Salt Test Discrepancy

[zhenya]

My Jandy equipment was giving me trouble and a tech came in to check it.
My Taylor kit shows salt at about 3200-3400. He used a fancy electronic meter which showed salt at about 4100. I couldn't believe it because salt wasn't added to the pool since it was refilled 2 years ago and I couldn't beleive that salt level can go up that much. I took my water sample to three different stores (2 Leslies and 1 independent). Results were all over the place - 3000, 3400, 3700. Who do I beleive?

Is there a liquid that I can use with a known salt level? I tried this salinity calibration fluid but it didn't work with the Taylor test at all (Amazon.com : American Marine PINPOINT Salinity Calibration Fluid, 53.0mS/1.026SG : Aquarium Supplies : Pet Supplies) It 's suppose to be 3500 but at 4400 the color still hasn't changed.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

That's because the standard you bought is for reef aquaria and 53mS/cm is 35ppt or 35 parts-per-thousand or 35,000 ppm!!

Trust your Taylor Kit. In all likelihood the Jandy Tech has never calibrated his salinity probe properly. Your chloride test is way more accurate than his probe because you are measuring chloride ion concentration directly while his probe is measuring conductivity. Conductivity can be affected by all sorts of things and not just the salt level.


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[zhenya]

Thanks, JoyfulNoise. I want to trust my Taylor, but how do I convince him. The problem is that he trusts his equipment He keeps telling me that the reason my cell is not working is because of the high salt and insists that i need to drain 25% of my pool.

Is there a testing liquid that one might use to verify? I relize that I missed a zilo in my transition of ppt to ppm

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Demand the he show you a calibrated test of his salinity probe using a solution that is set to the exact salt concentration. Your test is based on chemistry and is ONLY sensitive to chloride ion (Cl-) concentration. His electronic probe is not based on chemistry but on an electrical measurement that is easily interfered with by other ions.




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[JamesW]

GLX-CAL-SOL Hayward.

What does the Jandy box say for salinity?

If it reads above 4,000, you can recalibrate to 3,800 to make it work.

Note: I'm pretty sure that the Hayward calibration solution is 3,200 ppm sodium chloride. However, since it's made for calibrating meters, it only has to have the same conductivity as 3200 ppm salt. It could be some other ionic mix that has the same conductivity. You could give it to the service person to verify their meter's accuracy.

You could make your own if you can measure out 3.2 grams of salt and 1 liter of water.