PH/EC Meter Comparison

  • Thread starter justiceman
  • Start date
  • Tagged users None

Witch meter stands above the rest?

  • Hanna Combo Meter

    Votes: 5 50.0%
  • Blue Lab Combo Meter

    Votes: 3 30.0%
  • Oakton PH meter, Oakton TDS meter(separate entities)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • None of those are good as the one I use(Say what you use)

    Votes: 2 20.0%

  • Total voters
    10
justiceman

justiceman

2,718
263
Hey everyone So I have been growing for about a year now, and I have been using a cheap $20 hanna checker PH pen along with a cheap $20 HM digital TDS3 EC meter as I wanted to see what it was like before buying a real nice meter.

They have been working great though, accept lately my PH meter requires more frequent calibration and It could also do for a cleaning so I figure it is time for a new PH meter and now that I am more experienced I figure I should shell out the extra bones to get a meter that is water proofed and has auto temp compensation.

So far I have come up with 3 choices:

imgHI_98129_med.jpg

The Hanna combo meter

Combo-Meter-&-pH-Probe-WEB%20small.jpg

The Blue Lab combo meter

Oakton PH and TDS meter(separate pieces)
35423_10.jpg

PH meter

3566111.jpg

TDS meter

Now the hanna ranges from about $120-$170 in price and has a 1 year warranty(not including PH electrode). The Blue lab ranges in the $223-$300 and has a 5 year warranty(not including PH electrode) The Oakton PH meter is about $60 and the TDS is about $90 with no warranties from what I understand so far(maybe a 1 year warranty seems pretty average).

So I am stuck as to witch one I like best. They are all pretty solid meters from what I understand. The blue lab should technically last the longest especially considering the warranty length, but is the price worth it If you still have to most likely purchase a replacement $70 PH electrode each year.

That is why I like the Hanna. It seems to provide the same things the blue lab can at about half the cost, but you still have to most likely replace the electrode each year.

This is where the oakton interests me. The PH meter itself only costs about $60. One could potentially buy a new one each year. That would be much cheaper then the initial cost of the other two because the price of the meter is about the price of a new PH electrode. Not to mention that their TDS meter allows you to replace the Probe unlike the other two.

So I am basically stuck between Quality VS Price and such. If you Farmers have any opinions or recommendations please feel free to post them up AND If you don't mind you can also post up what meters and pens you use.
 
beezleb878

beezleb878

226
18
Hanna combo meter is nice but I had to use the warranty as the LCD went bad in its 3rd month. Accuracy was spot on.
 
L

lime6161

46
6
I use the blulab for ec and it rocks. gave up on the ph pens. Now I just ck w/drops once or twice a week.
 
JH420

JH420

1,353
48
How come the Bulab Truncheon isn't in the mix? It's not too bad on price considering ph is built into it as well...I don't have experience with one but I've read good things...
 
D

DazedNconfussed

537
16
I use the hanna meter you have posted and love it....its very simple, dependable, water proof, quality built, and sturdy....I have dropped it quite a few times and still works great.

Allthough I have never used any other meter to compare it to.
 
SKUNK420

SKUNK420

51
8
I started with the Hanna combo meter,worked great from 2 years then it started rejecting Ph probes after a couple of weeks. The probes were falling out of calibration and would not recalibrate. So I bought a separate Hanna Ph meter and it is now 5+ y/o and it works just fine no Ph probe problems after all these years and my original combo meter is still working fine on the ec/tds side.

So I learned the convience of a combo only screws you when one side of the meter malfunctions. What happens if you have to send it back for warrenty / exchange to online hydrostore or your local store are A-holes and will not pull one of the self on the spot but makes you wait while they send it back.

Keep 'em clean, keep calibrated, don't bang it up to much as a stir stick or drop it duh and they will live a long life.
 
H

Headach

159
28
Milwaukee MW802 here, wished i went with the blueguardian for my uc set-up. originally i was doing small tube aero.
 
J

Jalisco Kid

Guest
I would get one your local shop swears by and will replace it no questions asked. I get a new hanna to replace the one I bought every year under warranty because they go bad. JK
 
JH420

JH420

1,353
48
How come the Bulab Truncheon isn't in the mix? It's not too bad on price considering ph is built into it as well...I don't have experience with one but I've read good things...

Oops I was wrong no built in PH meter on the Truncheon.
 
H

hailo

163
0
I would get one your local shop swears by and will replace it no questions asked. I get a new hanna to replace the one I bought every year under warranty because they go bad. JK


Great advice!!

I had my hanna probe go out on me today...took it back to my local shop I got it from and had it fixed in 2 mins.....
 
Top Bottom