Hi, I recently heard that distilled water is bad for ph meters. I am using a hydroponic system with distilled water and PH down solution. Is it still bad for my meter since im using ph down? How could I even measure my water if this is the case.
I never have distilled water, I test my tap and my solution is all. My PH meter is $16 Im more afraid of dropping it in the res. LOL I use a shot glass to dip some out and test it.
You're fine dude, it's not going to mess up the ph meter.. Maybe over a very long time, but even then I doubt it
I have no idea how it could damage it. Distilled is just water without any dissolved solids. It may struggle to read the PH of the water but I don't see how it could damage it. Where did you here that?
it said something about how it sucks all the ions off the probe. I figures tons of people would have done it anyway but I guess not. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
You can safely rinse your pH meter probe into distilled/deionized water, but you don't want to store it in it, or test it. As mentioned, osmotic pressure from inside your probe will cause the ions to leave the glass membrane in order to "balance out" the distilled water. This works in the same manner as the way your plants uptake nutrients. The saltier solution will move toward the less dense solution. Nutrient water outside the root zone will try to equalize with the water inside the plant, where the plant is using the nutrients, causing a low pressure system. If you moved your plant from a high PPM solution to a low PPM solution, the nutrients in the plant would behave like the water in the probe, and leave the plant so as to equalize with the water outside the membrane.