Testing accurately for salt

[splash]

Hi,
What is the best way to test for salt? Should I trust pool stores with their electronic meter or are salt test strips considered more accurate? One pool store (Leslie's) uses test strips because they said it's more accurate than a meter. If the strips are better which brand should I buy?
Thanks

 

[no-mas]

order aquacheck test strips from tftestkits.net. Most folks on here say they're the best, and easiest to read.

 

[Guest]

Hi,
What is the best way to test for salt? Should I trust pool stores with their electronic meter or are salt test strips considered more accurate? One pool store (Leslie's) uses test strips because they said it's more accurate than a meter. If the strips are better which brand should I buy?
Thanks

strips are a chemical test for chloride ions, meters are reading conductivity of the total dissolved solids and have an adjustment curve built in to convert that into PPM sodium chloride. Meters are often affected by the temperature of the sample and if they are not calibrated against a standard solution on a regular basis will not provide accurate results.
Chaap meters almost never gie accuate results and many pool stores use inexpensive handheld salt meters.

 

[splash]

OK. I guess the Aquacheck test strips are the best ones to purchase. i just wanted to make sure I have the right amount of salt for my Autopilot SWG
Thanks

 

[Brad S]

meters are reading conductivity of the total dissolved solids and have an adjustment curve built in to convert that into PPM sodium chloride. Meters are often affected by the temperature of the sample and if they are not calibrated against a standard solution on a regular basis will not provide accurate results.
Chaap meters almost never gie accuate results and many pool stores use inexpensive handheld salt meters.

Maybe thats why some of these SWG meters show low salt so much for folks with vinyl pools. If the CH is pretty low, like say 80-100, the SWG is not able to compensate and show "good" salt readings when in actuality there is plenty of SODIUM chloride, but not enough CALCIUM chloride to compensate for the curve.



Thoughts?