I’m having a hell of a time with ph testers, so i was wondering if we could have (get) a consensus on a reliable and accurate ph testers. I almost bought a blue lab soil tester for $185.00, but then read the reviews and they where pretty much all bad. so I’m just wondering what everyone else is using. tired of throwing away my hard earned money
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I’m a Luddite 
I use the drops
Cheers
G
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My buddy bought be a blue lab a few months ago, and I haven’t had an issue, though I don’t use it too often.
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That looks like what my brother in law has.
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No issues. To be honest I don’t think reading wise there any better then a $12 dollar one I use cheap ones as back ups but what I’ve found they don’t need calibrated as often
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Just got a Bluelab BLU2300E combo ph and ec meter. Best investment I have made. Knowing what is in my water vs essentially guessing with the cheap meters I was using.
When I got my blue lab and calibrated it I checked against my old meter and was out nearly a full ph point even though I calibrated the old one a week or so prior.
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GH ph drops are always the final word.
Although I am having a decent time with ~40$ Adwa with 25$ replaceable probes.
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Apera sx-620 replaceable probes going on 4 years old
I would like to get the apera 60 so i can buy the soil probe also
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I have an Apera.
I have pH drops.
They both work well.
If I grew in hydro I would probably use the apera more but since I grow soil the drops are more than good enough.
All the best.
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Seems like a few people have Apera on here. I think Bluelab is the cadillac of meters, but for the price points I’m not interested. I like a middle ground. I tried using the 10 dollar yellow meters for a while, honestly got away with it for years but they got out of wack really easily, generally had stranger calibration ranges and constantly broke. The Apera is nice, easy to use, easy to calibrate, and a bit more robust.
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I have this one. The only thing I’d watch for is buying new calibration solution. That meter defaults to USA series. I didn’t know there was a difference, and when I bought new solution I just happened to get NIST series. Things were wonky for a month or so until I figured out what the deal was. Changed the setting on the meter from USA to NIST, and all is well again.
I like it, it’s a solid meter.
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I use the GH drops, if I just want to ballpark it for soil pots. I can usually get it to 6.5 pretty accurately with drops.
But for coco/hydro where it needs to be more precise, I have an Apera PH20 PH tester (same one kushdaddy linked to above) it’s accurate and rock solid.
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I went through 3 cheapo pH testers in my 1st year growing. Bit the bullet & got an HM Digital PH80 for $35.00. 4.5 years use & still works fine.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/HM-Digital-PH-80-pH-Meter-Waterproof-PH80-Tester-HydroTester/313297627324?hash=item48f1fe68bc:g:R04AAOSw7b9fraHM
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Thanks for the info.I bought solution (extra) when I bought that so far so good been like 7-8 months…
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I picked up one of these
Haven’t activated it yet…
I was going to buy something similar to that but I wanted to be able to change the tips but you know what those tips buy the time you buy them and shipping you damn near could buy a new one lol
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Are these for the same thing? The first says soil and the others I click on say water. Amazon showed a blue lab for $90 and add some solutions for $130 and a soil for $185. Is the 90, 130 & 185 all the same? I am trying to figure out what I need with out getting a bunch of stuff I don’t need. Reading is getting so confusing.
That one is a meter for water. I have never used a soil meter. I grow hydro, trying to figure out what is going on in soil in terms of ph and how hot it was is why I switched - never had success in dirt.
There are alot of brands out there bluelabs and hanna are solid - cant speak to any others. Do you have links for these meters? Can check them out.