ah fak

so my oakton ph pen died. tried new batteries still didnt work in the market for a new ph pen and was thinking of also getting one with a ec meter with it. any ideas on a good ph/ec meter preferably under 200 or if the 2 are separate and work good. looking for something that will last longer then a year.

You're lucky, my first pH pen was an Oakton and it never worked once. My next was a tri-meter that turned out to be a $200+ piece of garbage. After wasting over $300 on those two I opted to buy a Hanna and Milwaukee pens for about $20 each (not at the same time) and they lasted for well over two years. Just because it's expensive doesn't meant it's better.

I'm a bit biased as I am quite selective with my equipment.. but did a bit of googling, and you can get a Bluelabs Combo meter on Ebay right now for under 200 total... it'll do pH/EC/Temp of solution.. and for nutes.. covers: EC/CF/ppm 500/ppm 700 .. on top of that, The combo meter has a -five year- warranty on it which is clearly shown on their main site as well: http://www.getbluelab.com/Support/Bluelab+Product+Guarantee.html Hope this helps a bit

potpimp said:

You're lucky, my first pH pen was an Oakton and it never worked once. My next was a tri-meter that turned out to be a $200+ piece of garbage. After wasting over $300 on those two I opted to buy a Hanna and Milwaukee pens for about $20 each (not at the same time) and they lasted for well over two years. Just because it's expensive doesn't meant it's better.

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As pimp mentioned, there are a few 20-30 dollar Milwaukee pens that I have owned and they are pretty damn decent for what you're spending in the big picture, also greed on the more expensive doesn't mean it's better

my ppm pen was like 15 20 and got it at the same time and works just fine. i got the older oakton for the reason the oakton 2 was getting bashed with bad reviews. mine was good while it last but never calibrated right but always read the right reading afterwards.

i use a black hanna that does ec/ppm.5 / PH.
replaced the PH tip 2x and replaced the batteries 4 or 5. Had it 3 or 4 years. still works good.

just putting it out there: if you feed reasonably you don't need a pH pen. Tons of people kill it without that stuff.

if you do feed the need to use water meters: Bluelab is top of the line. Bluelab, bluelab, bluelab. if you're going to spend money on this type of equipment, don't buy something cheap that you're just going to have to replace over and over.