Help my Ph tester crapped out on me

First off, if this is in the wrong section mods please move but i felt hydroponics and ph tester go hand and hand.

So i have a oakton ph tester 1 that i've had for 7 or so years. He my trusty little fellow. Anyway today it fell off a desk and dropped about 3 feet. I'm thinking no biggy, this guy is a champ. Well i go to check my ph and the thing won't turn on. I'm thinking i jarred something with the batteries so i throw a new set in and nothing. So I'm starting to get mad and don't have the funds for a new one til harvest and thats roughly 50 days away..... So i pull the probe off the thing and it instantly turns on. I can put the probe back on and use it but as soon as i turn it off it does not turn back on... Until i pull the probe again. I'm willing to do this everytime i need to check ph but i figured there are some electronic gurus on here that might know a thing or two about the ph tester.

I'm thinking it thinks there is a short when the probe is connected so it doesn't make a full circuit. So when i pull the probe it bypasses it and works. Does this make sense? Heck a $30 new probe is better than buying a new one at around 80-100 bucks.

Thanks.

im not sure you can trust the reading it gives now, just to easy to fuck thing up
get a 5$ drop kit to cross reference the reading

after getting my Hanna tester I made sure I wrote down how much a capfull of pH down took a gallon of water just in case I dont have my tester with me.

I have a hannah ph pen. Seems like I always have to adjust that thing it seems like. Are these things alway unreliable or just something they have bad meters or what.

yea, id go with the drop kit from wally world. im still using it until i can convince myself to spend the money.

Thanks for all the replies. I prob will pick up a 5 dollar kit, but i think the thing is dead on. When i stick it in either the 4.0 or 7.0 calibration solution its dead on the money. I'm wondering if the guy at the hydro store will let me throw on a probe and see it it turns on with a new one.

Sounds like you may have a bad connection; does jiggling the BNC connector (where the probe wire enters the case) change things? If so, you may need to crack the case and re-solder a lead somewhere.

YThor said:

Sounds like you may have a bad connection; does jiggling the BNC connector (where the probe wire enters the case) change things? If so, you may need to crack the case and re-solder a lead somewhere.

Click to expand...

I haven't tried jiggling it yet, but as i am pulling the probe off an i can see the 6 or so connections as soon as it comes apart the screen turns on (if it was on). If it was off and it the on/off button it displays perfectly fine. I love tearing things down and "trying" to fix them but this is prob one of those things that i'm gonna hold off cuz i can't afford to break it completely. I think as harvest gets closer i might take it apart... Heck i might get so high i feel like tearing it apart so who knows. I looke in there from the probe side and it looks like a simple board. I'm just not good at tracing down a short if its not obvious.

I dont know your setup, but i am so used to adding the same amount of everything into my water I can make a batch, add the right amount of base and just check the PH at the end to make sure it is right. If I wasnt able to check i dont think it would be a big deal.

hanna pen suck in my opion

Hanna sucks. I have two of them, they are never in agreement
Drops are fast, cheap and right on.

i wanna get a pen for the simple fact that i have 5 res. tanks and it takes so much time measuring out the solution, testing, adjusting, measure out solution, test again, etc... whats the cheapest most accurate pen then?

Yeah I hear you brother, but to be honest, unless your meter reads very fast (my 2 hanna meters do not, they take about 1-2min. before they finally get to a stable reading) you are going to be faster with the drops imo.
My favorite color, piss yellow lol.

Good luck bro!

the drops work fine for me, yellowish orange is about as dead on as it gets LOL. You should be writing down the amounts of base / acid that you use for each batch so you can dial in the next time you make it, your goal ultimately being to add one serving of base or acid and then test once at the end.

Yep, that's what I do as well.

I've never had a problem with my Oakton until now. If for some reason this one is shot i will probably buy another Oakton. It reads instantly.

Update: Now it won't turn on with the probe unattached. It will only turn on when i pull the probe halfway off at an angle. I toke a pic of it and might post it. Its kinda strange how the angle of the probe connected makes it work.

I would go for one that is instantly and accurate.

damn. this is shitty news. mine read 6 at a light green.

I think i'll hold off on buying a new ph tester til harvest. I still might go by the hydro shop and stick a new electrode on and see if that fixes it. But I only have the ph 1 tester and would like to get the ph 2 tester by oakton. that .1 accuracy could mean the difference of good looking plants to great looking plants.

Do you happen you have a soldering iron? If so I bet that it is just something that needs to be re-soldered inside there. (if the connection is re-established by bending).

Crack her open and post a few pics of the inside.