TF-100 Test Kit is the Best!!!!!

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billyjoeraybob

billyjoeraybob

0
LifeTime Supporter
Apr 9, 2008
50
SC Midlands
I ordered my TF-100 last week and it arrived in 2 days! I is great. The kit is well organized and the directions are very clear. The only improvement I could recommend would be to increase the font size on the directions for those of us with aging eyes. I used it for the first time last night and felt like the mad scientist. My daughter thought it was like magic to see the colors change. I highly recommend this kit.

Bill
 
Billyjoeraybob,

As we discussed, the $50.00 is in the mail to you!!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Thank you very much for the nice words about the kit. The font size is a PITA for me, too. The snag we keep hitting is it's the largest we can use and still get adequate info on the size label that we use. A larger label on the inside is really nasty looking so, for now, we're kinda stuck with what we have.

I am appreciative of ANY comments or suggestions on ways to improve the kit. The two guidelines I sorta use are:

1. An improvement should not increase the cost to the consumer unless the vast majority of consumers are requesting it.

2. Any change should not impede our ability to ship quickly. This inhibits us from adding a lot of options as we pre-make these kits and they are sitting on the shelf when you order.
 
I just recommended the TF-100 to a friend who's closing on her house on May 1. First time pool owner! She asked what test kit I use and I told her, "There's only ONE that's any good" and gave her the link.

Ok, improvements to the TF-100.

1. Could you make the calcium test chemicals optional? I don't use those chemicals at all and, in fact, will be glad to mail them to whoever might need them. Calcium hardness is not enough of concern to me to be tested with any regularity. For its value I take a sample to the pool store at the beginning of the season and maybe once in high summer.

2. How about including a free CD (CDs are cheap) which contains text files of the stickies here on the board? And maybe a sample spreadsheet for logging test results? The label could have the TFP logo (would that be a copyright violation?) and the URL to TFP and your test kits site.

The CD could include images of the individual test bottles labeled with the number and show the label text in larger font size. Ditto for instructions.

Why a CD? Because sometimes Internet connections fail, we can't get to TFP but have to have the info right now. Or we have the laptop poolside but the wireless connection doesn't work there. And besides, people love freebies.

AnnaK
 
Good morning, Anna,

Unlike the FC test, the Ch test is probably the least expensive test to include in the kit. It would have very little affect on the overall cost of the kit to exclude it and, even if infrequently, it's an important test....esp. for gunite pools.

Another issue with making it optional is the newbie purchaser probably doesn't know if he needs it or not so better to include it in there. Problematic pool water can often be the result of high calcium so we need that test result for diagnosis.

The CD idea is interesting. I probably don't have anywhere near the volume to produce something like that but the idea is a good one. I'll look at some costs and see how that would work. If SeanB ever sues me for using his logo, I'll appeal to the forum members and we'll all descend on Houston and tar and feather him!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
duraleigh said:
Good morning, Anna,

...... If SeanB ever sues me for using his logo, I'll appeal to the forum members and we'll all descend on Houston and tar and feather him!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Click to expand...

Yea, and while we are at it, we'll use his pool and make him cook up some Texas ribs & chicken 8)

ETA: Of course, I meant BBQ!
 
Yes, that's a good point about new pool owners not knowing whether they need it. I didn't, that's for sure. In fact, I was told by the pool store (who KNEW I have a vinyl lined AGP) that I had to add 40 pounds of one thing or another to raise Ca hardness. Forty pounds of anything seemed a little excessive to me . . . and that's how I found Ben's forum. And now I'm here, all because of CH :)

Producing the CD would be a relatively easy thing to do. It doesn't have to be fancy with illustrations or graphics. If Sean would allow the stikies to be used it'd be a matter of copy-and-paste into a .rtf or .txt file which is readable by any OS. The most time consuming chore would be burning it but heck, you can set that up while testing your CYA. Or pay a teenager to do it.

As to tarring and feathering Sean, won't that really mess up his pool?

AnnaK
 
These all sound like great ideas....

Here's another idea, though it's not necessarily so much of an improvement to the TF-100. Rather, it's more of and idea for an extension to Jason's Pool Calculator. These days, many of us have portable web devices such as the dreaded Blackberry. While many of us can browse the internet with these devices, certain websites often times do not work. In my case, the Pool Calculator does not work because JavaScript is required and I don't seem to have a way to enable it. Would it be possible to make the Pool Calculator into a downloadable application for use on such devices? I have no idea what this would entail, but while being right at the pool, it would be great to get the answers to not only what needs to be adjusted (TF-100), but also be able to confirm how to make the adjustment (Jason's Pool Calculator).
 
