Are There Test Kits For Us Color-blind People?

[MikeVB]

I just purchased a (used) spa and probably the standard start-up chemicals and accessories. One of these is an hth 3-way test kit (below is a picture of one that looks like mine). Probably 98% of you know that you fill the tubes with spa water, add a few drops of testing material, cap, invert, then check the results against desired spa readings for chlorine/bromine and pH.

While I find this method not only easy but actually fun to use, I DO however find it extremely difficult to get correct readings because I am color blind. I can SEE that one side is red and the other is yellow, but it is hard for me to distinguish the weakness or severity of the treated water colors to compare to the reading instrument.

Are there spa water testing kits that do NOT use colors to provide results (i.e., perhaps digital numerical readings...)? I would guess the color readers are fairly inexpensive and anything I'm talking about might be costly, but I may very well have no choice. Can anybody point me to something that would allow color blind folks like me to be able to discern accurate readings?

Thank you.

[Pool Clown]

First return on the google search...

http://www.lamotte.com/pages/pool/newprod.html

If you go for it, let us know how they work.

[Nitro]

I just purchased a (used) spa and probably the standard start-up chemicals and accessories. One of these is an hth 3-way test kit (below is a picture of one that looks like mine). Probably 98% of you know that you fill the tubes with spa water, add a few drops of testing material, cap, invert, then check the results against desired spa readings for chlorine/bromine and pH.

While I find this method not only easy but actually fun to use, I DO however find it extremely difficult to get correct readings because I am color blind. I can SEE that one side is red and the other is yellow, but it is hard for me to distinguish the weakness or severity of the treated water colors to compare to the reading instrument.

Are there spa water testing kits that do NOT use colors to provide results (i.e., perhaps digital numerical readings...)? I would guess the color readers are fairly inexpensive and anything I'm talking about might be costly, but I may very well have no choice. Can anybody point me to something that would allow color blind folks like me to be able to discern accurate readings?

Thank you.

With the Taylor K-2006 FAS-DPD you measure levels by counting the drops added, so even Color blind people can use it. pH is the only thing measured by color shade.

[MikeVB]

With the Taylor K-2006 FAS-DPD you measure levels by counting the drops added, so even Color blind people can use it. pH is the only thing measured by color shade.

Have you tried the kit, or are just assuming you won't be able to read it?

I DO have an actual test kit that uses drops/re-agents? and the little box thingy with red and yellow colors, yes. I've used it several times and it is perplexing to me because it is so hard for me to correctly identify the shading.

[chem geek]

The Taylor K-2000 you showed is NOT the same as the K-2006. If you just want to get the FAS-DPD "count the drops" chlorine test, you can get that here. You can see a demo of this test here.

[mcw53]

With the Taylor K-2006 FAS-DPD you measure levels by counting the drops added, so even Color blind people can use it. pH is the only thing measured by color shade.

A color blind person would also have trouble using the Total Alkalinity and Calcium Hardness tests in the K-2006 test kit. Both tests involve counting drops until the color of the water sample changes ... from green to red and from red to blue.

[MikeVB]

Not to worry folks - I finally got off the fence and purchased Watts' PoolDoc from their website (cancelled the LaMotte order after I read the PoolDoc's great user manual). Looking forward to getting/using it. I can READ numbers but can't sense some colors... Thanks for everybody's help!

[apradman]

do you have a link for that kit?

[MikeVB]

do you have a link for that kit?

That was just an illustration of a Taylor kit I used to show a kit similar to mine (which photo I could not locate). If you Google "Taylor spa test kit" or similar you will certainly find it. However, that Taylor kit is around $60. If you go to WalMart you can get one for about $6 that isn't a Taylor that performs exactly the same way (looks the same too) but only has one bottle each instead of the two (red/yellow - chlorine/pH) reagents. I can't imagine why anybody would purchase the Taylor kit at that price. Perhaps their reagents are amazingly accurate...? But in either case you get a little plastic test or measuring block and a few tubes of chemical drops. Go with the WalMart version!

[shovelhd]

do you have a link for that kit?

That was just an illustration of a Taylor kit I used to show a kit similar to mine (which photo I could not locate). If you Google "Taylor spa test kit" or similar you will certainly find it. However, that Taylor kit is around $60. If you go to WalMart you can get one for about $6 that isn't a Taylor that performs exactly the same way (looks the same too) but only has one bottle each instead of the two (red/yellow - chlorine/pH) reagents. I can't imagine why anybody would purchase the Taylor kit at that price. Perhaps their reagents are amazingly accurate...? But in either case you get a little plastic test or measuring block and a few tubes of chemical drops. Go with the WalMart version!

The $6 HTH kit at Wal_mart does not test for calcium hardness (total hardness) or total alkalinity, two very important pieces of the water balance puzzle no matter what system you use. You need to step up to the $19.95 HTH kit to get that.

[MikeVB]

The $6 HTH kit at Wal_mart does not test for calcium hardness (total hardness) or total alkalinity, two very important pieces of the water balance puzzle no matter what system you use. You need to step up to the $19.95 HTH kit to get that.

I appreciate that. But that Taylor kit I first pictured looks as if it only tests for chlorine and pH only, too. So I still can't see why one would purchase it for $60 if one could have the HTH kit for 1/3 the price at $20. I'd think I'd HAVE to be ignorant of some fact or the other so am happy if you (or anybody else) would provide me with further education.

I guess this is all moot since I just purchased a digital kit anyway...

[PaulR]

The Taylor K-2000 in the picture would not cost $60 unless somebody is really trying to perpetrate a ripoff. Taylor kits in the $50-60 range would include chlorine, pH, TA, calcium hardness, and probably cyanuric acid. The top-end K-2006 uses the FAS-DPD chlorine test, which is good up to probably 50ppm with a resolution of 0.5 ppm; that kit runs around $70.

I believe there's an HTH kit that covers all that stuff for less, but it provides much smaller amounts of reagent, so you don't get as many tests out of it.

--paulr

[chem geek]

If one uses a 25 ml sample instead of 10 ml sample, then with the FAS-DPD chlorine test you get a 0.2 ppm resolution -- useful for accurate readings of overnight chlorine loss in pools or daily chlorine demand in spas.

The least expensive Taylor K-2006 on the web is here though with the TF100 kit from tftestkits.net here it has 36% more volume of reagents so it's less expensive per test. If one already has the 5-way WalMart test (which is relatively inexpensive), then one can just add the chlorine FAS-DPD chlorine test here.

I don't see much written up about PoolDoc, but the LaMotte ColorQ gets fairly good reviews here. The Calcium Hardness (CH) can read too low, especially at higher CH levels, but this is generally only going to happen in pools and not spas where the CH usually isn't above 150 ppm anyway. Some people found problems with other ColorQ tests while other people did not. The drop-based tests are the gold standard in the sub $100 price range; the meters are convenient and obviously useful for those who cannot see the color differences in the drop-based tests.

[MikeVB]

Thanks for all the clarification and education folks.

As for the Lamotte, I DID notice there were reviews on this forum -- reasonably favorable -- and none of the PoolDoc. Accordingly I purchased the Lamotte kit. HOWEVER, after I received and read Watts' impressive PoolDoc owners manual I cancelled the Lamotte kit in favor of the PoolDoc. I don't think I took too great a chance with it. So soon I will introduce a PoolDoc review myself so the forum will no longer be without one.