ph/OTO test kit help

[haeffnkr]

Hello,

I have my Ben's Ph/OTO test kit and I bought a new Taylor test kit at Leslies this year. This the second year I have used this drop kit, before it was strips for 2 years, so I dont have too much experience with this yet.

My Ph was reading 7.2 to 7.4 this spring I kept adding borax to get it a little higher and it was not responding over 9 days. I took a sample into Leslies and they, like me said it was at 7.4....so I believe my testing is good...more borax...

I finally used the new kit, after I dropped the tester/vile thingy and the color chart fell off.. - exactly the same as Bens kit. and after using the same sample water 4 times in the same vile/tester the old reagents from Bens kit and the new Taylor kit read 7.2 vs 7.9.

So is it safe to say these reagents need to be replaced every year or which kit was right?
I guess the pool store had old reagants too?
Confused here...

thanks Kevin

[waterbear]

Taylor has different pH reagents for different comparators. The OTO/pH two way tester has a small pH sample tube and uses reagent R-0014. If you new kit is K-2000 series kit with the 44 ml sample tube for pH tests then it uses reagent R-0004. The two are not interchangeable and will give incorrect readings if used in the wrong comparator.

Edit: Ben's pH/OTO tester is a rebranded Taylor K-1000. Leslie's kits are rebranded Taylor kits also. If you got the DPD Service complete kit or the DPD Complete kit it's a Taylor K-2005 (only difference is the size of the reagents included), if it's the FAS-DPD kit it's a K-2006. Both these kits use the R-0004 pH reagent. All the other Leslie's kits I have seen use the 1000 series comparator block and the R-0014 pH reagent (DPD deluxe, DPD basic, and OTO basic).

[haeffnkr]

Hello,
thanks for the response.

I checked both kits before I posted, both are exactly the same.
Both have the same tester, the same r-0014 and r-0600 reagants.

What is the shelf life of the testing solutions (kept inside, not extreme temps) ?
Did my solutions get old and read invalid?

[waterbear]

It is possible that you have a bad reagent. It has been noted before that if you do multilpe pH tests in a row sometimes the pH will read higher, possibly because the tester was not rinsed out properly. I would try testing again, rinsing out the tester with pool water several times between tests and if the new reagent is testing higher I would contact Taylor with the lot number. Phenol red usually does not go bad. I have some that is about 7 years old and is still testing the same as a brand new bottle I got about 2 months ago!

[haeffnkr]

Hello,

I do rinse my tester out very well between tests and used the same sample water for the test....I will try it again and see what happens.

Good idea to call Taylor/Leslie if my results are bad....

What about dropper/droplets size?
Could that be the problem?
I wiped both droppers after the first tests but they stayed the same on the seconds ones?

[haeffnkr]

I tried the test again this morning....same results 7.0/7.1 vs 7.9?
I washed the tester several times in the pool and the caps to, between tests....I guess I will go to Leslie tonight for a third opinion?

Really confused here....

thanks for the help thus far.
Kevin