How accurate is pool store water testing?

[Stjbrown]

Hi All,
I am a very new pool owner. Plaster/fill day was 2 weeks ago. I bought a TF-Pro test kit and have been testing a lot. My pool builder wants us to have water tested at a pool store weekly, I think mostly as a paper trail. Today I took water off to be tested at un-named pool store and the results surprised me. Specifically PH seems pretty different to me. I show ph at 7.2 (double checked when I got home) and pool store shows 7.5. I guess a few 10ths isn’t a lot but pool builder wants us to keep the water at 7. Anyhow really just wondering how accurate the test kit Vs pool store should be.

 

[Katodude]

Oh boy. Wait for the responses you are about to get.

But to sum it up. Pool store testing is worthless. You have a premium test kit and the highest motivation to be accurate. Trust your numbers. Do what the pool builder tells you for your warranty, but trust YOUR numbers.

 

[Rancho Cost-a-Lotta]

Does your pool builder not trust results from a kit that utilizes top quality Taylor testing products? Does the Builder know what type of test kit you have? Perhaps you can negotiate with him and log your own results utilizing PoolMath.

Just my 2 cents...

 

[Stjbrown]

Thanks. The reason I felt the need to post was that I was quite confident in my numbers and my wife looked at me like I was crazy when I said I think the store is wrong! Anyhow I will provide pool builder with my numbers from pool math along with the the store numbers and see if they I can get them to use mine.

 

[Bperry]

Hi All,
I am a very new pool owner. Plaster/fill day was 2 weeks ago. I bought a TF-Pro test kit and have been testing a lot. My pool builder wants us to have water tested at a pool store weekly, I think mostly as a paper trail. Today I took water off to be tested at un-named pool store and the results surprised me. Specifically PH seems pretty different to me. I show ph at 7.2 (double checked when I got home) and pool store shows 7.5. I guess a few 10ths isn’t a lot but pool builder wants us to keep the water at 7. Anyhow really just wondering how accurate the test kit Vs pool store should be.

The website is filled with stories of how bad pool store testing is. Read through some of them.

You might take a single water sample to a couple different pool stores and see how much the results vary and then ask your pool builder which one they believe.

 

[proavia]

Show your PB your test kit - which uses Taylor reagents.
Show him your results - and possibly do the testing with the PB present one time.
Show him the results from 3 different pool stores, tested on the same day with the same pool water.
Tell him that your testing is more accurate and consistent - and that you test the water more frequently than just weekly.
If he believes in your testing too, just keep records yourself.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

It doesn’t matter if you’re testing paper trail comes from a pool store, from your own kit, or from the aliens that landed in Roswell. Accuracy and reliability is not the point.

The point is having a paper trail of data to protect the PB from warranty claims. You can never maintain a pool to “industry standards” because the industry standards make no sense. So your testing paper trail will simply be the noose that the PB uses to throw any issues back on you as the owner. All you have to have is a few chemical levels that are outside their standards, or a few missed testing record, or results from a “residential” kit and not a “professional” pool store and then, BAM!, whatever you complain about is all YOUR fault. That’s the purpose.

So don’t play their games. Their warranty is worth less than the paper it’s printed on and you’ll drive yourself nuts trying to satisfy it. Test your water yourself and take care of your own pool. They aren’t going to be your friend when you come calling with an issue so there’s no need to follow their rules.

 

[JFarr]

my wife looked at me like I was crazy when I said I think the store is wrong!

Take the exact same sample to three different stores and show your wife the results.

 

[AUSpool]

Hi All,
I am a very new pool owner. Plaster/fill day was 2 weeks ago. I bought a TF-Pro test kit and have been testing a lot. My pool builder wants us to have water tested at a pool store weekly, I think mostly as a paper trail. Today I took water off to be tested at un-named pool store and the results surprised me. Specifically PH seems pretty different to me. I show ph at 7.2 (double checked when I got home) and pool store shows 7.5. I guess a few 10ths isn’t a lot but pool builder wants us to keep the water at 7. Anyhow really just wondering how accurate the test kit Vs pool store should be.

Geday Stjbrown and welcome to TFP,

You’ll probably try to justify the warranty for a little while but eventually life will get in the way. Builder wants you to test weekly, initially I thought that’s nuts but I test weekly. FC, pH, salt and temp weekly, TA maybe fortnightly, CyA and CH monthly. -Edit. I use my salt meter weekly, if I didn’t have it I would test my salt monthly or after heavy rains. -

A pH of 7.0 is very low, what surface or type of pool do you have?

Store testing will never be as good as your testing. Expensive store equipment doesn’t equate to accuracy, often it just means their equipment has so many features no one actually knows what settings to use or how to calibrate it.