Can't differentiate test color shades

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Bluelightnin6

Bluelightnin6

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Jul 7, 2017
46
Corbin, KY
First time pool owner and after buying nearly $200 of chemicals from the pool shop (for clean, city fill water in new pool!) I quickly found this forum. Anyway, I'm having a very hard time using test tubes so I can test at home and follow the BBB method. The sample water just doesn't look anything close to any of the test tube shades. Now this is just the free 3 way test kit that came with my pool. I don't have the money to buy the TF-100 just yet, but I don't see how it would be much different since they all use a color shade chart. I do have a picture of the test I took today, obviously it might look slightly different on a picture but it pretty much looked the same in person to me. The ph side looks bright red while the test tube shades go from an orange shade straight to a hot pink shade. The Cl side is a little easier for me to see, but still not sure I'm reading it right?

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I have color vision issues, so I too could not rely on color matching. I group colors differently which makes it disastrous when using a color matching test. For this reason I bought the LaMotte 2056 ColorQ Pro 7 Digital Pool Water Test Kit. It may not be as accurate as a TF-100, but it seems to work well for me. Although I do worry about the sensor going bad over time, but I'd imagine I would notice results that are wildly out of whack. This doesn't help you much as this kit is $150 so is even more expensive than the TF-100. But at least you don't have to try and color match if that is difficult.

If I need to double check, I ask my wife to read the results from a different kit.
 
No, the FAS/DPD chlorine test does not require you to match a color chart. The FAS powder turns the water pink and then you add the drops, counting how many it takes for the water to become clear again. It's a fairly obvious change that I think even someone with color-blindness should be able to see.
 
I agree the pH test can sometimes be tricky for me as well. I've been using the TF-100 this year and I feel like it is a bit easier to read than the test in the K2006, but I can't say why exactly. It just seems like it is easier to see what color it lines up with for some reason. Looking at your picture that pH tester looks particular bad to me, I personally can't see any difference from 7.6 to 8.2 in the reference shades, so I would have no idea what the pH was if it was in that range and that is a pretty big range. I can see the difference in the reference shades in both the TF-100 and the K2006, so I feel like you will have an easier time with either of those kits.

The one nice thing in the K2006 is the acid and base demand drops can help. When I didn't know what I was looking at I could add a drop and decide if that looked better or worse, and repeat until I felt the match was as good as I could get. I've seen others post they use a digital pH meter instead for the pH test because of the color matching, but that is more money, and more work as I believe you have to keep them wet and calibrate frequently.

The good news is the pH test is the only color matching you have to do in the recommended test kits. All other tests are either drops till it stops changing or the CYA test which is add till a dot disappears.
 
If you held me against the wall and forced me, I would say it's 7.4. It's slightly more red then 7.2. The main issue is that the saturation of the mixture color is different from the tester color. The Taylor tester saturation is much closer to the same for both.
 
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