LaMotte Borate Test Strips - $11 with Free Shipping

[hleapha]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004KZ ... os_product

Amazon wins again! I finally get confimation on what my borate levels are. Hopefully the strips are accurate and easy to read, but you know how strips can be.

 

[icfbuild]

Good Timing, I'm about out

 

[Easto]

Dang, they won't ship to Canada.

I Emailed Apollo pools and they don't have any

 

[CaOCl2]

(deleted)

 

[Theo]

I'm having a heck of a time finding Lamotte test strips in Ontario. Many distributors of Lamotte products, but few that will sell me anything less than a case of 12.

 

[JasonLion]

LaMotte lists a number of dealers in Ontario on their Canadian Retail Outlets list. Someone on that list should have what you want.

 

[Easto]

Just placed an order

http://www.nationaldiscountpoolsupplies.com/botest.html

Seems to be the only place that will ship to Canada. I Emailed some of the suppliers on the Lamotte site, but the list seems old.

FYI for anyone in Canada

 

[Toesinsand]

I ordered from Amazon and the expiration date on the strips was cleverly covered by another unremovable label. As they were impossible to read, they were probably long expired. I was able to tell the date of manufacture from the lot code number and it was week 32 of 2011. First two numbers iare week, third number is year. so 321 is 32nd week of 2011. As they are over two years old I'll be returning to Amazon. Might actually visit a pool store to see if I can get them to be assured they are recent.

 

[Leebo]

As they are over two years old I'll be returning to Amazon. Might actually visit a pool store to see if I can get them to be assured they are recent.

http://tftestkits.net/Borates-Test-Strips-p29.html

Not sure how many are in Amazons test, but Daves price is less (unless you have Prime). Plus we know his tests haven't been sitting for years.

 

[Toesinsand]

Thanks, just placed an order. Better to pay a dollar more to be sure to get good strips. Hopefully I can read these. Still wish there was a good titration test available though.

 

[duraleigh]

FWIW, we actually can ship the LaMotte Borate strips to Canada. It is Taylor products that we cannot.

The expiration on our current inventory is June 2015

 

[Toesinsand]

Just curious, what is the shelf life?

 

[duraleigh]

Well, I don't know when these were manufactured. We've had them 20-30 days so probably a year and a half.

It is important to remember that "shelf life" is arbitrary depending on where you choose to store them. Left in the hot sun by the pool, I doubt they would last even until their expiration date

 

[Toesinsand]

As I mentioned previously in the post, the date of manufacture can be determined from the lot # near the expiration date. The first two numbers represent the week of manufacture and the third number represents the year of manufacture. So in the case of the ones Amazon sent me a few weeks ago with lot number of 32118, the relevant numbers are 321, meaning they were manufactured in week 32 (early August) of 2011. Thus they were over two years old when I received them. I wasn't questioning your material and in fact have already placed an order with you. I was just wondering so that I could determine the shelf life and work backwards to whether the ones I received from Amazon were expired as there was another label placed over the expiration date.

 

[duraleigh]

The strips I have in stock have the same lot # (32118) and an expiration of 6/15

 

[Toesinsand]

Then that suggests a 4-year shelf life at room temperature. Seems kind of long for a strip, but i guess they are ok. Maybe my eyeball just doesn't calibrate well on the different shades of borate pink although the PH purples have always been pretty clear.

 

[duraleigh]

For clarification, I spoke with LaMotte tech support this AM to clarify the shelf life. It is two years.

the date of manufacture can be determined from the lot # near the expiration date. The first two numbers represent the week of manufacture and the third number represents the year of manufacture.

The code on the bottle is applicable to their liquid and powder reagents but does not apply to the strips. Tech support could not tell me for sure if the lot#'s on the strips conveyed a manufacture date but they could confirm that the shelf life was two years.

So an expiration of 6/15 indicates the strips were manufactured in probably the last half of 2013.

 

[Tuffy]

I realize this thread is from a few years ago but the link in the first post for the test strips on amazon looks like a test for bromine not borates. From lamottes web site below it seems these wont work for testing borax levels?
http://www.lamotte.com/en/pool-spa/insta-test/2976.html

I am under the impression that I will need to test for bromates not bromine.....am I correct or confused?

 

[jblizzle]

Do you have a bromine pool? Borates and bromine are completely different.

Generally test strips are not recommended for anything except salt (although there are better tests) or borates (which are completely optional).

 

[Tuffy]

Do you have a bromine pool? Borates and bromine are completely different.

Generally test strips are not recommended for anything except salt (although there are better tests) or borates (which are completely optional).

I have a salt water pool and just finished following the procedure from this forum to add 20 mule team borax. When I went to test the borate concentration I used the test strips i had gotten for this but at the time I didn't realize I bought bromine test strips which don't do me any good. What I was saying is the first post has a link to a similar bromine test strip but it is advertised as borate test strip on amazon. When I went to lamottes webpage it only tests up to 20 ppm bromine. Am I missing something ? I thought bromine and borates were two totally different animals so to speak.