Taylor's slide and midget comparators are supposed to be more accurate as they use actual liquid samples instead of colored plastic. Just curious if anyone has used one, and if it makes it easier to determine the pH level.
Anyone have a Taylor midget (or slide) pH comparitor?
- Thread starter jseyfert3
- Start date
- May 23, 2015
- 24,451
- Pool Size
- 16000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Never used one before. Fairly expensive but not really sure how they’d be much different in terms of visual determination. I wouldn’t buy into the hype that somehow a liquid color standard is any more accurate than a colored plastic one. Your eyeballs vision and color discrimation is what matters most and no color standard is going affect that. They may be able to generate a few extra graduations with the liquid color standards but, just looking at the pictures online for the hi range DPD comparator, I was hard-pressed to see the color differences between 4, 6 and 8ppm FC. There’s a little more distinction between the phenol red color standards but not much when looking at 7.8, 8.0 & 8.2 .
So my gut feeling is you will spend a lot of money and be disappointed in the results.
So my gut feeling is you will spend a lot of money and be disappointed in the results.
- May 23, 2015
- 24,451
- Pool Size
- 16000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Honestly, if “eye-balling it” doesn’t work for you, then you can get a fairly inexpensive pH meter (pen style) for like $20 on Amazon. For the cost of one of those comparators, you can buy a very fancy pH meter with calibrating solutions.
MyronL makes very high quality pH pens.
MyronL makes very high quality pH pens.
Is that an offer to ship them to member's that would actually use them?
If not, how is this post helpful?
I have seen and used the slides in a lab setting and they make matching a lot more accurate, however, there is a gotcha! You have to use the calibrated light sources to get accurate results.
- May 23, 2015
- 24,451
- Pool Size
- 16000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
A diffuse white light source or a neutral grey background.
I was recently at the Pima County Sheriff's station (I’ll just leave that thought in your mind as to why I was there...) and I learned in the forensics lab when they do intake pictures for perps (again, don’t make any inferences from that bit of information...) they use a very specific neutral grey colored background along with the bright white flash lamps so that they get the most accurate possible skin tones on their perps. If you use a pure white background, it can change skin colors in the photo.....
Ok, I’ll post again in another 10 to 24 months (pending good behavior)....
I have used them before.
They were not worth unboxing, much less purchasing. Take that as a product review.
Thank you. That is useful information beyond you just having some laying around.
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I wonder if that is why they all have to wear that grey sheet over their clothes as well.
I was mostly just curious. I don't typically have much issue with that test myself, but 2nd to the CYA test it's the most complained about on here, so I was curious if the more expensive testing equipment would help make color differentiation easier.
The process of color-matching is an interesting phenomenon. The options can often be broken down to color-matching, electronic meters, and, finally, colorimeters. As you move from left to right on that list you, generally, improve results but also incur higher costs.
Color-matching: Let’s include test strips in this “color-matching” category. This segment includes your eyes looking at a sample which has reacted with reagents to produce a color that we are going to match with color standards. With test strips we are matching a color developed on a pad with a color on a flat chart. The next test in line uses a reagent added to a liquid sample to match to a color on a flat chart. This is where you have the sample tube with about 10-mL of sample water in it, you add in your reagent, then look down through the sample matching it to colors on a card. An example is Taylor’s 5426 pH card. Another example is the Taylor phosphate kit (K-1106). The test above this last one is where we have that liquid sample with reagent added to it but match it to color standards. We hold that “comparator” up to the sky so that we have natural light coming through both the sample and the color standards. These are the tests used in the K-2005 for chlorine and pH. Finally, and this is the one you’ve been waiting for, you have a prepared liquid sample being matched to a liquid standard. These are the midgets and slides. We are matching liquid samples to liquid standards.
With each step listed above, your eye and mind are matching more similar samples with standards. You should see colors more accurately when matching liquids with liquids than when matching liquids with color standards on a paper card or in a comparator.
To further the discussion, electronic meters are very good for accuracy, with a few needed notations. First, like all meters they need to be cleaned, maintained, and calibrated. I calibrated my pH meter every Monday morning. Second, pH probes also require periodic replacement, as there is a “reference solution” inside that glass bulb. pH probes require replacement at least annually. Third, pH meters don’t like banging around in a test kit. Finally, with pH meters you get what you pay for. A $20 meter is not the answer when you are trying to see if the water is 7.2 or 7.8. I would pay at least $100 for a pH meter – think Myron L’s PT-2.
So last on the list are colorimeters. These use special lights and receptors to read the color developed in the color-matching tests with higher precision. These can offer great precision and repeatability for chlorine, bromine, water balance parameters, CYA, metals, and phosphates, to name a few tests. As with pH meters, you get what you pay for. You will not get the same precision with the inexpensive colorimeters as you will with the more-expensive units. This will be evident in the repeatability of the test results.
I hope this helps. Please call us with any questions.
Color-matching: Let’s include test strips in this “color-matching” category. This segment includes your eyes looking at a sample which has reacted with reagents to produce a color that we are going to match with color standards. With test strips we are matching a color developed on a pad with a color on a flat chart. The next test in line uses a reagent added to a liquid sample to match to a color on a flat chart. This is where you have the sample tube with about 10-mL of sample water in it, you add in your reagent, then look down through the sample matching it to colors on a card. An example is Taylor’s 5426 pH card. Another example is the Taylor phosphate kit (K-1106). The test above this last one is where we have that liquid sample with reagent added to it but match it to color standards. We hold that “comparator” up to the sky so that we have natural light coming through both the sample and the color standards. These are the tests used in the K-2005 for chlorine and pH. Finally, and this is the one you’ve been waiting for, you have a prepared liquid sample being matched to a liquid standard. These are the midgets and slides. We are matching liquid samples to liquid standards.
With each step listed above, your eye and mind are matching more similar samples with standards. You should see colors more accurately when matching liquids with liquids than when matching liquids with color standards on a paper card or in a comparator.
To further the discussion, electronic meters are very good for accuracy, with a few needed notations. First, like all meters they need to be cleaned, maintained, and calibrated. I calibrated my pH meter every Monday morning. Second, pH probes also require periodic replacement, as there is a “reference solution” inside that glass bulb. pH probes require replacement at least annually. Third, pH meters don’t like banging around in a test kit. Finally, with pH meters you get what you pay for. A $20 meter is not the answer when you are trying to see if the water is 7.2 or 7.8. I would pay at least $100 for a pH meter – think Myron L’s PT-2.
So last on the list are colorimeters. These use special lights and receptors to read the color developed in the color-matching tests with higher precision. These can offer great precision and repeatability for chlorine, bromine, water balance parameters, CYA, metals, and phosphates, to name a few tests. As with pH meters, you get what you pay for. You will not get the same precision with the inexpensive colorimeters as you will with the more-expensive units. This will be evident in the repeatability of the test results.
I hope this helps. Please call us with any questions.