AquaChek TruTest Digital Test Strip Reader For Pool and Spa Water Testing - Tests for Free Chlorine, Free Bromine, pH, and Total Alkalinity - Quick & Accurate Results Includes 25 TruTest Strips (Blue)

First time pool owner, so I waited five months to write this review. In the meantime, I educated myself about trouble free pool and slamming, and I also ordered a Taylor 2006 tester kit and compared the values. I would say if you follow the instructions carefully as mentioned by other reviewers, it’s a very accurate machine. At some point it showed my chlorine level at 9.4, so I said it’s definitely not right and pulled out the Taylor. Guess what, it was correct and my SWCG was over working. Another time it showed PH at above 8, so again, I doubted the little fellow. Taylor confirmed PH was too high and needed adding acid! Same thing went for adding too much Arm and Hammer baking soda and alkalinity.To be honest, I still doubt this thing all the time, but I can’t find even one time that it was reading incorrect values. I just say that the time you dip the test stripe is very important. Keep it consistent all the time. If you keep it in the water sample too long, or wait too long to put it in the reader, you’ll end up with funny readings. I’d say the best possible scenario is to use this little guy daily and use the Taylor test kit every few weeks just to make sure you’re on track. Thanks for reading, and YMMV.

I really want a solution for evaluating both my pool's Chlorine and my PH levels on a fairly frequent basis. The other items (hardness, cyanuric acid) I don't mind checking via my pool supply shop every now and then.I'm a new pool owner and want to keep on top of getting the pool chemistry settled and stable and be able to keep a bit ahead of the PH impact of the downpours we get here and the chlorine destroying (but VERY pleasant!) sunshine.In looking at proper PH meters I can see that they are precision instruments that need to be handled carefully and calibrated often enough that I decided it was not really worth getting one for once or twice a week testing as I wish to do.The reviews for Aqua Chek skew heavily toward the extremes with the 1 star (as of this writing) at about double the number 5 star reviews.A common thread in the positive reviews is that folks are likely not following the recommended procedures or are being somewhat lax about maintaining the equipment.It was actually the April 25, 2011 review by EZ that convinced me to overcome my concerns regarding the decidedly poor reviews the Aqua Chek was garnering. That and the ensuing comment thread which had some other good ideas.I followed both the Aqua Chek directions (which are pretty clear to begin with) and added the steps to NOT SLIDE the strip in and use a Q-Tip to gently ensure that the strip is seated in the groove and using distilled water to clean the glass afterward to avoid future contamination.The first unit I tried came back pretty consistently with VERY high Free Chlorine readings and unacceptably high PH readings relative to my pool supply store's results.Amazon is great about replacing defective products, so I ordered a replacement unit and was able to test it side-by-side with the first unit before sending it back.Those results were pretty dramatic. Same process, same source for the sample tests done within minutes of each other and the new unit's results were very different from the first one's.Now the Free Chlorine readings varied from somewhat higher than the pool store's to the occasional wildly inaccurate result. But this unit was reporting PH levels were now at least as much BELOW the pool store's readings as the first one was OVER (just using the numeric values, ignoring the logarithmic nature of the scale).To try to rule out my pool store as being at fault, I took my water sample to another store (that uses a different water anlysis technology) to evaluate the sample and the two store's readings were close enough to give me further confidence that the pool store readings are likely OK.Fortunately Amazon is also great about refunding for a defective item. I felt I gave the Aqua Chek a fair shake. Certainly not scientifically rigorous, but I believe I was consistent in my approach and was comparing apples to apples. I would take my sample for the pool store and my Aqua Chek reading from the same place in the pool at the same time. The pool store would test the sample within a couple of hours after that.Below are the readings from my "Pool Chemistry" spreadsheet. I include a couple of strip readings below as well. I'm not at all happy trying to discern the subtleties in color. These are *way* too subjective for someone who did NOT do particularly well in grade school art classes... The Aqua Chek approach seems good relative to purchasing professional equipment (objectively reading the strips for me) but I don't believe it's ready for prime time yet. I suspect the real difference between the people who say it works and those who say it doesn't may be as much about individual unit reliability as it is about technique...(Forgive the formatting, it's *really* hard to put a nice looking table in here)Date..............Source..Free Chlorine...PH......ALK.....Actions Taken.................................2.0 - 4.0.......7.2 - 7.8.......100-150 <--Ideal Range (per PoolStore1)7/11/2012.......AquaChek........1.8.....7.8.....1437/7/2012........PoolStore2......3.0.....7.6.....707/7/2012........AquaChek........8.0.....6.2.....627/6/2012........Strip...............3.0.....6.5.....307/6/2012........PoolStore1......3.9.....7.7.....737/6/2012........AquaChek........5.2.....6.8.....996/30/2012.......PoolStore1......5.7.....7.2.....866/30/2012.......AquaChek........11.0....6.9.....1036/30/2012.......Strip...............10.0....6.9.....806/26/2012.......PoolStore1......2.9.....8.0.....1316/26/2012.......AquaChek........3.4.....6.7.....113.....Testing new Aqua chek6/26/2012.......AquaChek........3.0.....6.9.....137.....Testing new Aqua chek6/22/2012.......PoolStore1......2.7.....7.9.....916/22/2012.......AquaChek........11.0....8.6.....1446/15/2012.......PoolStore1......5.9.....7.9.....1076/15/2012.......AquaChek........11.0....8.2.....1356/14/2012.......PoolStore1......3.5.....7.9.....1236/14/2012.......AquaChek........9.8.....7.5.....1636/8/2012........PoolStore1......0.6.....8.0.....1406/4/2012........PoolStore1......2.2.....7.8.....1506/2/2012........PoolStore1......3.9.....8.1.....1375/30/2012.......PoolStore1......1.5.....8.0.....1775/26/2012.......PoolStore1......2.5.....7.6.....47

This product is amazing. Their direction need to be thrown away first thing. The correct way to use it is written by Deborah and it is super easy.. Thanks Deborah your amazing...As Deborah says:Here is what you need to know: The top button on the unit is the on/off button. This is labeled "1" in the picture but never described. The middle button ("2") is to review old readings. The bottom button ("3") begins the test sequence; this button is not described either (at least in the instructions that came with my unit.) By the way, mine displays "2.2" when I turn it on, so these findings may pertain only to that version.Steps:*Press the Start (#1, or top) button. The unit will turn on, display "2.2", and then display "On."*Have a test strip and your water sample ready.*Press the Test (#3, or bottom) button. The display will count down "3, 2, 1, Dip."*Quickly give the strip a brief dip into the water sample. No swirling.*Quickly give the strip a quick flip to remove excess water.*Holding the unit horizontally, quickly lay the strip into the test slot, without sliding it. It must be all the way up to the top of the slot.*Cover the slot with the black sun-shield provided.*At this point you wait for the test to proceed. You have to have reached this point fairly quickly because the test will start whether you are ready or not.*When the test is completed, the unit will show the three readings on the display.