Can someone out there recomend a good ppm meter and ph meter or at least some place to start looking, none of the stuff I have found online looks very good. The best I have found so far are Hannas and tuncheon, somebody point me the right way please.
Here is teh combo pen I bought a week or so ago, it is awesome pen and I paid $135 USD for it... this is a used one for like $90 USD http://www.hydroponicsonline.com/st...Waterproof-98129-hydroponic_190230292094.html
milwaukee makes good stuff. i have a couple i've had for years that have given me no problems. i wouldn't get a truncheon.
The Truncheon for PPM is bulletproof,and until the new PH truncheon arrives,the old one has a tendency to leak. But if you want the very best with all three PH,PPM and temp with the most accurate and the best warranty in the business i suggest the Blue lab BCM-500 which retails for 300 but you could proly find it cheaper(this is the best but not necessary).
We used the lower cost Hanna's(not waterproof) in my college chem classes and they worked great, but for our purposes I would suggest their lowest cost waterproof pens(they make separate ppm and pH meters). Make sure to get their storage solutions if you want to extend the life of the probes. Calibration solutions are also necessary at some point. Any number of places online sells these. Google it!
There is MUCH debate on what to use for storage and this is NOT a debate but i will say that tap water is what a chemist working for Blue lab told me,works great for my hanna and BCM-500.
Really, I don't know many chemists that would consider tap water to be a good storage sol'n especially since it varies so much from region to region. This would make its effectiveness very widely from region to region as well. I'd personally like to use something more stable than that to prevent my electrode from failing sooner than it should. Not many forms of tap water have concentrations of 0.1M HCl or 0.1M H[SUB]2[/SUB]SO[SUB]4. [/SUB]I think a proper storage sol'n would save me the money in the long run. The reason this is needed is clear:
if you get a meter that needs to be stored in solution, use what the manufacturer suggests. for a bedroom grower, just get a 30-40 dollar meter and you don't have to worry about this issue. most meters out there are pretty much the same, using the same technology.
my ph meters all say to store in distilled water. When I tried to order a blue labs truncheon, I was told by the hydro shop that they were being taken off the market due to problems with the electrode. Maybe I'll look for a BCM-500
Distilled water is OK for pH only meter's, but the directions on my Hanna multi meter say that distilled water is bad for the PPM sensor. I use the meter storage solution recommended by Hanna.
Hey bro I use a Blue Lab trunction EC meter they are the bollox fully Auto waterproof but not the cheepest meter to get. Dont skimp on ya meters bro get the best as it will pay off in the long run. Hope this helps.
I bought the HM Digital PH meter AND the TDS meter off ebay. Great meters. All features you would need and they are factory calibrated to be pretty damn accurate out of the box (i always double check and then use the fine-tune option on the PH meter). I had bought a hanna PH meter and had to return it the next day because of fluctuations in the readings (wanted to read everything at 10.0 PH even after several recalibration attempts!!!) I highly recommend HM Digital. Do some research comparing their meters to competitors. And remember, try to buy all water testing stuff from a source other than hydroponic/gardening store as you will save money GARUNTEED.
This is not true. A 30-40 meter compared to a 100 dollar meter is MUCH different. I used to have a 30 dollar POS meter, then I upgraded to the $100 Eco 2 ph pen. The eco 2 has temp compensation which means that the water temp wont throw off the Ph reading like the pos 20-40 dollar meters do. This was the best hundred bucks ive spent in a while....If you compare the readings from the eco 2 to my other no name pen, they are different every time, because of the temp of the water in my resevoir.
ive been to many hydro stores and they all told me the same thing: DONT GET THE COMBO PEN, the reason being that the electrode lasts less long and they are less accurate
The electrodes are replaceable, and the combination pen is just as accurate as the individual gauges. You get what you pay for. And just a note of caution.... dudes in hydro stores generally don't know a fucking thing about shit.
I'm sure valid arguments can be made for both sides of the coin here. I can only tell you that from my experience, I've had no problems of any kind with the Hanna Combo meter. It is very accurate too. I've tested against controls, and always matched up perfectly. To each his own. Good luck with your girls!