TruTest Digital Test Strip Reader

[Webini]

Just buy a Taylor dpd test kit and be done with it.

Good advice except for one thing - my wife refused to use the Taylor.  "Too complicated, too much time, tough to tell the color."  So the Trutest is the solution for us - especially when I am out of town.

I've found my Trutest to be accurate to the Taylor kit.

[squale]

how do you measure hardness though since the trutest doesn't do it?  is it even that important to measure hardness?

I wonder why the trutest DOESN'T do hardness but does the other 3?  Their Accucheck regular dip strips do all four.

[Webini]

how do you measure hardness though since the trutest doesn't do it?  is it even that important to measure hardness?

I wonder why the trutest DOESN'T do hardness but does the other 3?  Their Accucheck regular dip strips do all four.

I use the Taylor to measure hardness.  One I do a fill and the get the hardness correct I've never had to adjust it again.  So the fact that the Trutest does not measure hardness does not matter in my situation.

[Brewman]

I suspect that it doesn't test hardness because it's not something that typically needs much testing.  All you really need to do is test your unsoftened tap water once, and that should be it.  If you have city water, you can get the hardness reading from them.
So I can see the logic in eliminating that from the aqua check.  
  

[squale]

okay I thought that the hardness of the water (calcium percentage, etc.) could change based on the various chemicals you treat the spa with?

[Cyn]

No, calcium is a constant...can be changed, but will remain where you changed it.

[Renee]

Update:  I took a water sample to my dealer this morning, and they ran it though their computerized tester.  I also took my Accuchek Digital tester and tested the same sample of water.  The results were almost exactly the same.  I'm very happy with this tester!  I think I will continue to periodically check it against the dealer...especially when I get a new container of strips.  The first strips that came with the tester were off, specifically the alkalinity.   But it appears they've worked the kinks out of the newer test strips.
--renee

[squale]

I am happy with my unit too!  I called the company because I thought my Alk was off from what my dealer told me, they said just to be sure they would send out another bottle of strips free of charge.  GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!!

this tester makes life so much easier than those damn color matching charts!

one thing I don't understand though is... for Free Chlorine and Bromine, are they the same thing as far as test strips are concerned?  because this digital tester says it will do Free Chlorine and Bromine on the same little square on the strip.  That doesn't make sense to me, I thought you needed a seperate square for free chlorine and then another for Bromine?  

What's weird is if I dip a bromine color test strip into my spa it will show that I have BROMINE in the 2-3ppm range, but in fact my tub is ONLY a dichlor tub now (used to be bromine, bleached the hell out of it, drained it and refilled it, now only use Dichlor).

so if the test can do both Free Chlorine AND Bromine on the same tab of the test strip, then which reading is more accurate?

[Renee]

If you're testing for bromine, Accu Chek instructions say to multiply the reading by 2.2 to get your bromine level.  

On another note, how do you like the dichlor compared to bromine?  

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

To determine bromine levels with the TruTest you have to multiply CL value by 2.2

Chlorine and bromine test strips don't exactly measure the amount of chlorine or bromine on the water. What they measure is the oxidizing ability of the water. This oxidizing ability is shown on as color on the test strip, and is then compared with a color chart that "translates" the color into an estimated chlorine of bromine content of the water. You CAN use the same test strips to test for either chlorine OR bromine, it's simply that each one will register a different color on the test strip and you'd need a different color chart to compare them to in order to get an accurate ppm estimate for each different sanitizer.

[squale]

okay this makes sense.  So since I'm using only Dichlor I won't have to multiply anything from the Trutest readout, I can just go by the numbers on there.  I must of missed the part of the instructions that said to multiply that number if you are using Bromine.. opps!

So then IF you are using bromine, what is it measuring, free bromine, combined bromine, etc... or is there such a thing for bromine?

I know for Dichlor it's reading ONLY FREE chlorine (dichlor).

On a side note, I don't want to speak too soon, but I haven't gotten any rashes yet at all once I ran bleach in the brominated water, drained the tub, wiped down the tub with a diluted bleach solution and then refilled the tub up with fresh water and began using Dichlor... NO MORE BROMINE!!!
I think the Bromine might of been giving me that rash, not sure though because it could of been something else that was in the water, but since I bleached the water first, then drained it, anything that could of been living in the water is definately dead now.
Weird thing is, everytime I go away on vacation to a tropical place (which is usually the only places I vacation), I get this same rash on the insides of my arms, on my wrists and sometimes on my inside upper thighs.  I could never figure out what the heck this was from.  Then I started thinking, you know everytime I go on vacation I am going in a hottub at the resort or cruise ship I am on.  So therefor, maybe it's BROMINE that is in the hottubs causing my rash.  Because the rash was EXACTLY the same rash I got from using my hottub at home when I was running Bromine in it.  Now I switched to Dichlor, been in the tub 3 different times so far and still no rash (knock on wood!).  Plus I like the feeling of my skin better after getting out of the tub with Dichlor.  No more smell, no more different feeling of the skin, etc.  When I get out of my Dichlor tub now, my skin feels as though I just got out of my regular shower and I have no smell.  I actually don't mind NOT showering now after using the hottub and just going to bed as is.  When I was using Bromine, I HAD to shower after getting out of the hottub, I didn't like the smell left on my skin.

So far, THUMBS UP for Dichlor in my opinion.  Now I still have yet to shock the tub with MPS, that comes this weekend for my weekly shocking.  But so far I have just been putting in about 2 teaspoons of Dichlor after each soak.

[Renee]

 I must of missed the part of the instructions that said to multiply that number if you are using Bromine.. opps!

Squale:  I was reading another one of your posts that said your bromine level was at 8.0.  Was this BEFORE multiplying it by 2.2?  If so, then your bromine level was like 17.6....probably high enough to give anyone a rash.