Test Kits Compared • Pool School • Trouble Free Pool

The three test kits that are recommended here at TroubleFreePool.Com are the Taylor K-2006, the Leslie's Chlorine FAS-DPD Service Test Kit, and the TF Test Kit's TF100 (East Coast) (or West Coast). All three kits test Free Chlorine and Combined Chlorine using the FAS-DPD titration test, pH, Total Alkalinity, Calcium Hardness, and Cyanuric Acid.

The FAS-DPD chlorine test is especially important, since it is the only commonly available chlorine test that can measure FC levels above 10 reliably and is precise enough to measure overnight FC loss. Note: It is very unusual to find any test kit containing a FAS-DPD chlorine test at a pool store. Store sales people may tell you that their kits are just as good, but that is almost never true. The FAS-DPD chlorine test is crucial, make sure you get it, even if that means ordering over the Internet.

Which one should you get? The Leslie's kit is just a private label Taylor K-2006 so we only need to compare the K-2006 with the TF100. The TF100 uses all Taylor reagents so the tests that are the same in both kits have identical reagents except for size when noted. There are a few differences however, as shown by this chart:

	TF100	K-2006	Comments
Free Chlorine	FAS-DPD titration test, 10g of DPD powder and .75 oz of R-0003 (5 drops per test), 2 oz of R-0871 titrant	FAS-DPD titration test, 10g of DPD powder and .75 oz of R-0003 (5 drops per test), .75 oz of R-0871 titrant	TF100 has more titrant so you can do more tests before running out. Both test free chlorine levels up to about 50 ppm
Combined Chlorine	FAS-DPD titration test	FAS-DPD titration test	Both can detect combined chlorine as low as .2 ppm
OTO Total Chlorine/Bromine	.5 to 5 ppm for total chlorine and 1 to 10 ppm for total bromine	No	Useful for daily chlorine testing
pH	R-0014 pH reagent and small (7 ml) comparator with color blocks at 6.8, 7.2, 7.5, 7.8, and 8.2	R-0004 pH reagent and large (44 ml) comparator with color blocks at 7.0, 7.2, 7.4, 7.6, 7.8, and 8.0	TF100 has a wider range pH test which can be useful when lowering Total Alkalinity
Acid and Base Demand	No	Yes	Not really useful in most cases
Total Alkalinity	1 oz bottles of the three reagents	.75 oz bottles of the three reagents	Larger reagent size in TF100 will do more tests
Calcium Hardness	1 oz each of the calcium buffer (20 drops per test) and the titrant, .5 oz of the indicator (5 drops per test)	.75 oz bottles of the three reagents	TF100 has reagent sizes more in line with what is actually used in testing and will do more tests
Cyanuric Acid	8 oz of reagent (four 2 oz bottles) and a large view tube that will read from 20-100 ppm, about 16 tests	1.5 oz of reagent (two .75 oz bottles) and a small view tube that will read from 30-100 ppm, about 5 tests	Larger view tube uses more reagent per test but is easier to read and has a wider range
Salt	Optional AquaChek Salt strips	Optional K-1766 Chloride test kit	Salt strips are accurate and easier to use than the drop based kit

So which kit is best? Any of these three will serve you well and only you can decide.

Two other test kits are worth mentioning, even though we do not recommend them. WalMart sells a very inexpensive 6 way drop based Swimming Pool & Spa Test Kit. This kit, while drastically inferior to the kits mentioned above, is available locally in most areas and may be your only reasonable choice when you can't wait for mail order and must have something to test with today.

The LaMotte ColorQ series offers a plausible choice for people who are color blind and can not read the standard color comparison based PH test. The ColorQ series does suffer from several limitations, notably none of the test results are reliable when the FC level is above 10, or the CH level is above 400. Also the CYA test is a little finicky and has less precision than you really need.