Your favorite testing method?

[lovingHDTV]

I have the TFP testkit and have used test kits in the past. However, I'd like to find out how others actually use them. It seems that I'm always dipping my arm into the pool water and getting all wet for every test.

I started just filling one quart sized bottle with water then using that to do all the tests, this at least limits my whole arm getting wet to once. However, when you rinse the vials between tests do you rinse with distilled water, pool water, tap water?

Just kinda curious as to how others have figured out the mechanics

dave

 

[duraleigh]

Dave,

Your post makes me laugh at myself. For probably two years, I sat out in the hot sun and dipped in the pool for every test. You figured it out in one week!!!

I leave my kit inside (NOW :lol: ) and go retrieve a container of pool water large enough for all tests. Next, I sit at the kitchen table in the A/C and perform all my tests. I rinse everything in tap water. Probably a little sloppy instead of using distilled but I think it has little effect on the test results.

 

[Buggsw]

I just use the bottle that Leslie's gives out and bring the sample inside and stand by the kitchen sink to do my tests. When I'm done with whatever vial, I rinse with the water from the sample.

 

[sevver]

I do it all standing next to the pool. I don't mind though, it is relaxing for me. Maybe as I get older I will change. Plus my pool is Above Ground, so I don't have to crawl around to do it.

 

[JasonLion]

I use a squeeze bottle, something like this one, and sit over by the patio table where I can lay everything out in front of me.

 

[Rangerman]

Squeeze bottle idea is a great one. I have been using one for a couple of years. Found it one day browsing a restaurant supply store. Makes it very easy to fill to the right mark on the test vial too.

Like others have mentioned .. its much easier to take just one sample from the pool and use it for everything by rinsing the vial after each testing.

Enjoy the summer !!

 

[Guest]

I use a professional haircolor applicator bottle from the beauty supply. (Sometimes you can find them at the drugstore in with the haircolor.) The Clairol ones hold enough water for all my tests and they have an extremly small tip opening (Much smaller than the kitchen squeeze bottles, tried them) which makes it very easy to meter out exactly how much water I need. Even the larger bleach applicators meter out the water better than the kitchen squeeze bottles but not as well as the Clairol tint bottles do.

(For those of you old enough to remember--"Does she or doesn't she? Only the pool boy knows for sure!"

 

[chumbley]

I used a bottled water bottle, with the "nipple" top. Unscrew the top, stick upside down in the pool about 2' down, turn it over and let it fill. Then I bring it inside to test, and rinse the vials with the same pool water.

ps - it helps to mark the bottle with a sharpie. And don't have another bottle laying around when you test. I've more than once been fooled by accidentally using the water bottle I'm drinking from to fill the vials rather than the one I should be testing from. Fortunately, I haven't drank from the test bottle yet... ;-)

 

[CaOCl2]

I fill a 250 ml wash bottle like these, the small tip allows you to precisely fill the comparator tube without overshooting. 250ml is just the right size, the 500 ml is a bit too big and more difficult to squeeze and handle.

Before proceeding with the test I rinse everything with it so that way there's no chance of contamination with tap or distilled water. And when I'm done I rinse everything again and leave it to air dry.

I also use a cheap mixing bowl I bought at the dollar store to dispose of the different samples and when I'm done this gets diluted and dumped in the sink.

 

[Poseidon]

I use a 32 oz measuring cup to gather one sample for all tests. I invert it, plunge it down as far as I can, then turn it upright. I take it to the patio table and do all tests poolside except for the cya test. For the cya test I use the island in the kitchen under the fluorescent light. This is one test I believe should be done in the same lighting conditions each time. As I test, I record everything. Then I add whatever is needed to the pool (which for a while now has been nothing but chlorinating liquid and muriatic). I rinse the vials with pool water, then let them dry out before putting them back in the case. Then I go inside and log everything in on the computer, including water temp and chemicals added, for record keeping. If on the weekend I have been know to test while enjoying a cold one 8)