LaMotte ColorQ Water Tester

[donaldm823]

Does anyone have experience with LaMotte's new ColorQ water test system. It is a colorimeter system vice test strips and uses liquid regents, and then tests 6 different pool chemistry values based on a measured color through this electronic device. (Free CL, Total Chlorine, pH, TA, CH, CYA. ) I am particulary interested in the hardness (CH) accuracy.

[tenax]

haven't seen anything on this forum in my many roamings except the info here if you go some threads into it:

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=7394

[Poolsean]

Just got one from LaMotte. I will be trying it out this week. I will let you know what I think after I get some use of it.

[CelticDaddio]

How do you like the ColorQ so far?

Ed

Just got one from LaMotte. I will be trying it out this week. I will let you know what I think after I get some use of it.

[waterbear]

Just got an email back from LAMotte tech support about the ColorQ. This is what they had to say:
The ColorQ has accuracy of ± 0.1ppm on chlorine and pH, ± 15ppm on alk,
and ± 20ppm on hardness and cya. The cyanuric acid test is a difficult
one with a meter like the ColorQ, since it is a turbidity style reaction.
(it gets you in the ballpark on cya). The chlorine and pH tests are great.
The alkalinity test has been performing very well, my ColorQ has given me
readings within ± 5 to 10ppm on alk. Hardness is another tough one, but
the ±20ppm isn't so bad when you consider the wide range of hardness from
200 - 400ppm. So all in all, it is actually a great meter for that price.

I feel this is a very honest answer and based on it and knowing LaMotte's reputation I would say this is a worthwhile unit for the home pool owner! A drop counting test for calcium hardness is +/- 10 ppm for the Taylor reagents so this is not that bad and the standard disapprearing dot test for CYA is extremely subjective. My original question to LaMotte was concerning how well the ColorQ compares to more expensive colorimeters that usually cost in the neighborhood of $1000!

[MikeInMo]

Please add me to the list as well anxiously waiting to hear on how well these work.

I was too late to get Ben's kit last year and was planning on getting a good drop kit, (probably the kit offered at troublefree.com), but with the number of tests included in the colorq with somewhat reasonable refill prices...
But who am I kidding, it's the GEEK factor that has me looking at this.

All I currently have is the Walmart 6-way and am quickly running out of my CYA test so I need to replace the kit soon.

Last question....Where can you buy the Colorq? I've only seen 1 place and he's posted that he's backordered for 2-3 weeks...any other ideas where it can be purchased?

Thanks,
Mike