Hello everyone. I just bought my first ec meter and I’m not sure how to read it. When I go to check my water, the meter reads 304. Everything I googled said it should read in points like 1.2ec. I’m confused. It has the microsiemens symbol in the corner, but I expected it to read like 1.2, or 1.6ec not just 304. Sorry if I’m being dumb or missing something but help would be greatly appreciated.
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Sounds like it’s displaying ppm. Some meters display either. I’d check your manual if you want to change it to ec
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No it’s definitely on the ec setting. It has the microsemiens symbol displaying in the upper right hand corner.
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Micro or milli?
Micro(u) is .000001 while milli(m) is 0.001
EC is usually specified by nutrient formulators in millisiemens. So, 1.0 mS (1.0 EC) would also be 1000.0 uS. 304 uS would also be 0.3 mS.
Brand / model of the EC meter?
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It says us/cm. So I guess micro? I was thinking the same thing that 304 was probably 0.3.
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Yes, I think what you are reading is sensible then. 304uS = 0.3mS for the EC. Which is also in the typical range for municipal water.
edit: note the chart Dbkick posted for the TDS (PPM). Be careful to not confuse TDS with EC when measuring nutrients, as well.
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Thanks Loki, your a huge help. That’s exactly what I was testing, my tap water. I have a separate tds meter and it was saying my tap was at 148 ppm, and the ec meter was 304. Does that sound about equal?
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According to Dbkick’ chart, 304 ec should be pretty close to 148 ppm.
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Yup. 
304uS would be approximately 152 PPM (TDS) assuming a 0.5 conversion factor. 148 is close enough.
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