Best digital pool water tester 2018 – [Buyer’s Guide]

Best digital pool water tester of 2018

We’ve narrowed down our options based on the customer feedback (read positive reviews), functionality, material and size. In other words, we’ve put all fundamentals into consideration to come up with a comprehensive list that suits various needs. Whether you’re looking to upgrade your comfort, style, or accessibility, we have picks to fit a variety of needs and budgets.

Following is the list of top three digital pool water tester of 2018. I have taken the initiative to educate you on the top three best digital pool water tester that you can buy this year.

Test Results and Ratings

Rank	№1	№2	№3
Product
Total	4.8	4.5	4.3
Style	5 points	5 points	4 points
Versatility	4 points	5 points	4 points
Performance	5 points	4 points	4 points
Price	5 points	4 points	5 points
Awards

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№1 – JNW Direct 6 in 1 Pool & Spa Test Strips

Pros

THE ULTIMATE AT HOME TESTING KIT for your swimming pool, spa & hot tub. Tests for 6 parameters: total hardness, total chlorine, bromine, free chlorine, pH & total alkalinity

EXTREMELY EASY TO USE water test kit, Instant reliable results with simple and clear instructions. Simply dip and compare with large color chart on bottle. No more mailing samples off to an expensive lab and waiting weeks or even months for results

Cons

Everything is OK.

Why did this digital pool water tester win the first place?

I am very happy with the purchase. It is definitely worth its money. The product is top-notch! The material is stylish, but it smells for the first couple of days. I really enjoy the design. It is compact, comfortable and reliable. And it looks amazing! I don’t know anything about other models from this brand, but I am fully satisfied with this product.

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№2 – Risantec Digital PH Meter Tester Best For Water Aquarium Pool Hot Tub Hydroponics Wine – Push Button Calibration Resolution .01 / High Accuracy +/- .05 – Large LCD Display – Satisfaction Guaranteed

Pros

Fast and accurate results. No guess work as with those annoying color charts and test strips.

Use only one hand to get results in a snap. Auto calibration with included buffer powders.

Great for kids school science experiments. Test different bottled waters or even your homemade sauerkraut.

Cons

It stank for a few days. The smell didn’t wear off for a long time..

A little more expensive than other brands on the market.

Why did this digital pool water tester come in second place?

Managers explained me all the details about the product range, price, and delivery. I recommend you to consider buying this model, it definitely worth its money. The material is pretty strong and easy to wash if needed. This is a pretty decent product that perfectly fitted the interior of our office.

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№3 – LaMotte 2056 ColorQ Pro 7 Digital Pool Water Test Kit

Pros

Features a photometer which gives you a digital reading of test results.

Water resistant housing and carrying case provided.

Tests Free Chlorine, Total Chlorine, Bromine, PH, Alkalinity, Calcium Hardness, and Cyanuric Acid.

Cons

It is huge and heavy weight.

It is very easy to soil because of bright and beautiful design..

Why did this digital pool water tester take third place?

A very convenient model. It is affordable and made of high-quality materials. It is inconvenient to use due to the size. I am going to get something different next time. It doesn’t squeaks nor bents. Looks great in my apartment. I liked the design. We’ve been using it for 2 months and it still looks like brand new.

digital pool water tester Buyer’s Guide

Pool Water Tests

Chlorine tablets are an expense that can be reduced, by using only as much as you need. Even with Salt Generators, running a level no higher than 1.0 ppm will reduce the workload of your salt cell, and result in more comfortable swimmers.

Testing for Calcium Hardness checks for levels of Calcium in the water. Too little and the water may become aggressive, and seek to pull Calcium from the pool surfaces. Too much Calcium, and deposits may form, or you may have frequent issues with cloudy water.

We put Cyanuric Acid into our chlorine tablets, but most pool owners need to add additional Stabilizer to the water, to build the residual, or level to 40-80 ppm.

Test Strips

Just dip the strip and compare to the color chart on the bottle. Use a test strip that will test all of the water balance parameters, listed above. The 7-way Test Strip is the most complete pool strip. We also have test strips that measure for copper, borates, phosphates, salt and biguanide levels.

Test Kits. With this type of testing, there are certainly more steps involved, and each test is performed individually. Fill the vials with a test sample, and add the colored indicator reagents to compare sample colors for pH and Chlorine.

