SWCG Maintenance Question

[Watermom]

Just popping on to say hi, BTDG, Richard and Sean. Glad to see you are still with us!

[BigTallGuy]

Kits with a separate chlorine neutralizer that use them in the pH test are a half-baked attempt at making things work. More neutralizer is not better, especially when the chlorine level is < 5 ppm. Again, get a proper test kit. There is absolutely no excuse for it and I don't mean just the pH test. Without a FAS-DPD chlorine test it is impossible to do an accurate overnight chlorine loss test or even a 24-hour test to accurately determine chlorine demand nor is it possible to know if you have a Combined Chlorine (CC) problem with any reasonable degree of accuracy. And, of course, if you ever need to shock the pool, without a FAS-DPD kit you will be clueless as to the actual FC level (unless you significantly do dilution ratios for DPD for very rough accuracy).

Richard, I have been thinking about your response when you say "There is absolutely no excuse for it". All I can say is, this is the first time that I have read on this Forum or heard anyplace else that a test kit that uses a seperate chlorine neutralizer for Ph testing is bad.

I have seen a hundred posts on this forum to buy and use the Taylor Test kits, as they are simply the best, but not why they are the best. Maybe I'm the first guy to bring it up. Maybe I need to read more posts.

There are probably hundreds of thousands of pool owners across the U.S. that use these cheap testers, not knowing this little tid-bit of information.

Now that I can't use ignorance as an excuse, I guess I'll look for a new tester. So I simply want to thank you for educating me and maybe a few thousand others.

Thanks again for your generous support.

P.S. Hi Mom

[Flysurfn]

How does temp affect overall test readings? I have not tested my pool in a couple months. The h2o temp is 37...
just curious...

[chem geek]

All else equal, lower temperature will have the pH of the water rise which naturally helps to keep the saturation index stable. So if you find that the pH has risen from 7.5 to 7.7 as the temperature dropped, don't worry about it. Also, since pH is temperature dependent, you do NOT want to warm the water to room temperature before measuring pH.

The other water chemistry tests will still work at lower temperatures, though may take a little longer for reactions after mixing. The CYA test may not be as accurate, however, so that's one to get to room temperature before doing the test.

FC, CC, TA, CH should all report correctly at colder temps and should give you the same result even if you warmed the water to room temp first.

[Flysurfn]

thanks
good info