Accuracy of Taylor test strips

[gwtw]

I would like to purchase some test strips for my son to use when we go out of town. I want to make it easy for him to test since he is taking care of the pool for free. Taylor makes some test strips now that are supposed to be accurate, according to their website. Has anyone tried these Taylor test strips and compared the results with a Taylor test kit? The only thing my son will be testing the pool for is chlorine so that is the only test on the strip that I'm concerned about. I'd like to find a test strip that is fairly accurate so my son can test the water daily to make sure it is at target level (5 ppm) before shutting the pump off.

 

[mknauss]

A K1000 OTO drop test is better than a strip. Five drops and see that it is really yellow.

Strips are just not reliable. If you wish to try them - go for it. It might work for want you want. But overall, TFP just does not see them as accurate or reliable.

 

[Donldson]

Every test strip manufacturer says their strips are accurate, I would love to see the one who says otherwise. Clearly we love Taylor around here, but test strips are test strips. If their strips are priced similarly to the rest, then they are as reliable as the rest. Like Marty said, a k-1000 or similar cheap chlorine/pH tester is not super accurate but more reliable than a test strip any day.

 

[Lynnster52]

I find the AquaChek 7 test strips to be ok when in a pinch or as a back up, but I need to wait at least one minute for the PH to develop to the reading I get with phenol red. I know my PH is 7.6-7.7 but the strips read 6.8 unless I wait that minute (or a bit more even). I think the 15 secs is all about their predicted accuracy on Hardness, TC, FC & TA. Just my 2 cents & what I've discovered.