Alkalinity and Hardness are measured using a titration test. After adding the indicator solution, you add a titrant, dropwise, until a complete color change is observed. Multiply the number of drops by (t x 10) to determine the readings.

The advantage of Test Kits are more accurate results, for more accurate adjustments. Using a test kit like the Taylor K-200will perform all pool water balance tests perfectly. The Taylor FAS-DPD test kit also tests all parameters, but uses a titration sanitizer test, for more accurate results.

ColorQ PRO test kits, preferred by pool pros and water treatment professionals, uses a digital photometer, and provides a display of test results and adjustment chemicals needed.

Highly accurate photometric scanner precisely determines all water balance tests, over a wider range than most other test kits. Insert the test vial into the photometer, and push one button to obtain test results and recommendations.

Pool Test Strips

The most inexpensive and widely used method of water testing – test strips – is fast, easy, and fairly accurate. Water testing strips like the AquaChek Test Strips can be used to test for individual chemicals or you can buy something like AquaChek Select Way Test Strips or YellowYellow Way chlorine test strips to make multiple tests at the same time.

The most amazing feature of test strips other than their low price is that they are very simple to use; just dip them in water, swirl and read the results within seconds. Usually the test strips are color coded and come with an easy-to-read chart that lets you easily determine which chemicals you need to add to your pool.

Liquid Test Kits

Liquid test kits are an excellent way to determine chemical levels in your pool and maintain crystal clear water at all times. Obviously higher in price as compared to testing strips, the liquid kits offer a more reliable and complete testing solution. Liquid testing kits like the LaMotte ColorQ Pro Water Chemistry Liquid Test Kit make use of reagents that are added to sample water and results are read on a user-friendly comparator.

Liquid testing kits like the 4-Way Test Kit Liquid Solution are economical and easy to use, and some like the Taylor Basic Residential DPD Test Kit take maintenance a step further and include a dosage chart for translating test results into treatment.

Digital Pool Testers

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word digital – accurate and fast, right? Well when it comes to digital water testers, accuracy and promptness is what these amazing testers offer. Extremely easy to use, the digital water testers often feature LCD display, water-resistant housing, memory function, and no color matching, so reading results is a snap.

Digital pool testers have electrodes that measure chemical levels in the water with results that have more accuracy and dependability. Of course more on the expensive side, Digital water testers are definitely my favorite for a reliable, complete and fast water testing solution.

As a pool owner, you know that pool maintenance is not easy and does not come at a flip of a button. Regular pool testing is an important foundation to prevent other pool problems. These water testing solutions mentioned above are perfect to keep water balance easy and make your overall pool maintenance a little lighter.

Liquid Kits

Most liquid test kits use a chemical indicator called DPD to measure free chlorine. If you are testing for free chlorine using a DPD test kit, be aware that high levels of combined chlorine (chloramines) can cause false positives when using a DPD test for free chlorine. Low to moderate levels of combined chlorine is neutralized in most DPD kits.

Levels of combined chlorine will occasionally build up to such a level that the free chlorine test result will show that there is some level of free chlorine when in fact there is none present. A strong, foul chloramine odor may confirm that there is a high level of combined chlorine present.

Pay close attention to the chlorine reaction when adding DPD indicator (usually DPD No. 2). Free Chlorine reacts immediately with DPD to form a pink color, while combined chlorine generally reacts more slowly; therefore, if you do not get an immediate reaction and color develops after a few seconds or minutes, you are likely seeing combined chlorine react with the DPD indicator.

Elevated sanitizer levels can also cause problems for liquid test kits. First, high chlorine (greater than 1ppm) or high bromine (greater than 20 ppm) can cause the pH indicator to form a purple color that does not match the pH color scale. This color is similar to the high pH colors, to 8.ppm. Be careful not to mistake this for a high reading and add acid when it is not necessary.

If chlorine or bromine levels appear on the high side of the scale, and pH is reading a purple color, the best thing to do is wait for the sanitizer level to drop to an acceptable level and test again. If pressed for time, however, you can add a drop of sodium thiosulfate to neutralize the chlorine. This is less than ideal because thiosulfate solutions have a high pH, meaning that you are increasing the pH of the sample and again getting potentially high pH results.

