ANYONE USE ELECTRONIC PH TESTER?

[PHOTOFPD]

Hi,
I just bought an electronic pen type PH tester. Seems like a good idea,no?
I tested it out on plain water which read 7.0, and it says to also use borax mix which should read around 9.41. My pool water read 7.35, the strip read 7.4 and the drops read 7.2, close enough for home work.
We use all electronic meters for all of our Boiler water and demin water readings, we do very few manual readings, My eyes can't seem to look at another colored strip or drop comparison chart.
Anyone use any of these items? Anyone know about a CL meter like this?
JEFF

 

[Guest]

Biggest problems with electronic testers are:
Probes are delicate and some need to be stored wet
They need constant calibration for accurate results
Inexpensive meters are just that, inexpensive....don't expect accurate results.
Stay away from meters that only use a single point calibration. You want a meter that uses three point calibration and had readily available prepared calibration standards. You don't want to be mixing up your own unless you have acess to at least a triple beam balance and a graduated cylinder.

As far as chlorine there are no direct reading handhelp chlorine meters avbailable (direct reading chlorine elelctrodes are still very expensive) but there are handheld ORP meters. ORP is used as a measurement of water's sanitizing ability but it really does not have a direct correlation with chlorine levels.

All that being said I would say that Eutech makes some decent pocket testers for the money. I would personallly stay away from the ones from LaMotte and Hanna. They are just not reliable.

 

[dawndenise]

I've been using a ChekMite pH-15 pH sensor as a backup for (or confirmation of) my drops-based pH test. The ChekMite was originally purchased for another purpose where accuracy was very important.

Waterbear has listed some of the disadvantages to portable pH testers quite well...daily calibration against known pH buffer solutions (another expense) is recommended by the mfr., but I probably only recalibrate it about every 3 months, the sensor tip must be stored in an endcap with a pH 7 buffer solution, and the tip needs to be rinsed in distilled water after every use.

I'd never have purchased this for just pool use because it's so putsy, but for other applications where accuracy is quite important, I'd recommend it.

http://www.pinnacle-ph.com/meters/portable-meters/ph-testers/chek-mite-ph-15/

 

[PHOTOFPD]

Hi
It cost me about 20 bucks from Ebay, seems to be working fine, I test with the drops and the drops say 9.2, the gizmo says 9.42, close enough for govt work.
I havent calib it yet, we have plenty of buffers at work, but as long as it as it stays close, i'm happy.