Which Taylor test kit

[Bumrush]

About to take delivery of a hot springs saltwater tub. Trying to figure out which Taylor test kit I need? K-1005 or k-2006 salt? Not sure the difference but the difference in price is significant.

[waterbear]

If your saltwater tub has a Salt Water Chlorine Generator then you want the K-2006, if it's a Salt Water Bromine Generator  then you want the K-2106 kit for bromine or can use the K-2006 and multiply the free chlorine reading by 2.25 to get total bromine. All other tests in both kits are identical. The K-2006 also includes a test for Cyanuric acid (chlorine stabilizer) which is not used for bromine so you can ignore that test if you have a bromine tub.

K-2006 and K-2106 use FAS-DPD testing for chlorine/bromine. The K-1005 uses DPD testing for chlorine/bromine and the 1000 series of test kits  do not have the precision of the 2000 series, use a small comparator tube with much less precision for sanitizer levels and only test to 5 ppm Free Chloirne, do not use the same pH test (wider range but less precision), and the acid/base demand tests are not as precise. IMHO, these differences are significant and make balancing the water more ,. You also don't want the K-2005, which is the same kit as the K-2006 but also uses DPD testing.

You really don't need the salt, IMHO, so the K-2006 without the salt test is the one I would recommend.

If you want to test salt levels I would suggest using AquaChek (or Hach, same company)  salt test strips, they are actually titrators strips, which work differently than the usual test strip,  and are much easier to use than they Taylor salt test. Both tests use a similar chemistry and it's easy to overshoot on the Taylor test and get wrong results.The Taylor salt test has a precision of +/- 200 ppm. while the AquaChek/Hach salt strips have a scale printed on each tube that is calibrated to the strips in that tube and the precision depends on the salt level but I have found them to be close enough in my 20 years of using them (I also have the Taylor salt test and when I first started using the strips I would also test with the Taylor and the results were consistently in the ballpark. Both the Taylor salt test and the AquaChek/Hach titrator strips are testing for chloride ions.

 

[Bumrush]

Thank you for the in-depth response!