Looking for an affordable easy to use pH meter. Made a porter yesterday and fell short on my mash efficiency. I think the culprit was an improper mash pH. My reasoning being all the pales and wheats I have made have been on the money but I remember reading roasted malts can affect mash pH. The other factor could have been I was short a gallon in my initial strike water and didn't notice till I went to sparge. TL;DR: I'd like a pH meter to confirm I'm not doing any wrong mash practice wise. ~$50 is what id like to spend.
I’m planning on setting up a hydroponic rig in my room this year and was wondering if anyone has good recommendations for a pH meter. I’ve heard that DWC setups can fluctuate frequently and want to be prepared.
I've been using the 'Beverage Doctor' pH meter from Morebeer for probably 20ish batches now:
https://www.morebeer.com/products/beverage-doctor-pen-style-ph-meter.html
I store it upright in 3mol KCL solution, I replace the tip with a new one every year, I brew once a month, and calibrate it about every other brew with the pH solution powder they recommend.
All that being said now, how long does it take your pH meters to get an accurate value?
Mine never really seems to settle on a number. Even when I'm calibrating it, or taking a reading from he mash, it starts narrowing in 'pretty fast', but will slowly change over time for minutes on end.
I've seen video's of people calibrating them, and they appear to get a reading in 10-20 seconds, which is far from what I'm seeing.
Even though I replace the tips... do I just have a bad unit? Or is "waiting a minute plus, getting tired of waiting, and just writing the current number down" what other people do? Never inspires much confidence.
Which leads to: I also do at home water tests before each brew, and add salts\acids via the BrewersFriend water calculator... rarely ever is the pH meter close to what BF calculated in the mash (I wait around 15 min before pulling a sample). 1 out of 10 it'll be maybe .05 away, but usually it's more in the .20-.40 away range, sometimes high, sometimes low : Want 5.40 from my calcs, get 5.80 from the meter. Add some acid to drop it if needed or baking soda to raise (yah, it's probably too late in the mash anyway, but let's see what happens), and the new pH also isn't what I'd expect.
I'd rather get a confirm this is abnormal behavior before I go buy a new model. And I'll happily take any recommendations there too, if that is the way...
BTW, the beer always turns out fine, so even dealing with this is probably overkill. But I dislike unknown variables....
Thanks!
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Edit : I also chill my mash samples down to 90ish before I do a reading too, I don't do it at mash temp.
So something strange happened and I'm hoping someone that has more familiarity with chemistry can weigh in.
Found some old soup that had already been based - it was almost black, you know the look. Used a pen pH meter to check. It said 8.9ish. OK, so more lye went in. No movement. Hm, OK. Tried more lye. Still nothing. I'm familiar enough with this process that it should have gone way up at this point.
Okay, so I calibrated the meter. No change. I immediately ran the pH meter under some water and noticed the reading jump to almost 12.5. Please note this isn't due to alkaline tap water, my water is perfect.
Again, completely confused. I repeated this process several times. Each time the same thing happened. The soup read ~8-9 pH but when I then immediately ran the meter under the faucet, it jumped to over 12. So I grabbed my old pH strips. They show about 8 for the soup (what the pH meter reads) and 6 for the tap water. I tried several strips and all showed the same.
Am I taking crazy pills? Please someone fill me with a rational explanation.
Edit: Clarity and more valuable data. The soup is super-saturated with lye. There are undissolved crystals in the bottom but I don't think the borosilicate ever got very warm while adding. It has the thin layer on top of the soup when you have a very high amount of lye in the solution.
Was the soup over-acidifed whenever it was previously made? Could that be an explanation? To the point where the solution now needs more base than any amount of lye can provide? <--- My layman's guess, btw.
I have the gen hydro drops and I'm sure I could use them for a watering or two, but when I called hanna they said my shit was backordered 2-3weeks out. Not sure of that's for them or shipped to me...and they told me after they cashed me out. Anyways, I'm workin in coco so ima need it. Any ideas in the meantime?
I'm just getting into hydroponics and have 8 hot peppers growing in two DWC tanks with an aeration stone. I'm using fox farms grow big and adjusting PH using PH up after testing with a ~$15 meter. I'm a bit concerned that the PH reading is off and I'm underfeeding the peppers.
I'd like to get a decent meter to measure EC and PH (preferably all in one device). I don't want to spend too little and get suspect readings like I'm getting now.
Are there any brands or specific models for measuring PH and EC without spending hundreds of dollars?
