Why not recommend this test kit?

[True Blue]

At the beginning of the season, I bought the Taylor K-2006 kit, at the recommendation of this site. The kit is infinitely better than "guess strips" and the chlorine test chemicals are much better than the yellow "drops" kit. Also, the K-2006 does contain two bottles of the CYA test reagents, twice what other kits usually have.

However, the cost of the kit is prohibitive for some, as evidenced in reading some of the threads. Also, some of these posters already have a "drops" test kit that measures pH, alkalinity, calcium and CYA. In that case, I'd like to suggest this kit: http://www.amazon.com/Taylor-K-1515-...ef=pd_sbs_ol_3

It contains everything that you need to test the chlorine. It doesn't contain the phenol red test components, the acid/base demand tests (when will I ever use those? read in another thread that they were more trouble than they were worth) or the whole right side of the kit with reagents that I already have from my basic Wal-mart kit.

I can understand suggesting the K-2006 kit for new pool owners or those that have no test kit, but it seems like overkill (and wasted money) to suggest the kit for those that already have a basic "drops" kit.

[Watermom]

We do sometimes recommend that kit.

[waterbear]

The acid demand test is most useful if you are lowering TA or adding borates to your pool. The base demand test is more useful for trichlor users.

[True Blue]

We do sometimes recommend that kit.

I'll take your word for it. All I ever see is the "buy the K-2006 from Amato Industries, even if they are out of stock" message, sometimes after encouraging people to buy a drops kit from Walmart or someplace similar. If they have a full drops kit, I am not sure that they they need the K-2006.

[waterbear]

I'll take your word for it. All I ever see is the "buy the K-2006 from Amato Industries, even if they are out of stock" message, sometimes after encouraging people to buy a drops kit from Walmart or someplace similar. If they have a full drops kit, I am not sure that they they need the K-2006.

The drop kit from walmart is a 2 way test kit using OTO and a pH test. It is a stop gap for someone who needs a kit now to kill algae but does not test TA, CH, or CYA. If you have a Taylor K-2005 then the K-1515 will give you the full functionality of the K-2006 since the only difference between these kits is the chlorine testing method (DPD in the K-2005, FAS-DPD in the K-2006). If you have ANY other test kit (including the other kits in the Taylor 2000 and 1000 series then the K-2006 is still the best bet since the other 2000 series kits do not provide all the necessary tests and the 1000 series kits do not have the precision of the 2000 series so they are not the best choice. Other makes of drop based kits are very inexpensive and do not have the necessary tests either. The closest is the HTH test kit which is a Taylor kit 1000 series kit but it uses OTO for chlorine testing (total chlorine only) and does not test calcium hardness, only total hardness which is useless for determining saturation index. Other brands such as Pentair, Ace Hardware 5 way, are either very low quality, particularly when it comes to the comparator and reagents, or do not provide the needed tests (CYA and CH are often absent, even in the expensive Bioguard "professional' kits.)

NO matter how you look at it the K-2006 (or if you have a K-2005 already adding a K-1515) is the best way to go for just about everyone.
The only other manufacturer that has a similar FAS-DPD kit is LaMotte with their 7022 FAS-DPD kit but it is more expensive than the Taylor kit.