pH Meter recommendations

[dianecty]

Hello everyone! I have bought 2 of those yellow pH meters on Amazon and have found that they are not very reliable. Does anyone have a recommendation on a good pH meter, where I can buy it and the price?

Thanks!

[estación seca]

Get pH test strips or kits at an aquarium store.

[dianecty]

I have test strips. The problem is it is very hard to tell the colors apart - yellow, yellow orange, yellowish green, green. And of course, they are not exact. That's why I bought a ph meter. This is my 3rd one.

[estación seca]

The aquarium ph kits with liquid reagents are pretty easy to use. There is one set of reagents for higher pH, and one for lower. Swimming pool pH test kits with liquid reagents have a wider range, I think. Those are also easy to use.

I haven't used a meter for a very long time. To get any kind of accuracy you need to calibrate it before each use, which is a lot of work. I didn't mind when I was working in a lab getting paid. The cheaper ones just don't work.

[DirtyCoconuts]

I have a pool kit. It was $6 and has lasted more than a year. The colors are hard to tell exactly BUT, mine came with a card that has the spectrum and meaning and if you hold it up to the strip it is very clear which color it matches.

[Ray]

Three comments on pH and testing:

Most orchids prefer a rhizospehere pH of 5.5-6.5, but are relatively unaffected by anything 1-1.5 units on either side of that.

Color matching the test strips within that range may be “iffy”, but comparing that to colors outside the range is not.

People get way too hung up on the pH of the solutions they apply, even though, in a remarkably large range of cases, it has very little to do with the pH of the rhizosphere. Even in the case of using an inert medium (LECA) in S/H culture and using RO water, I found that the plant and microbes in the pot had a far greater impact, so just stopped worrying about it.

[claypot]

I use an AZ pH meter model 8685 very successfully when mixing my fertilized water.
Temperature Humidity Data Logger, Water Quality Meter Manufacturer - AZ Instrument Corp.
Don't remember where I bought it in the UK but it has been useful and can be recalibrated so easily occasionally.