Another problem caused by high sanitizer levels is that the DPD indicator can be “bleached out.” A common indicator that this is happening is a flash of color when the indicator is added that quickly becomes colorless. If you see this happening, dilute the sample and retest. You may, for example, use half sample water to be tested and half fresh water, ideally distilled water, as it contains no chlorine and little or no chlorine demand. Then run the test again using the same procedure. This will provide a result that is half the actual value, so you will need to multiply the result by two to obtain the correct reading. Higher sanitizer levels may require greater dilution in order to get an accurate reading.

Water testing frequency

Since some elements change slightly slower and others faster, water testing should be done in different frequencies: pH and chlorine are done daily; temperature and alkalinity are done weekly, and calcium hardness and stabilizer levels are tested monthly.

Knowing your pool’s chemical character in different settings and temperatures will help you monitor changes in scheduling water tests on the pool.

Kinds of pool test kits

The demand for pool testing kits has consistently increased in the past years, and various types and brands fill the market.

The pool test kits that you will find as you shop around will fall under any of these basic types.

Wet chemistry kit – this kit is considered as the most advanced method of pool testing. It comes in two forms – OTO (Orthotolidine) and DPD (Diethyl p-phenylenediamine). With this kit you get the exact outcomes using the color comparing block to filter the water from a plastic vial.

OTO kit – compared to the DPD, this kit is less expensive for the reason that it can only test the amount of total chlorine in the pool, and does not distinguish between the amount of free chlorine and combined chlorine. This can pose an issue in figuring out the amount of sanitizer to be used.

DPD kit – this kit is used to measure the amount of free and total chlorine in the swimming pool by extracting a water sample from the pool and adding more than a few drops of reagent into it. There’s a little waiting involved before the results show. This method is more reliable than other testing strips, with more enhanced details and higher accuracy.

Using Test Strips to Test Your Pool Water

Using a Digital Test Kit to Test Your Pool Water

Using the Solaxx SafeDip digital chemistry tester would be the easiest and most accurate way to test your pool water. Fill the bottom 1/of the sample cup with the water sample. Make sure to collect the water at least 1.5” from the surface. The other option is to submerse the probes directly into the water sample.

Solaxx SafeDip Digital Chemistry Tester

The SafeDip is a digital chemistry reader designed to make measuring pool parameters easy. Simply collect the water sample from the pool using the onboard cup and press the Start button to take your measurement.

Using a Liquid Test Kit to Test Your Pool Water

The HydroTools Deluxe Dual Chlorine & pH Liquid Test Kit uses different solutions that you must add to a sample of the pool water to check the chemical levels.

HydroTools Deluxe Dual Chlorine & pH Liquid Test Kit

Two way test kit tests for pH and chlorine levels. Deluxe two vial design with color keyed indicator solutions. Includes instructions and storage case.

General Hydroponics PH Test Kit

If you’ve got your own pH solutions, then you ought to go for this swimming pool kit. You simply have to put a small amount of water inside its test tube, followed by some drops of pH solutions and it will tell whether the pH level is right. This test kit works efficiently when compared to prolong style meter most people use.

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If you’ve had your pool or spa for more than a couple of months and have maintained clean, clear, healthy water, then you already have been testing your water chemistry regularly as part of your maintenance routine. If you haven’t been testing, then you’ll want to start doing so right away so as to avoid problems brought on by chemical imbalance. By testing on a regular basis, you should be able to keep ahead of most issues BEFORE they become major problems. Testing and adjusting your water chemistry may seem overwhelming, but you don’t need a PhD in chemistry to keep your water balanced. All it takes is a test kit (whether you use liquid kits or test strips), and a regular schedule for testing and keeping up with adding the chemicals as needed. My assumption is either you’re trying to figure out which of the two types is better for you, OR you already have an opinion. In this blog we’ll explore your testing options and what the advantages and disadvantages there are to both types of tests.

Reagent Test Kit

OTO simply gives total chlorine levels. Remember, total chlorine is simply the sum of the good, effective chlorine available to do its job of sanitizing the water, AND combined chlorine – this is simply spent chlorine bound up with organic waste thereby rendered useless, and needing to be burned off. Another advantage of the DPD test kit is that it will typically also test for more chemical levels than the simple OTO-Phenol kit, giving such readings as total alkalinity, calcium, cyanuric acid (chlorine stabilizer), to name a few.

