How to interprete Taylor Kit results

[waste]

I bought my K2005 a week ago, so I'm still on the learning curve.

But what I get as readings are not inline with my pool store readings.

I get a pH of about 7.6, they got 8.2

I get a TA of about 150, they get the same

I get a CH of 500~600, they got 375.

I get a CYA of 70~80, they got 50

We both get a TC/FC of 5

I went ahead and put in some muriatic acid to lower pH. I constantly aerate, so I was going to lower it to 7.2-ish anyway so I could reduce my TA.

The CH test has me all bamboozled.
What they did at the pool store is to add the reagent until the water first begins to change from pink.. not until it completely changed to blue (which is why they get a lower reading than I do). But which is the correct method?

They have a different way to test CYA than comes with the K2005. They have a large-ish tube they mix in the reagent, and then move a sliding scale up and down to see when the dot disapears. The scale then show them the CYA level.

But I sometimes wonder if I'm still seeing the dot, or just think I'm seeing it because I know it's there.. I guess this will all come with time and experience.

Mphare, I like the K2005, I've been using Taylor's complete high kit since 1990 for 'in field' testing - so I'm biased towards it. Everyone else here likes Ben's kit, which I believe is his private labled Taylor chems, so it has it's own topic here (makes perfect sense for the supplier of a test kit to have an area of his website devoted to his product, and is a heck of a lot more helpful than what you'd find on a 'Big Chem Co' website)

Anyway, you've got a couple ?'s, I've got some A's.
Re- cya test. I think the pool stores method may be a better indication of the actual #. When you or I do the test with the little squeeze bottle, we have to squirt it into the cl test chamber. When we'ree squirting, we are making lots of turbulence and entraining little air bubbles into the chamber, this makes the dot disappear quicker - solution; squirt until you lose the dot, then wait a couple of seconds and see if it reappears - if it does, slowly dribble the mixture down the side of the chamber until the dot goes away (repeat as necessary until the dot stays gone)

Re- calcium hardness test. You win this one, the test is not complete until the color change is permanent. Those little purple specks in the water aren't the endpoint, you may have to add 10+ more drops to get the entire sample to change to the end color (the higher the reading, the more 'in between' drops there are - for both CH and TA)

***Uncle Waste's Saturday Special (ask a ? and recieve a free tip)***

When you do the pH and cl test simultaniously, fill the comparator with water then hold the comparator by the cl side and shake out the pH side to the desired level (44 mL), add the 5 drops of phenol red (R-0004), rinse the cap in the pool and put it on the pH side(I find it easier to put the cap on 'backwards' - it seals just as well but is easier to play with). Then turn the comparator around and shake the cl side down to 9mL - add 5 R-0001 & 5 R-0002... etc. Once you've done the tests enough, you'll rarely have to 're-dip' because you splashed out too much water for the given test

It sounds to me that you've got a good grip on how to use the K-2005, should any other ?'s arise, give me a shout and I'll tell you what I can.

(FWIW- as soon as Ben's kits are ready for shipping, I'm going to be switching over to his, it's got wider range for cl & pH - watch for my 'learning curve' post on the kit's topic )

Congrats on the test kit, the pool and the desire to take good care of it, as evidenced by comming to the forum!

EDIT- When I started answering this, there were NO responses - I'm S-L-O-W