R-0600 equivalent?

[tigerucla]

I wanted to support our new local pool supply store, so I went in to buy a new bottle of R-0600 for my Taylor Test kit. They did not have it, so they sold me a bottle of Poolmaster 1 Indicator Solution (for chlorine/bromine test). Looking at the bottle, it says it contains 0.14% OTO and 5.14% HCL. The R-0600 bottle says <1% OTO and <10% HCL. But it doesn't get any more specific than that.

Do you think the Poolmaster solution will work?

 

[JasonLion]

Yes, it will work, but not as well as R-0600 works. The Taylor version is better compensated against high FC levels than any of the other brands. At reasonable FC levels say zero to perhaps five, it shouldn't make any difference, but at higher FC levels the Poolmaster test will start to make mistakes while the Taylor will keep working up to an FC level of 10 or more.

You may also want to use a different number of drops of the Poolmaster reagent than you would the Taylor reagent. I'm not sure what exact view tube size they are setup for. Fewer or more drops change the visibility of the color, not the color, so add drops until the color is easily discernible. That might be 5 drops, or more, or less.

 

[tigerucla]

Thanks for the reply, Jason.

How do you use the R-0600 to test up to 10 or more?

And why is the Taylor version better? Does it have anything to do with actual concentration of the chemicals?

 

[JasonLion]

The chemical that provides the color indicating the PH level in the PH test is sensitive to chlorine. In the presence of chlorine it changes into another chemical that doesn't work to measure PH in the way we want. All of the standard PH tests include additional ingredients to neutralize any chlorine that might be in the water sample being tested. However, neutralizing the chlorine tends to change the PH, invalidating the test results.

Various manufacturers of PH tests solve this problem in different ways, and with different degrees of success. The worst of the PH tests only work when the chlorine level is 3 or lower. Most of them work so long as chlorine is 5 or lower. Taylor seems to have been the most successful at figuring out how to neutralize chlorine without changing the PH and their PH test works when chlorine levels are as high as 10 (and sometimes a little higher than that). Taylor doesn't say exactly how they do this, but it works.

When the chlorine level in the water sample to be tested is low, this isn't an issue, and all of the tests are equally good. But when the chlorine levels are high only the better PH tests continue to work correctly.

 

[tigerucla]

Jason- I think we're talking about different things. I'm wanting to replace the R-0600 in the Taylor Test Kit to measure CHLORINE levels. (I probably threw you off my mentioning that the bottles indicate how much HCL acid they have in them.)

It sounds like you're talking about the test solution for PH.

So I guess I still need an answer as to whether or not the Poolmaster 1 test solution is a suitable substitute to help me measure chlorine levels. If anyone knows the actual OTO and HCL levels in the R-0600 solution, that would probably help.

 

[JasonLion]

Sorry, it looks like I was totally mixed up. R-0600 is the OTO chlorine test. I was indeed mistakenly describing the PH test.

All of the various OTO tests are essentially equivalent aside from the concentration. So the only difference is the number of drops you need to use. As with the PH test, the color will be the same regardless of how many drops, only the transparency of the color will change with additional drops. You can experiment quite easily until you find the correct number of drops to use. Add drops until the color is easy to read. Being off by one drop too high or too low should not change the test results.

 

[duraleigh]

How do you use the R-0600 to test up to 10 or more?

The OTO test will not test for chlorine greater than 5ppm (reliably).

To test higher FC levels than 5ppm you need to get and FAS/DPD chlorine test which will test (very accurately) chlorine levels in excess of 50ppm. The FAS/DPD chlorine test comes in the K-2006 or the TF-100 test kits. You can also purchase it as a stand alone test.

 

[tigerucla]

That answers my question, Jason. It's nice to know that the number of drops does not affect the color- only the transparency. And here I've always been careful to get exactly 5 drops.

Duraleigh- thanks for you input. I've got the TF-100 Kit, so I'm good. But I've only really used the FAS/DPD test when shocking.

Once again, gotta love TFP!