UK SLAM FC level measuring

[BoringDamo]

How accurate do you need to be on the FC levels during SLAM?

Background: I’m in the UK and it’s impossible to find FAS-dpd based test kits. I’ve contacted all the companies listed on the forum topic for uk supplies but all have said they cannot supply in the UK now.

I have found this company

which does a HR Chlorine test 0-300ppm but it’s in 5ppm increments. Could I round up to nearest 5ppm and still have it work?

I’ve emailed them asking if they could do a variant that measures in lower increments but am waiting to hear back.
(they are geared towards industrial testing and would be great if you’ve got any power station cooling towers laying around in your back garden that you want to test)
The price they quoted on the HR test was reasonable too (£40 plus delivery).

 

[ajw22]

5 ppm increments is better then nothing. Round down on the test so FC should always be higher then measured.

 

[BoringDamo]

See Obtaining_Test_Kits_Outside_the_US

Let me know if you have success and if the information needs to be updated.

tagging @ajw22

I’ve contacted a few companies from the Uk list but all have responded they can no longer supply FAS-dpd based kits.

I’ve been speaking to the chemist who is the technical POC for pool based test kits at Water Treatment Products | Speciality Chemicals and Technical Solutions

I’m not a chemist but I pointed him at Pool School as what I was trying to follow. He has offered to create a kit (new code TK260) with the following
- Free chlorine 0-5ppm/0-10ppm/0-50+ppm
- Total chlorine 0-5ppm (there isn’t a test available for higher)
- Total alkalinity
- pH
- Cyanuric Acid

I’m still waiting on details of the Chlorine based testing (I asked for a drop based test) but I don’t think it is FAS, however he seemed certain it would be accurate enough (they specialise in Cooling tower water testing whatever that is).
Total cost for the kit is just under £100 plus delivery (£10).

I’ll post again once I find out more.

 

[BoringDamo]

5 ppm increments is better then nothing. Round down on the test so FC should always be higher then measured.

Are there ways other than FASdpd to test higher levels of Chlorine?

I’ve been speaking with a chemist from that company and they do a test that can do higher ranges of chlorine but it isn’t FAS. He did say the name of the chemicals but I didn’t catch it (I’ve emailed to ask for clarification).

 

[ajw22]

tagging @ajw22

I’ve contacted a few companies from the Uk list but all have responded they can no longer supply FAS-dpd based kits.

I’ve been speaking to the chemist who is the technical POC for pool based test kits at Water Treatment Products | Speciality Chemicals and Technical Solutions

I’m not a chemist but I pointed him at Pool School as what I was trying to follow. He has offered to create a kit (new code TK260) with the following
- Free chlorine 0-5ppm/0-10ppm/0-50+ppm
- Total chlorine 0-5ppm (there isn’t a test available for higher)
- Total alkalinity
- pH
- Cyanuric Acid

I’m still waiting on details of the Chlorine based testing (I asked for a drop based test) but I don’t think it is FAS, however he seemed certain it would be accurate enough (they specialise in Cooling tower water testing whatever that is).
Total cost for the kit is just under £100 plus delivery (£10).

I’ll post again once I find out more.

Let’s see what he comes up with and we can run it by some folks like @JoyfulNoise

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Starch/iodine indicator with thiosulfate titration is the another method but it suffers from an indistinct endpoint and usually requires an additional back titration step. There is another indicator called syringaldazine that reacts with chlorine but it’s usually used in a photometric application (like a color comparator) and it’s a very difficult chemical to work with. Orthotolidine is the standard yellow/orange indicator you see with most simple test kits.

Let us know what they send you ...

 

[wireform]

Starch/iodine indicator with thiosulfate titration is the another method but it suffers from an indistinct endpoint and usually requires an additional back titration step. There is another indicator called syringaldazine that reacts with chlorine but it’s usually used in a photometric application (like a color comparator) and it’s a very difficult chemical to work with. Orthotolidine is the standard yellow/orange indicator you see with most simple test kits.

Let us know what they send you ...

I'm dizzy already

 

[brendio]

I wonder how it would go using the kit in the video and using a 100 mL sample, so that each drop equals 1 ppm. The colour would be lighter and perhaps harder to detect could be a problem.

 

[BoringDamo]

So, apparently it is a combination of sodium carbonate and xylene cyanol.
He said there won’t be much info on that system out on the internet.

It means nothing to me!!

 

[Newdude]

We had a member in Canada last year with no access to reliable testing. He diluted the sample water by many parts to keep the test strip in the *somewhat more accurate* 2-5 ppm range. Then he multiplied by the # of parts used to get his *test strip guestimated* SLAM FC in the 20s.

It wasn’t perfect and certainly not advisable to anyone in the world with better options available, but I thought it was a pretty good improvisation all things considered.

