lamotte color Q

[Utahjanitor]

Hi guys, we are new pool owners. we have an inground pool aprox 20k gals and have a KrystalKrete quartz finish. I bought a taylor drop kit. Unfortunately my wife and i dont distinguish colors very well. Apparently my teasing of her being color blind has come back to bite me lol

The company that did our plaster says that they have been happy with their lamotte color Q 7. The price seems pretty reasonable. Has anyone had any good or bad experiences with it? is there something better on the market that will give us accurate results? we have saltwater if that makes a difference. Also, we are in Utah in case climate plays a roll. Low humidity, dry climate.

Also, we had a neighbor a couple years ago that we didnt stay in touch with. I remember him having a small black box about 6"x6" that was mounted to his wall by his pool equipment. It always displayed a digital read out of the chlorine and ph levels. Im guessing just reading directly from one of the return lines coming from the pool. does this product sound familiar to anyone? are they accurate and or reasonable in price?

Thanks in advance. This forum is awesome and you guys are soooo smart. My wife and I are lucky to have found this site.

 

[257WbyMag]

Although it won't be quite as accurate as the drop tests tend to be, the ColorQ tends to be a little more reliable than most electronic testers out there. If you must avoid the drop-based kits, the ColorQ would be a decent option.

 

[XsAllOverIt]

I use mine besides my TFT100 kit. Results are consistent. On the Color Q, chlorine is low, CH is low and remaining measurements are very close most of the time. I use my Color Q on a day-to-day basis and use the TFT100 kit about once every 2 weeks as a standard.

 

[duraleigh]

Color blindness is usually pretty easy to work around.

I have read too many reports of the ColorQ being badly inaccurate on CYA to encourage anyone to use it.

Obviously, I have an agenda in that I sell a drops based kit.

Search "colorq" on this forum and you'll see a pretty good range of opinions. But there currently are not enough positives to convince me to stock and sell it (yet....I'm flexible! :lol: )

 

[Bama Rambler]

I'm colorblind and don't have a problem with any of the tests in the TF-100 test kit except the pH test and I can even figure that one out.

I'm not sure about the Taylor kit but the TF-100's tests are color changing and not color matching. That makes a BIG difference. I don't need to know what color it is, just that it changes from one color to another color.

 

[XsAllOverIt]

I have read too many reports of the ColorQ being badly inaccurate on CYA to encourage anyone to use it.

I've said it once and will again, my CYA test with the ColorQ has always been dead on to that of the TF100, just from one opinion. All the CYA notes that I've seen were from several years ago. My unit is about 6 months old and my tablets were obtained at the same time. I had a pool company come out with a much bigger Taylor drop kit and tested my water and got the same CYA results that I get with both of my testing kits. I like both kits, but the most discrepancies are with chlorine and CH.

As a side note, if I would have been on this forum prior to buying the ColorQ, I probably would have never had that tester. It's easy enough to test with the TF100, but the ColorQ makes it a little more convenient.

 

[JasonLion]

I've said it once and will again, my CYA test with the ColorQ has always been dead on to that of the TF100, just from one opinion.

And many other people get numbers that vary quite a bit from the Taylor numbers, including one person quite recently who had all of their numbers dramatically wrong.

The precision on the ColorQ CYA test is not very good, noticeably worse than the already low precision of the Taylor CYA test. That doesn't mean that your results will be wrong, just that you can't count on them being right on.

 

[XsAllOverIt]

Feel like we've discussed this one before... As I said in my original statement, I would have purchased a TFT100. If you're color-blind, it should be doable. If you have some extra money, buy both and compare results. I like doing that. It was worth it to me because i really truly like using the ColorQ better. It's faster and easier to clean up afterwards - just a personal preference. I use the TFT100 to confirm occasionally that I'm trusting of the results of the ColorQ.

 

[duraleigh]

X's,

You are not alone in being perfectly satisfied with the colorQ.....many are. I might well be myself if I tried it.

As a reseller, however, and because a big portion of BBB is about precision in testing, dosing, etc., I have never felt quite as comfortable with the colorQ as I have the Taylor chemistry found in the K-2006 or the TF-100

 

[Kermiter]

I have been using a ColorQ for a month and have been extremely happy with it. It's reasonably priced, very well conceived and put together, and it's so much nicer get actual numbers versus the "approximation" of color matching. I'm not color blind, but I seem to have a hard time distinguishing the adjacent colors on basic color matching kits. Maybe I'm color deaf. :?

As far as accuracy of the ColorQ, I'm not qualified to judge, but the numbers seem to be consistent, and they go up and down as I expect depending on what I put into the pool.

With all of the useful information on this thread (and site in general), I'm now inclined to pick up a TF-100 kit, because now I'm starting to second-guess the accuracy of my ColorQ, especially the CYA. If the TF-100 is more of a color changer vs. color comparison, it might work better for me than the "Basic 5". As others have alluded, there's no harm in doing some cross-checking. Anyway, my pool water is sparkling and has been quite easy to keep that way, so I'm not stressing over it.

 

[XsAllOverIt]

If you buy one, you'll find that your pH and Chlorine are quite close. You'll probably notice that your chlorine is lower on the ColorQ. Your CH will read a little higher, but I do like having 2 to confirm measurements. I've read that sometimes the ColorQ measurements go bad. When your consistency goes downhill, that's when I would recommend buying the TF100 kit. Never a bad thing to have a backup. I got a whole garage full of backups.

 

[blakeusa]

Im with XsAllOverIt and others. I have a ColorQ pro 11 and new regents. Seem to get reasonable numbers and change depending on
what is being added close to what the pool calculator states. With that said I do plan on purchasing a TF kit for cross check and so I
can discuss numbers that others here can relate to. Also if supports of this board make a few dollars by selling test kits - that is more than fine with me, as this is a valuable forum and many nice people.

I think all test kits have room for margin or error but when you pool is clear and your swimming your happy and the slight variances dont matter much. Just my 2x

 

[Kermiter]

Speaking of cross-check, I just started this thread on the subject.