IN CANADA: Where to buy Taylor Test Kit???

[giroup01]

I can't comment on anything said here, I'm not on this board to sell stuff. I can say that there is an exclusive distributorship between Taylor US and Lowry, absolutely all the Taylor stuff sold in Canada has to go through Lowry, period. As a Taylor reseller I get all my stuff from Lowry directly.

[giroup01]

I was at a pool store yesterday inquiring about CYA. They recommended test strip kit and told me the drop kits were a thing of the past! To time consuming!

There exists standardized, recognized methods for testing water parameters, basically a committee of experts sits down and comes up with the best method of testing, say, alkalinity. They publish the "recipe" for the test, including how to prepare the reagents, what quantities to use, what interferences you may see, etc. They put all the recipes in a huge book.

Anybody in the world who then wants to test for alkalinity looks in the book, follows the steps, and is certain he is measuring alkalinity, with whatever percentage of accuracy and precision, knowing to look out for whatever interference.

If you're working in a water filtration plant and testing something as critical as drinking water from the filtration plant, you better be sure your methods are approved and recognized. (And that everybody there tests the same way so the results are all interpreted the same way - unlike the pool stores.)

The book is called "Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater", the committee is called the American Water Works Association.

The tests found in Taylor products follow, almost to the letter, these procedures.

What this means is that you're sure that, if you follow the instructions, the test results are accurate, precise and repeatable.

The same cannot be said for test strips.

[waterbear]

If your local walmart carries HTH brand chemicals then they should carry the HTH 6 way kit. If they carry Aqua Chem they will only carry the Aqua Chem two way kit (it is not really a 3 way kit, but OTO and Phenol red so it will test chlorine or bromine and pH.)

[PoolDoc]

I'm very sorry to have to hijack this thread, but I've personally run afoul of rabid environmental enforcers more than once, and neither ignorance of the law, or the idiotic nature of the law itself, offers any reasonable protection.

Environmental enforcers are sometimes entirely reasonable sincere people.

But some are megalomaniacal individuals with a firm belief that they, and they alone, can save Mother Earth from the evil depredations of business people everywhere, and especially, evil Americans.

Canadian WHMIS regulations are nightmarishly confusing and can be applied under certain conditions to US shippers. So the warnings I received about the advice here are very plausible. Without recourse to an EXPENSIVE attorney who is expert in international hazardous material shipping regulations, I simply have to assume the worst, and shut it down.

I don't like it, but can do little about it.

Regarding Lowry, and their enormously bloated pricing, I strongly suspect much of that is opportunistic, rather necessary.

Neil Lowry was one of the first "experts" in pool chemistry I met, after entering the pool industry. I was very impressed by his PhD at first, but I got over it. He died a few years ago, and they say you shouldn't speak ill of the dead, so I'll change the topic.

Howeve, it came about, the Lowry monopoly on Taylor products in Canada has been around for a long time, and is fiercely defended. Even though the monopoly predates WHMIS, I would fully expect them to use WHMIS in whatever way they can to protect that monopoly.

So, the only reasonable thing we can do here is to bow to the powers that be, whether we like it or not.

Ben
PoolDoc

[Spensar]

Not advocating this, just would like to know if anyone is aware if it is legal for a Canadian citizen to personally purchase a single Taylor kit in the US, for personal use, and bring it across the border themselves. Declaring it to customs of course.

Hope this is on the right side of the line, it would be to bad if we can't discuss possible legal ways of buying stuff.

[PoolDoc]

If you declare it, I'm pretty sure it's legal.

But, I'm also pretty sure they'll seize it, unless you happen to know that the inspectors there are asleep on the job.

If you really want to get into it, I think you can take parts of the kit through. But you'll probably have to really know your stuff to do so.

Giroup1 may want to chime in here, but until he does here's my guess:

CANNOT CROSS THE BORDER:
OTO, Base demand reagent, Alkalinity drops, Calcium indicator

CAN CROSS THE BORDER:
DPD powder & DPF-FAS liquid; phenol red; Alk indicator; chlorine neutralizer; calcium drops; cyanuric acid reagent.

NOT SURE, BUT PROBABLY NOT OK:
salt test reagents

You'd have to get US MSDS sheets for each element in order to argue your case. No idea how that would go.


PoolDoc

[drako4]

Good Morning,

Well, after contacting my local pool supply stores I found out that if I actually ordered the kit through any of them I would be looking at $ 200 -$251.00. OUCH!
The post from giroup01 regarding the standards for water testing and Taylor kits was very interesting.

After weighing my options, which by the way were not many I talked to hubby and convinced him to purchase the kit through the Taylor Distributor in our region (BC) for $155 + shipping. Hey, seemed liked the best deal goin'. Piscines-Apollo was $143.00 and shipping would have been very expensive from QC. Out of stock anyway.

So, this morning I received the kit. YEAH.. and will post my numbers prior to filling the pool as recommened. I am determined to stay ahead of the game. Proactive rather than Reactive. They had very good customer service. Ordered yesterday and received early this mornin'.

Many thanks to all. A very relieved newbie....

Carrie

[aylad]

I'm glad you got that part worked out--and you'll see that the kit, though expensive, is absolutely worth it. You'll save the money you spent on it tens of times, just this summer by not having to buy a bunch of stuff to fix your water. Proactive, rather than reactive, is definitely the way to make keeping your pool easy and pain-free.

Run a set of tests with your new kit, and let's see what you've got!!

Janet