500g bark. Strained and reduced 3 acid baths from 6.5L down to just under 2L. Read 3.2pH on the meter. Added only 100g NaOH and after the reaction had cooled, I’m reading 12.8pH. Color of the cool soup went from light mud brown to dark chocolate in color and got nice and hot. I let it sit for a couple hours and re-checked - same reading. Swirling the liquid around in the flask I see the thin film of liquid on the sides has a red wine/deep purple look to it. I’m used to the soup being darker and the thin film looking a deeper purple. Idk, I may have been adding WAY too much NaOH in previous runs. It’s always been hard to read test strip color codes when they’re tinted purple from the soup, lol, so sprung for a new BlueLab digital meter (calibrated twice).
So is my meter right?
I was about to get myself an electronic ph meter. I was wondering whether I need to pay attention to the materials that meter is made of (don’t want to end up part of it in my final product)?
I am from the EU, so if anyone has a good suggestion, I would of course also more than welcome if they just share what they are using.
Thanks fam!
So I've been thinking about buying a pH meter for a rather long time now as I'm occasionally conducting some experiments that involve measuring the pH. Until now I've been using pH strips, but since they are rather inaccurate I'd like to invest in a pH meter. I've been looking into the ones by Metler Toledo but they are way outside my budget. I've also found some that appear rather cheap (30-50 €/$). The ones for pools etc.
I don't wanna spend a lot of money and am willing to sacrifice a bit of quality but also would like to have an accurate read. Do you guys have any advice about buying a pH meter? would you say buying a cheap one is alright for an amateur chemist?
Ordered a cheap ph meter to do some larger extractions, as I test my soup irs obvious my cheap, shitty ph meter is just that....cheap and shitty. Would I run any danger in using too much lye? I have concluded I will just put an excessive amount in it to save this batch and go back to using cybs afterwards for now.....but got 150 grams of bark in limbo
Yes, I do understand that commercial or lab grade is better. Besides frugal (or cheap if you wish) I am is a home, basement greens grower, that hasn't cared about pH or TDS as my current nutrient solution has just worked, just fine. (Ionic Grow)
That solution is a bit pricy for the massive outdoor expansion I'm planning. Since Masterblend has been recommended so much, I bought the 25 lb. kit. I'd like to know more about what I'm using.
Amazon sells the above pair for $20.
Will it be good enough to get me through an outdoor growing season?
Still learning...Anyone have a preferred go to meter/analyzer that tests both soil and h20 ph without having to recalibrate ?
I have a digital one but it seems it needs to be recalibrated, not sure if it’s smarter to buy calibration powder for it or just a whole new analyzer in general. Thanks in advanced!!
I am in particular worried about materials that are not chemically resistant. I also heard that it can be challenging to calibrate those meters, but I guess that is something one can figure out.
Thanks a lot for any input on the topic!
I operate a small water treatment plant in California (max flow 26gpm). We need to install a continuous turbidimeter (ideally with a programmable alarm at high readings) and purchase a new pH meter. We're a nonprofit so we're pretty budget-conscious and we don't have any internet/network access at the plant. The more rugged the equipment, the better.
Does anyone have recommendations? I'm looking into this Hach Pocket Pro pH Tester (measuring temperature with the same instrument would be nice!) and I honestly have no clue where to start with the turbidimeter.
Any help/direction is super helpful, thank you!
EDIT: It looks like I also need a turbidimeter that can test grab samples too (portable preferred)
Do you recommend me one of them?
After watching The Bread Code on YouTube I think I'd like to invest in an accurate PH meter for telling me when my bulk fermentation is complete. I often make Cheddar Jalapeno bread and it's difficult to measure the rise. But after researching there are a variety and many have bad reviews.
Anyone use one for this purpose and if so, can you share the brand. I'm willing to spend some decent money on it if it will actually work. I make several loaves a week. Also use a Brod and Taylor to control temp.
Thanks in advance!
Just curious, i just bought a platinium ph meter and it starts slowly to drift after 4 days. ive been using them yellow cheap ones and i found out they are utterly trash as they never read correct.
As the title says, i've seen that they're often coupled with igrometer, ranging from 10 to 80% tho, not really useful for the drained soil used for cannabis (3-12%)
So I have PH strips, but I'm starting to crave the full accuracy of a digital meter. Are there any recommended brands for accuracy and longevity? Looking through Amazon, I'm leaning towards the AI209, but I'd like to hear the thoughts of my favorite Reddit community.
What is a good PH meter that will not break the bank? And while we are at it what about a good nutrient meter for hydro?
Still learning...Anyone have a preferred go to meter/analyzer that tests both soil and h20 ph without having to recalibrate ?
I have a digital one but it seems it needs to be recalibrated, not sure if it’s smarter to buy calibration powder for it or just a whole new analyzer in general. Thanks in advanced!!
