Purchasing a ph/ec/ppm/temp continuous meter or hand held meter

[tony8404]

Hey guys,

I have the cheap ph meter and a cheap ppm/ec meter from ebay.

Now that I am upgrading I want to see what is the best option to go with.

I am not sure to go with a continuous meter or hand held meters?

I wil have 2 to 4 dwc buckets in a 4x3x7 tent.

I like the bluelabs Guardian meter, bluelabs combo meter, the hana gro check. But then I see Bluelabs has a ph and a ppm hand held.

If I go with the guardian I am looking at 244.00.
the bluelab combo for 160.00
the hana gro check for 175.00

Then the Bluelab ph hand held like 70 and the bluelab ppm hand held 70.

I like the guardian but since I do not need a continuous I am not sure. I know I can use the continuous meter like a hand held just not sure if the price is worth it. I know the warranty is but other than that I was looking at the tri meter and the nutradrip but reading scares me on those two.

Any help ?

 

[Hushpuppy]

Hi Tony, sorry no one has answered you on this. sometimes we miss messages. I think given the size grow you are working with, you would be better off to go with the basic pens as opposed to the continuous meters. I personally use and love the Bluelab pens. Both the TDS and the pH pens work very well and are quite reliable. I would recommend to you that you buy the dual kit (if they still offer it). If not then be sure to get the calibrating solutions for the pH pen.

The TDS pen doesn't really need a calibration solution except for the first time of using it so that it is correct. But you will need to keep the pH calibration ffluids handy. They have a kit for the pH pen that has all off the stuff in it ffor calibrating the pH pen. That one is worth having. You will need to keep your pH pen in either a storage solution which you can buy or use the 4.0 calibration solution for your storage solution. You don't want to allow the pH probe to dry out or it will ruin the probe.

I actually keep a cup of solution on my work bench sitting in a roll of duct tape to keep it ffrom falling over. I keep my pH pen in that continuously. Any time I need to do a pH check, I just turn it on while it is sitting in the solution so that I can verify that the probe is resting at 4.0 then I rinse it in another cup of clean water then use it. When I am done with it, I rinse it in the clean water cup and turn it off and put it back in the calibration solution cup until the next time. You will find with doing hydro that you will check the pH at least once a week.

 

[tony8404]

Hushpuppy,

Thank you so much for chimming in on this... I really am set on the bluelab combo meter as it comes with a 5 year warranty. I see the pens but I read they are not good though those are old posts maybe they are better now but I do not know..