Advice on PH & PPM/EC Meters please

[irishboiii]

Could somebody recommend some good yet cheap PH & PPM/EC Meters please?

If you have a link to some on Amazon.com that would be awesome (I dislike ebay lol).

Thanks guys

 

[Tnelz]

I think this is an area u should spend a little doe on. Just my opinion though. Many ogs here can prolly give advice on the other side. But I'd suggest blue lab everything. Never have to worry.

 

[irishboiii]

Thanks man, Il search for them on amazon. And by cheap I mean under €50, think thats about $60 or $65. Id spend more if I had to, but trying to keep costs to a minimum.

 

[alligator]

Irish-

First off- Don't buy a cheap PH meter. (Unless you don't give a shit about your grow & you're willing to risk fucking your plants over using a cheap ph meter thats built to fail?) You can lose everything to an 'off' meter.

The good news is- You can get one of the best ph meters on the market for about $40.
This one-

*Or you can splurge and get the nice waterproof ph meter-

and this cheapo tds meter is suprisingly reliable-

whichever you get, make sure it's made by HM Digital.


I've probably spent over $5k on meters over the years, owning multiple top models from hanna, bluelab, milwaukee, oakton, etc.
None of them can hold a candle to HM. Hands down the most reliable meters on the market. I spent alot of money finding out the hard way. There's very few, if any, grow products i'll claim are 'the best'. But I won't hesitate to state HM meters are the best. They just are.

*When you buy your meter, buy ph & tds storage solution. Be religious about keeping solution in your meter cap. If it dries up, your meter will read off. Don't skimp, buy some solution. One bottle will last ya 10 years+.
Also- buy a big bottle of PH7 testing solution. you'll need this to check your ph every week(though you'll see the h&m meter won't drift more than .1 unless it gets dry).

 

[Camdawg]

Buy a waterproof tester trust me I'm not clumsy or a butter fingers but I dropped mine in my solution like the 3rd day I had it

 

[irishboiii]

Thanks guys, Il get the waterproof ones then

 

[irishboiii]

I didnt realise that these meters required maintenance either lol, what exactly do you do?

 

[Tnelz]

Thanks man, Il search for them on amazon. And by cheap I mean under €50, think thats about $60 or $65. Id spend more if I had to, but trying to keep costs to a minimum.

So since switching to blue lab there is no guessing. Tells u when to calibrate. Best 110 I ever spent. Lots of peeps swear by the hm joints. Cheap. My personal experience was bad. Like I said lots of dudes like them though. For a little over a hundred bucks u get a top notch pen that's water proof and will last quite some time. Good luck bro.

 

[alligator]

Bluelab makes incredible probes, but the electronics/circuit boarts in the handhelds are Shit. I had 4 fail on me in one year.
4.
My hydro store quit selling them due to the fact that over 90% of them came back.(That was 2years ago, maybe they fixed the issue?) The guardian is probably the best continuous meter on the market, and the truncheon wands work great too, but I can't recommend the company anymore after my experience.
Ymmv.

 

[alligator]

I didnt realise that these meters required maintenance either lol, what exactly do you do?

Nothing to it, you just pour a tiny bit of PH storage solution in the cap.
The cap has a tiny sponge in it to keep the glass probe moist. Just keep the sponge wet.

 

[alligator]

Buy a waterproof tester trust me I'm not clumsy or a butter fingers but I dropped mine in my solution like the 3rd day I had it

Sound advice, I drop mine in the rez on a regular basis too lol.
Camdawg is right, go waterproof if you can afford it. Like most things in life, it's best to buy quality the first time rather than taking a chance with cheaper gear to save a few bucks. If you start with cheapos it'll end up costing more in the long run.
Get yourself a good meter, a good air conditioner & a good dehumidifier(and of course good genetics).
All the other stuff you can upgrade along the way.

 

[Tnelz]

Bluelab makes incredible probes, but the electronics/circuit boarts in the handhelds are Shit. I had 4 fail on me in one year.
4.
My hydro store quit selling them due to the fact that over 90% of them came back.(That was 2years ago, maybe they fixed the issue?) The guardian is probably the best continuous meter on the market, and the truncheon wands work great too, but I can't recommend the company anymore after my experience.
Ymmv.

Not sure if they changed something and I respect ur opinion bro. Used to use the Milwaukee ph55 martini. Never had a problem. But love the blue lab. I will watch for that issue thanks.

 

[shoestring]

Bluelab ph pens like most other pens do not hold up. And when the probe/junction goes bad it.is not replaceable. I too have owned just about every brand of ph and ec meters for the hydroponic/aquarium hobbyist out there. From oakton, hannah, millwaukee, hm digital (nice ec tds meters) and the bluelab combo meter has them all beat hands down no question. Forget about ph pens from any company. They WILL eventually.fail. Spend.the duckets on a quality METER that checks ec and ph. Make.sure the ph probe itself is replaceable beacause it.will eventually start reading off and/or read slower. And i think bluelab makes one of the best.

 

[shoestring]

Oh and i like what alligator says about dehueys and air conditioners. Like ph meters the best you can. With quality ballasts and bulbs your set. Things like nutrients, soils and other mediums are the consumables. They will come and go. But the hard goods you want them to last.

 

[alligator]

Man it could've just been a bad batch. Maybe they were all made by a new tech doing something wrong? it could've been something as simple as a bad soldering or a bad batch of wire.
But the issues were the same with all 4.
Watch for the screen to blink/glitch/fade in & out, other issue was it refusing to calibrate to 7.0(kept wanting to calibrate at 7.8 if I remember correctly).

This is the one that gave me issues- the bluelab bp1
http://www.hydroponics.net/i/136227

But here's what looks to be the same one, but it's called: blu 2210
http://www.horticulturesource.com/product_info.php?products_id=17490

Either way, all 4 failed within a year. If you have one that's outlasted a year it's probably good for a while.

 

[squarepusher]

I like to use just the simple pH indicator solution in a vial, or some ph test papers for ph.

For the ppm/ec you can get a fairly basic meter depending on your application.

 

[irishboiii]

Thank you guys