Choosing The Right Testing Kit For Your Pool…

When it comes to choosing what kit is right for you there are no shortage of options available on the market.

There are a lot of good swimming pool testing kits that you can get without breaking the bank.  I’m not a huge fan of test strips as they can be difficult to intrepret the results, however, if you have a digital reader (like this one made by Aquachek), they can be a solid solution for your testing needs.

Depending on your budget, you can easily spend several hundred dollars on a water testing kit – I don’t think that’s necessary for residential environments or the typical swimming pool owner.  If you manage commercial properties (where liability/responsibility is much greater), these more expensive options make quite a bit of sense.

Generally speaking I prefer Taylor Testing Kits and specifically their K-2005 model.  You can gather more information right here.  It’s a great testing kit and the one that I personally used for years.  I also had my service techs using this solution – on their site it runs about $61.00 (at the time of writing this). I did find it on ebay.com for $51.95 (that included shipping as well) – it was a “buy now” auction.

It’s a great kit for the “day to day” swimming pool owner looking to adequately take care of their pool.

Although there are a lot of reputable kits on the market – many I have personally used and can vouch for, many I have not personally used.  If there’s one thing that’s really important here, it’s when you’re shopping for a water testing kit, stick with a reputable manufacturer.  Someone who’s been around a while and see if you can find a few online reviews on it.

The Taylor test kit is ideal for residential (and can be used for commercial pools as well) as it accurately tests for the most common items found in water.  It is not the cheapest available, but it is the only kit you’ll ever need and you can purchase reagents directly online from numerous retails or from Taylor Technologies as well.  They’ve carried Taylor Test kits since 1930 and it’s evolved quite a bit as they’ve improved and expanded their product line to meet consumer/industrial demand over the years.

Why the Taylor Test Kit deserves your attention:

1.  Comes with a very informative user guide that shows you exactly how to do each test and why each these tests are necessary.

2.  Easy to use – with many kits it can be difficult getting the right amount of water to sample – not a problem with their kits.

3.  Easy to interpret the results.

4.  Sturdy, rigid case.  Well protected.

Stick with a proven company here…kits are not all created equally.  I would not shop on price alone.  Many times we get what we pay for.  This is one of those times.  If you go to your local grocery store and spend $5.00 on a test kit, you’ll pay for it in one way or another – inaccurate results (which can lead to unnecessary chems) as well as frustration and your sanity.

Stick with a proven and reputable brand…here are a few names that are well known and respected within the industry:  AquaChek, Taylor Technologies, AquaChem, BioGuard, Omni, LaMotte, Robarb, HTH, and Guardex to name a few.

All the best,

Terry

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