Duraleigh

I'll be watching the mail! :-D

AnnaK did make me think of something. How about just putting a link to a TXT file or web page of the testing instructions on your website then us blind mad scientists could just download or copy them and adjust the font size.

I would hate to blow myself up in the lab!

Thanks,

Bill
 
My hope is that web connected smart phones that actually work with Javascript will become much more common in the next few years, so it will become practical to use the existing Pool Calculator without any significant work on my part.

I have been thinking about making a native version of Pool Calculator for a smart phone or two but there would have to be a different version for each kind of smart phone (Palm, Blackberry, iPhone, etc.) and new kinds of smart phones are still coming out at a fair clip. To justify that much effort I would have to charge for it and have some expectation of selling a number of copies, and that doesn't seem all that likely. I am currently doing some iPhone development at work and I am toying with the notion of doing an iPhone version just to see if anyone is willing to pay for it.
 

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Dave,
As far as the small print goes...maybe include a magnifying glass option for those of you (Notice I don't include myself here! :twisted: ) with failing eyesight! ;) You could include one of those 'credit card' sized maginfiers in the kit.
 
How about making a stickie with the test instructions?

Then, those of you with failing eyes could print out the stickie, at a larger font size, to make it easier to read.
I just have to take off my glasses to read, and put them on to drive.

I was also thinking if including a CD in the kit does not work out (I like that idea, but would understand if logistics make it not practical), maybe we could create a zip file with the stickie contents, calculators, etc. Then, people could download it, and have it available anytime they need it.

Randy
 
Yeah, I am in favour of the idea to have the instructions and pool calculator (even if at a minimal cost) downloadable. Our internet players always do yoyo..... My eyesight would prefer a font size 14 instruction to confidently read and carry out the test..... :lol: :lol:

Vincent
 
I like the CD idea, but perhaps you can throw some video clips on there of the tests actually being performed. You can narrate in all the rules/tips like the CL test turning clear then back to pink or to continue the TA test until the color changes no more. The CYA test could definitively benefit from video instructions.

Dare I say it, but you could even charge extra for it.


As for a wish list of my own. I want a magnetic stirrer built right in the center of the test kit. Pull the bottles out, close the lid and run my test right on the top of my TF kit!.
 
Not for the faint of heart, but until a simpler downloadable pool calculator is available, especially on a portable device, you can use the chem geek spreadsheet -- that is, if you have masochistic tendencies. You'll still need to lug a laptop to the pool or run back and forth from the house, but if your Internet connection is down, then it's better than nothing.

Richard
 
I'm glad you guys brought this up. While I love poolcalc the idea of testing, writing down the numbers and entering them later seems foreign to me. I'm a professional developer of applications for windows, windows mobile, smart phone, etc. I have around 30 windows mobile handhelds sitting in my office.

My idea is this. I will create a windows mobile application and a companion windows application. Each person can have multiple pools and each pool every possible parameter available. The calculating portion of the program will be in both the windows mobile version (or smartphone) as well as the desktop version. You can enter values and submit them to the web service that I will run, or you can run your own web service if you have your own server. The details are still forming. I would make this program free and open source with donations welcome (because my internet bill is out of hand these days).

I don't know if the smartphone version would work that well - primarily because I don't have the hardware to develop it. This all hinges on Jason feeling okay with me totally stealing the javascript from poolcalc for my own calculations. Who knows i could even release a .net managed class for others to use.
 
chem geek said:
Not for the faint of heart, but until a simpler downloadable pool calculator is available, especially on a portable device, you can use the chem geek spreadsheet -- that is, if you have masochistic tendencies. You'll still need to lug a laptop to the pool or run back and forth from the house, but if your Internet connection is down, then it's better than nothing.

Richard
Click to expand...

Looking at this spreadsheet give me a whole new appreciation of your moniker :)

Randy
 
If you have a real computer, but don't always have an Internet connection, you can save a copy of The Pool Calculator locally. Everything will work on the locally saved copy even without an Internet connection. This approach will also work on some of the high end mobile devices, so long as they have a web browser that can run Javascript.

piku, you are welcome to copy the equations out of the Javascript code. Mostly, there is really just one equation with a different constant for each chemical, plus the CSI calculation, the PH/TA relationship, pool size, and units conversions.
 

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