The second, and by far, more popular method of testing water is the test strip. Test strips originated in the 1960’s from their use in the medical diagnostic field, where they quickly came to replace many liquid reagents while performing medical lab testing. Depending upon how these are used, test strips can be just as accurate, or more, than liquid testing methods. Since the user only needs to briefly dip the strip into the water and compare to a color chart with corresponding chemical readings, this has become the test method of choice for the overwhelming majority of pool and spa owners. Add to this the fact that now the average consumer can test for other chemical levels such as calcium harness, chlorine stabilizer, etc. and you have a test method that is simple, fast and able to give quite a bit of information not easily available previously.

So we’re going to need some kind of way to test our water.We need an easy way to look at levels of chlorine / bromine, pH, and total alkalinity. And ideally we want just one kit that is going to test all these main water characteristics at once.

Chlorine

If we add chlorine to perfectly pure and clean water in our hot tub, it simply disperses to become what is called free chlorine. As the water becomes contaminated by use, the free chlorine attaches to the contaminants and becomes combined chlorine (or chloramines).

It’s chloramines that produce the chlorine odour that many people find unpleasant. When we complain of too much chlorine, it is normally the chloramines causing the powerful chlorine smell.

One of the downsides when adding chlorine to your hot tub is that it does have a short effective life in hot water. So requires constant monitoring, adjusting and adding. The upside is that it is cheap.

Bromine

Bromine and chlorine are very closely related in what they are able to achieve for us in our hot tub.

But bromine acts a little differently than chlorine. It is much more stable in hot water, and so is able to maintain it’s residual content in the hot water better. When the bromine content has finished its effective sanitising cycle it remains dormant in the tub. By adding a non-chlorine shock treatment the bromine springs back into life and start sanitising your tub again.

Bromine is generally more expensive than chlorine, but requires less attention and less quantity to keep the tub pristine. It also does not have the unpleasant chlorine odour.

Not quite as simple as pouring in some water! They are

Brad S,, Concord, NC, 1/21/201accuracy, from even a relatively new operator. Cost: speed and cost can go hand in hand, to a degree. Simplicity: keeping it uncomplicated by using dosed testing chemicals, disposable components and a minimum items that require rinsing and cleaning for each test.

Hardness and Cyanuric Acid. It is done with a colorimeter and all you have to do is read the answers on the large, LCD display. No colors to distinguish and no more guesswork.

We have a 4424gallon salt water pool. We own a meter that tells us our salt and total TDS reading.. we have heard that our TDS reading may be a bit higher since it is salt water… did not know if you could give us an equation that would give us a TDS only reading. salt will vary from salt chlorinator manufacturer to manufacturer and even by model. Assuming that the salt level is 3000 PPM and the TDS is 4500 PPM, that means that the TDS would have been around 1500 PPM, even if no salt was added. These values are but a fraction of the levels in ocean water, which can be 1timers higher than the salt level in your pool. 1500 PPM of non-salt TDS is high and is not ideal, as it can interfere with clarity, water quality and sanitizer effectiveness. You need to test the tap water. In places, like Arizona, it can be 1000 PPM or more, right out of the faucet. In that case, water replacement is not a realistic option. If the TDS is low, partial replacement is an option. Your question refers to bathers getting rashes. The cause of rashes is more likely to be inadequate sanitation, too high a level of combined chlorine, too high a free chlorine level and pH readings that are too far removed from the ideal of 7.2-7.8, as opposed to high TDS. Salt chlorine generators tend to cause the pH to rise, unless regular additions of acid are made.

Final Word

First of all thanks for reading my article to the end! I hope you find my reviews listed here useful and that it allows you to make a proper comparison of what is best to fit your needs and budget. Don’t be afraid to try more than one product if your first pick doesn’t do the trick.

Most important, have fun and choose your digital pool water tester wisely! Good luck!

So, TOP3 of digital pool water tester

• №1 — JNW Direct 6 in 1 Pool & Spa Test Strips
• №2 — Risantec Digital PH Meter Tester Best For Water Aquarium Pool Hot Tub Hydroponics Wine – Push Button Calibration Resolution .01 / High Accuracy +/- .05 – Large LCD Display – Satisfaction Guaranteed
• №3 — LaMotte 2056 ColorQ Pro 7 Digital Pool Water Test Kit

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