Does anyone have experience with the Trutest?

[salinda]

Just wondering if this might be good for the more frequent testing of pH and TC. Also looks to be a faster method for alk.

http://www.aquachek.com/

I know test strips are usually not as accurate as the drop tests, but sometimes I have trouble discerning what level of yellow I have in the comparator for the chlorine in particular.

I thought the meter might take away some of the guess work.

[nicole12]

Pretty neat, I wonder how much it costs.

[tenax]

I agree with you selinda..i was just thinking this morning with my kit that it was hard to tell what the chlorine was at. well, according to the trutest site..not only are strips more accurate than chemical testing..but the ota test causes cancer! (seriously..read their info)

the cheapest i have found so far is about 45 bucks then 12 or so for the strips here:

http://www.h2opoolproducts.com/produ...oducts_id=1402

aside from initial investment on the gadget, the strips are a bit pricey but if you use a 50 pack in a year..or even in 2 years..that's not really pricey..now, i have to find someone who will sell me one from the us to canada stupid laws about shipping chemicals across border..i get that, but this isn't a chemical!

[tenax]

hmmmm..read this review:
I was excited to have a quick way to check my pool chemistry without doing drops or test strips. The drop test and strip tests can be subjective about the exact reading and color match on the charts. I wanted something the wife and kids could easily use and just read me the numbers when I was away on a trip. The Aquacheck Trutest is a great concept but I tried over and over to get two back to back readings that were close to each other (For reliabilty of data). When I tried to get the "drops" tests to match up to the Trucheck readings, they weren't even close. I took water samples to my pool supply house to determine which test type was accurate. I had them simultaneously analyze a water sample while I stood there and did two strip tests with the Aquacheck. The Aquacheck was in the ballpark on Chlorine and PH but way off on Alkalinity. We reran the tests several times and came to a conclusion that the aquacheck was off. I'm glad I verified the readings before I poured hundreds of dollars worth of chemicals in the pool trying to chase the Aquacheck readings.....I'm going back to the drops tests. YMMV

UPDATE: I contacted Aquacheck about my accuracy findings. They were very helpful and understanding and said there was a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) link on their website that should explain more thoroughly how to get an accurate reading. The lady said that variations in readings will occur if you wait too long to read the strip or leave the strip in the water too long.

FINAL UPDATE: After reviewing the exact procedures with the Aquachek Tech rep, I performed 5 identical tests and came up with Chlorine readings between 0.6 and 6.1, PH between 7.0 and 8.1 and Alkalinity between 95 and 185. All 5 tests were done within five miuntes of each other in our pool. I am very disappointed that the gauge is useless to me since I can't correct the water chemistry if I have no idea what the actual values are. I will give credit to the fact that the tech rep was very friendly and helpful but, that doesn't account for the $70 I (lost) paid for gauge and strips ZERO Stars


doesn't look good.. i went to the aquacheck website and there are "new and improved" instructions on how to use including doing a back flip while you're testing while standing on your head..ok..not thatttt bad..but part of it involves quickly flicking your wrist to get rid of excess water..my translation is.."damn..this thing actually isn't very accurate and we don't know how to change it to make it more accurate so can we figure a way where the results will come out pretty close each time? here's what i think..i think the gadget is water sensitive in that if the amount of water on the strip varies from test to test it will read differently. found a place i can buy one..would cost me 100 canadian for duties, shipping the gadget and 100 strips (which are only guaranteed to be good for 18 months so if i were to buy it, i'd drop that to 50 strips which should last more than one season) but i'm not going to pull the trigger on this based on a lame "new and improved instruction" sheet and no other reviews beyond this one which is scathing..

[tenax]

well, one more update..i decided to be a guinea pig on the basis that if the updated instructions work, they should be aware of the issue and they..should work and companies are selling them still so.....i found about 5 different dealers on ebay, 3 that will sell to canada, so i'm hoping to buy one from one of them. our local dealers don't have them in stock yet (i think they came out on the market early may) and given the size of my market and how few pools are here. (about 350 in a city of 80,000) i'm not confident they'll bother trying to stock them. i've won one..now, to confirm they'll ship it to canada..if so, i hope to have it within about 6-10 days. i'll report back and be interested if anyone else gets one and can report results in the meantime.

[salinda]

I read that review too, but then I looked at the website for Trutest and they have updated instructions. I don't know if the reviewer was following directions or not. They say to shake off the excess water and things like that.