Never heard of that. I just use it, rinse it off well with cold water, shake the water off, put it in my glass.Thought some kind of buffer was needed to ensure long life of probe.
Never heard of that. I just use it, rinse it off well with cold water, shake the water off, put it in my glass.Thought some kind of buffer was needed to ensure long life of probe.
I made the mistake in buying the ATP pen that everyone uses, and while it does work, I made the bonehead move and dropped it in water. Luckily I bought the ph up and down kit that has the liquid drops tester to get me by until my new pen arrives. I definitely recommended this one. Cost more than the yellow ATP pen, but it’s waterproof in the event you make the same mistake I made.Hey everyone. Im in the market for a new Ph meter and was wondering if anyone has any recommendations. I run a low pressure aero system with 35 gallon reservoirs and am currently using an Oakley Ph pen and it no longer calibrates correctly. What is the best meter you have used?
I can’t justify the cost of the blue lab since I only need to ph between 6.5-7 anyway. All that ppm run off testing is useless to me. Not that it doesn’t serve a purpose for some people, it just doesn’t in my grows. I honestly didn’t have a problem with the yellow ATP pen like I said above, I just don’t wanna end up dropping it again. I will say however, that the blue lab is definitely far superior than the ATP or the waterproof pen by far. If you can afford it, by all means get it. If you want something a little more affordable and not have to worry about water getting in the circuitry, the waterproof pen isn’t a bad choice. I only ran into ph discrepancies when I didn’t leave my probe sitting in the 7.0 solution.Had a cheap pH meter, like pictured here, it would test fine in 4.0 and 7.0 solution but when i got a Blue Lab combo meter to compare it with, I found that the cheaper meter was off by quite a bit in the middle. As in, 4.0 solution would read 4.0 and 7.0 would read 7.0, but my 6.0 nutrient solution would read 6.5-6.8. Uhh...
Also found my cheap TDS was consistently off by 280ppm. At least that was easy to adjust.
So I count my BL combo meter as one of the best investments I’ve made into growing, because it fixed so many of the weird anomalies I was battling.
I ran into this multiple times from brand to brand. Only way to get them close is by leaving them in the solution when not in use. Other than that, the readings are always off from each other.I have the cheap HM ph & TDS meters, and I also have a bluelab combo meter (pH/TDS/temp).
I CANNOT get the two brands to agree on any reading, not even closely. The exception is calibration solutions. They both read those exactly the same (but after calibration both still disagree in field use). Has anybody else observed this?
I have decided that I will trust the readings from the bluelab combo meter, as I believe it is a higher quality brand.
I mean its normal but the handhelds are way faster. Gotta dunk both the combo meters inside then press EC wait for it to stabilize which feels like forever cause its slower for some reason. Then onto pH....wait for it to stabilize...... tick tock tick tock. Also it not having an off key bothers me too.Really? what kind of temps do you have in your res? I'm finding my readings stabilize under 30sec in the low 70s.
Is that time frame considered high? I'm kind of new to all these meters and measurements. When i was a kid it was just pop a seed and keep it watered!
I use pH probes often for work, and yes, the bulb is to be kept moist during storage. On professional meters this usually means keeping a damp piece of sponge in a container that envelops the bulb (i.e. in the cap). Might be fine to just leave it in a glass of water (the sponge is used I believe in part when probes are shipped [leaking liquids = bad]).Thought some kind of buffer was needed to ensure long life of probe.
So by storage solution, do you mean a 7.0 cal solution?I use an Hanna HI-9813 6N. It is a professional PH EC TDS meter. I did not get it for weed, I got it because for a while I was selling organic hot sauce that I grew and made. In order to ensure that it met requirements I needed a meter with high accuracy, then i found it useful in brewing beer and now cultivation of cannabis. I store it in storage solution, which you should do with all ph probes to prevent the electrode from degrading due to salt buildups etc. I do calibrate regularly. I have nothing bad to say about this tool, I have been extremely pleased with it for about 10 years now.
I use Hanna Storage solution. You can just search for PH meter storage solution. The storage solution is different than a cal or buffer solution. Just put some in the cap. I have a cleaning solution, a storage solution and 4, 7 and 10 cal solutions.So by storage solution, do you mean a 7.0 cal solution?
.I like this one .... pretty stable readings plus water proof.
Under $100 .... don’t Remember exact price but ordered on Walmart . Com and got free ship at the time.
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I actually bought an Apera PH60S after your quiz. Yet to use it as I’m stocking up for my winter grow.Apera PH60S is my favorite, it will read soil or coco as well as liquids. The normal PH60 is cheaper and is liquid only. Gets readings fast and has 2 decimal point accuracy.
Bluelab makes a great pen, slower to read, 1 decimal precision.