 

[BoringDamo]

I’ve ordered the kit so will see how it goes although having nothing to compare it to makes it difficult.

Given its ~£100 ($140) and is cheaper than anything else I can get to measure the 5 key levels (FC, CC, TA, Ph, CYA), plus he said it would do 100-200 tests based on the bottle sizes it isn’t too bad. It will come in a case and they sell the reagents separately so not a bad option going forward.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

So, apparently it is a combination of sodium carbonate and xylene cyanol.
He said there won’t be much info on that system out on the internet.

It means nothing to me!!

Lovibond is a European supplier of water testing kits and equipment. They have several products based on xylene cyanol which is normally used as a low pH indicator dye or in gel electrophoresis (DNA testing) for indicating DNA size sorting. I suspect your supplier may be getting it through them.

Both Lovibond and LaMotte sell pool testing products in Europe. You could always check what's available from them.

 

[BoringDamo]

Lovibond is a European supplier of water testing kits and equipment. They have several products based on xylene cyanol which is normally used as a low pH indicator dye or in gel electrophoresis (DNA testing) for indicating DNA size sorting. I suspect your supplier may be getting it through them.

Both Lovibond and LaMotte sell pool testing products in Europe. You could always check what's available from them.

Tried both and neither can do the FAS dpd anymore which is a shame. I think my supplier isn’t a reseller, they are a smallish specialist water testing company (water cooling towers mainly) who decided they could make money from the leisure industry too.
The guy I was dealing with was a chemist and most of the stuff he told me went right over my head. 25years since high school chemistry for me!!

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Tried both and neither can do the FAS dpd anymore which is a shame. I think my supplier isn’t a reseller, they are a smallish specialist water testing company (water cooling towers mainly) who decided they could make money from the leisure industry too.
The guy I was dealing with was a chemist and most of the stuff he told me went right over my head. 25years since high school chemistry for me!!

Well, as long as he’ll guarantee that you will get the results you’re looking for, then no harm in trying. All I’ll say is that cooling tower water analysis is a very different thing than pool water. So I hope his proposed method is suited for working with pool water. Let us know how it works out.

 

[BoringDamo]

Test kit turned up today but not had a chance to use it yet (I’ll try some of the tests on the tap water, still too cold for the pool for another month or so).

2.2oz bottles of reagent for low range and high range FC tests that look like 5ppm gradient for tests above 10ppm.
TC (and thus CC), Cya, and Ph are comparator tests using tablets.

 

[Teald024]

Interesting

 

[mgtfp]

I’m in the UK and it’s impossible to find FAS-dpd based test kits. I’ve contacted all the companies listed on the forum topic for uk supplies but all have said they cannot supply in the UK now.

Not sure how Amazon UK works, but Amazon AU offers free delivery for prime members from the US above 40 or 50 AUD (going through the AU site, not the US site). Get a trial prime membership for a month and order some supplies from the US.

 

[BoringDamo]

Not sure how Amazon UK works, but Amazon AU offers free delivery for prime members from the US above 40 or 50 AUD (going through the AU site, not the US site). Get a trial prime membership for a month and order some supplies from the US.

Yeah I’ve got Amazon Prime but it doesn’t let you order stuff directly from the US site easily.
if you search Amazon Uk for any test kits very few come up. There is a Taylor K2006 (not C) that comes up but is nearly twice the cost of my kit (£200). Even just ordering Cyanuric acid test kits in tablet form from the EU site get blocked when you press the final order button as it says those products are not able to be imported.
If I log into the US site for any pool test chemicals it states not deliverable to UK.

I’ve contacted several manufacturers directly and none will supply FAS dpd in the UK anymore. Clearly something in our import laws stopping this.

 

[mgtfp]

if you search Amazon Uk for any test kits very few come up.

On the AU Amazon it's usually more fruitful to search for individual Taylor reagents than whole test kits.

On the UK site, I found this:

Amazon.co.uk

That's a lot more than you could possibly use before it expires, but you might be able to make a joint order with other UK TFP members. I couldn't find the FAS reagent. But it might be available once the swimming season actually starts up on the north. Worth checking from time to time.

 

[BelSplash]

We had a member in Canada last year with no access to reliable testing. He diluted the sample water by many parts to keep the test strip in the *somewhat more accurate* 2-5 ppm range. Then he multiplied by the # of parts used to get his *test strip guestimated* SLAM FC in the 20s.

It wasn’t perfect and certainly not advisable to anyone in the world with better options available, but I thought it was a pretty good improvisation all things considered.

I have a Lovibond Scuba II, that's what I do to test chlorine when levels are above the 6ppm upper limit. Even with pipetting, dilution, measuring and rounding errors I expect to be within 1 ppm error margin. (Certainly good enough for an Intex AGP which is only filled for 5 months.)