does your ph meter get you down?

[chorusverse]

I'm really here looking start a support group... i mean get some support in relation to peoples experience with ph meters. I bought a 95aud handheld... fell in love with it an thend it died within a week. took it back got a 140aud milwarkee bench type.... 2 days... am i the only one? the local proprieter tried to put me off even owning one as they said it happens constantly.. please help!!!!!!

[calaman]

man i got a 75$ dicksmith one and aint missed a beat in 3months, calibrate it once a fortnite and its neva been more than 0.05 out. I had a 20$ hongkong import and, as long as i calibrated it every few days, its ok

[jimbojones5678]

I can comment on this because I have owned all that are mentioned

 

Had the cheapo $20 ones from eBay - worked ok for $20, reasonable shelf life too

 

Owned a Milwakee - very good tester, reliable, easy to calibrate - but died suddenly one day for no reason???

 

Bought the Dick Smith version - very good for $50, easy to use and calibrate, had a life of about 6mths

 

Bought a Digitech one for $90 - dropped it in the res tank and completely screwed it after only a few days....

 

Bought the water proof $140 Hydro Shop one - haven't looked back, awesome machine, easy to calibrate, two decimal places, waterproof - gets my full recommendation!

 

Jimbo

[chorusverse]

thanks guys. what brand is your new one jimbo??

[kev.au]

I have a elcheapo ebay one, been over 6 months and still going strong, around $20 if i recall.

[GIY]

pH meters <$100 are not worth having. Furthermore decent ones have to have their probe replaced yearly and be calibrated weekly.

 

This is all a senseless waste of money considering that for the accuracy you require in hydro a $7 pH chemical indicator tester will do the job not only perfectly but better then the digital units because of its reliability and more importantly consistency.

Another thing is because it only gives you an approximation (+ - .5 pH units) you wont tend to spend hours trying to get 6.5.

[Crunchy]

i was using the chemical tester until i got my cheap $35 (w/postage) tester off of ebay, had it for a few weeks now and its working great. i'll let u know if it starts to fuck up.

[chorusverse]

hey GIY,

i Totally agree with you about the cheap $7 kits, they never let you down. I have always used them. Only thing at present during my 8 wks i have 4 plants all 2 weeks apart in coco, handwatered, so they all want a differnt mix on any day usually(eg pk/final flush bla bla), so doing 4 tanks every day or 2 is getting really tedious. digi meter cuts mix time by 75%. that's all

 

 

Thanks crunchy,

hope i don't hear from you on that subject... best of luck

 

And by the way, The meter seems to be working ok again after some cleaning fluid and another recalibration, fingers crossed.