Test kit storage

[domct203]

Where do you guys keep your test kit during pool season?

I have a small upright Rubbermaid type storage cabinet poolside that is always in the shade. This makes it very convienent to have my test kit & liquid chlorine right where I need them.

While it's never in the sun, I would imagine it will get up to ambient air temp inside.

Is that bad? I'm not too worried about the one gallon of bleach I'm keeping there, it'll be gone quick. I'm more concerned with the reagents.

Dom

 

[DebbieO]

Good question. I'm interested in the responses you will get. I keep my kit in the house and my bleach in the garage.

 

[Richard320]

I could lean over and grab mine right now. I keep it on my desk with all my other junk.

 

[duraleigh]

I do not test outside, My kit is in the house near our island in the kitchen where I do all my testing.....very convenient.

 

[Scuba_Steve]

I keep mine in a drawer in the kitchen. I just bring a cup of water into the house and sit down at the kitchen table to start testing!

 

[jblizzle]

Better to keep the kit in the temp controlled house IMO. Plus I too test in the kitchen ... no one wants to be outside in the 110 degree weather testing

 

[Donldson]

I leave the pH/OTO test in the pool house since I use that daily. The rest of the kit I leave indoors and bring the water in to run the extended tests every few days.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

The R-0870 powder is moisture sensitive. While it's in a pretty good sealed container, high humidity is not good for it. Also, generally speaking, you want to keep most chemicals in an consistent environment. Storing them outdoors will expose them to temperature swings. Think of it like this - if you keep your ketchup bottle in the fridge and then set it out on the counter for a few minutes, what happens when you open it? It burps from a pressure release and splatters ketchup everywhere. Exposing your reagents to temperature swings can lead to pressurized bottles and chemical splatter...not good.

Just keep it inside somewhere away from the kids, and it will last long time. I keep mine in a cabinet in my mud room with other pool supplies. The test kits comes outside for 15mins twice per week. Then right back inside into the cabinet.

 

[domct203]

The R-0870 powder is moisture sensitive. While it's in a pretty good sealed container, high humidity is not good for it. Also, generally speaking, you want to keep most chemicals in an consistent environment. Storing them outdoors will expose them to temperature swings. Think of it like this - if you keep your ketchup bottle in the fridge and then set it out on the counter for a few minutes, what happens when you open it? It burps from a pressure release and splatters ketchup everywhere. Exposing your reagents to temperature swings can lead to pressurized bottles and chemical splatter...not good.

Just keep it inside somewhere away from the kids, and it will last long time. I keep mine in a cabinet in my mud room with other pool supplies. The test kits comes outside for 15mins twice per week. Then right back inside into the cabinet.

I didn't even think about temperature swings and condensation. Inside the house it is.

I have a spot picked out in the hall closet, it usually stays pretty cool & dry in there year round. Besides, it makes sense to just check indoors where it's comfortable. I check everyday when I get home from work, I'll just pick up a container and leave that poolside and bring the water in.

Thanks for for the tips!

Dom

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Besides, it makes sense to just check indoors where it's comfortable.

Dom

Well, actually, you need to test outdoor. First off, I personally find that the chemicals stink and have a phenolic smell to them. Best to do chemistry in the well ventilated great outdoors. Secondly, you need good sunlight for most of the tests. Bright sun, look at the tubes with your back to it.

Just use testing as an opportunity to sit out poolside with a cold adult beverage.


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[jblizzle]

The only test that needs to be done outdoors with sunlight is the CYA and that test does not need to be done very often.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

The only test that needs to be done outdoors with sunlight is the CYA and that test does not need to be done very often.

I guess so. I can't get the pH colors right unless I have bright sunshine. I find that indoor lighting has poor color rendering and that it takes a bright flashlight and proper placement of white printer paper to get the color tests right if I'm indoors. When I'm outside, easy-peasy, just set it up on the porch table and go.

Just my own experience with it is all...


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[domct203]

Plenty of sunlight in the kitchen (wife has a jungle growing in there LOL) and I usually test CYA with my back to the sun.

I understand what you mean by colors under indoor lighting. The wrong temp light could really mess things up.

I'll be sure to take a couple of indoor & outdoor tests to compare my results.

Dom

 

[duraleigh]

There is no reason at all to perform your tests only outside.

Don't overthink this TFP method and do not overthink how difficult these tests are.....they simply are not.

It is not intended to make managing your pool so burdensome you wish you had filled it in and planted daisies.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Wow! You guys must have bionic vision! Perhaps it's time for me to go to the eye doctor and get some Lasiks done in my eyes....I absolutely get different colors and results when indoors. I stopped doing tests indoors precisely because my results were always different from outdoor numbers. Therefore I chose outdoors as the default.



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[jblizzle]

How can indoors versus outdoors affect how many drops you count until the color stops changing?

 

[JoyfulNoise]

How can indoors versus outdoors affect how many drops you count until the color stops changing?

The Green-red transition for the TA test is hard to see for me but not as bad as the Blue-red/purple for CH. So those tend to be over-counted in order to be absolutely certain end-point is achieved.

For FC/CC only outdoor lighting lets me see faint pink in the spinning meniscus of the speedstir. Indoors I can't always see the faint pink before clear so I typically undercount drops indoors. I am partially red-green color blind (it's very common among males) so having more intense light helps to detect the subtle transitions at the end points and reduce the tendency to under/over-count drops.

These color discrimination challenges have been true for most of my life as chemistry lab in high school and college always required me to defer any color titration end-points to my lab partners. I also confirmed this in physics lab because most people could see farther than me into the red end of the spectrum when you look at white light separated out through a diffractometer.

I fully admit to being an atypical individual but I tend to believe that outdoor lighting achieves the very best color discrimination for the human eye and that most folks doing these types of test would have an easier time outdoors. I find that even the light on cloudy days is better than indoor lighting.

Plus, doesn't anyone else think these chemicals stink? I hate the phenolic smell from the FC/CC and pH test chemicals. I'm not saying the odor is dangerous in any way, just that I really don't like the smell.


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[Scuba_Steve]

I truthfully never smell them.

Try placing the tube on a white sheet of paper when they get to that iffy point. Try dropping without your speed stir at that point and see if your having an easier time.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I truthfully never smell them.

Try placing the tube on a white sheet of paper when they get to that iffy point. Try dropping without your speed stir at that point and see if your having an easier time.

Thanks. I have done both. Honestly the SpeedStir helps. Putting the white paper behind the view tube helps more than underneath it. With all my various permutations I've tried over the years, the single variable that makes the most difference is bright, outdoor natural lighting. The brighter, the better. Good thing I live in Arizona, no shortage of bright light here....


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[Patrick_B]

The only test in the TF100 that has any odor is the phenol red test, and none of them require special needs for ventilation.