfretwell]

We may be looking for a higher degree of accuracy than you. (typically

+/ 0.2) That is also the ideal on a swimming pool tho. (7.4 +/-0.2)

I know the world is in love with anything digital but the old chemical test kit is more reliable. Those Hannas might give you an answer "precise" out to 2 decimal places but they can be wrong by a whole pH number.

[nestork]

I just wish that your experience with this meter was the same as everyone else's experience with it:

'Warning - Calibrate your pHep HI98107 - Absolute Beginners - Grasscity Forums'

'Hanna pH meter problem - Absolute Beginners - Grasscity Forums'

Both treads in that forum were started by the same guy (nick: "Wardrobe"). He bought a brand new Hanna Phep HI98107 and is extremely disappointed with it because it's reading drifts 0.1 pH per day without recalibration. On Monday he recalibrated to a 7.01 buffer solution, and by Friday that meter was reading the buffer solution to be 7.4 So, in a month, as you say you were using your between recalibrations, his pH is gonna to off by 3, in which case you could guestimate the pH more accurately by tasting the pool water.

[gfretwell]

The water quality team I am on has about 50 of these pH testers and we have to calibrate them almost every time we use them because they fail the initial check with the standards. (+/- 0.2)

[nestork]

pH meters are notorious for being fickle.

The people that provide pH testing kits know that and that's why they provide the chemical test kits. It's a lot of fuss, but at least you get accurate results. If there were a better solution, everyone would gravitate to it just like every one gravitates to every better mousetrap that's ever been built.

[clare]

My experience was when recalibrating after a month we were within .2 Calibrate to 7.01 and when checked a month later it read 7.2 ot 6.88 at worst. And that was the same for 3 units.

Out of 5, 3 remaineid useable for over 3 years, while 2 others died within a year.(left to dry out, they don't last worth a crap)

Perhaps the guy with the problems didn't take care of his????