You can also try to get color indicating titration kits. They are
simple to use. They have a graduated flask to hold the sample and you
count the drops to color change to get a pH or other wet chemical
concentration like Chlorides or Nitrates. I have used these in
manufacturing plant situations where operators need pH or cleaning
chemical concentrations to do their job. No real lab skills or
expensive to repair equipment needed.

If still want a digital pH meter you can get calibration solutions and
do the servicing yourself. You should also be keeping a glass probe in
deionized water when not in use. There are also polymer membrane
probes you may want to look into instead of glass. If you know that
you are always basic or acidic you could also opt for a generally more
rugged conductivity probe and convert the number you get to pH.

Jim


On Jan 23, 6:11 pm, Salmon Egg wrote:
Hydroponics stores tend to be boutiques with boutique prices. As I got into
this hydroponics, I wanted to buy a pH meter. It is getting more and more
difficult to get lab equipment and chemicals. As I got into this
hydroponics, I wanted to buy a pH meter. I selected a Corning ChekMite
because I thought I could rely on the Corning cachet. I found that VWR
claimed that it was a restricted device. Presumably it was that because of
the war on drugs. I finally got it from a scientific supply house.

This same house, however, will not sell me chemicals, primarily because of
liability. Many such places will sell only to businesses and not to
individuals. One of the last places around the LA area where individuals
could get supplies, TriEss sciences went out of business when the owner
died. When I was there, there was a notice that iodine crystals could not be
bought with out some kind of a permit. Again, I think because of the
misguided war on drugs.

I have been getting hydroponic nutrients at reasonable rather than the
boutique rate3s that pot growers are willing to pay. I get formulations of
all the nutrients in granular form. A few years ago, after Oklahoma City, I
was at a fertilizer place where they still were selling bags of ammonium
nitrate and potassium nitrate. I don't know how available these substances
are are now. I am content to get the mixtures.

Well, I still do not have a good pH test method. The glass electrodes in pH
meters tend to last only about a year and are expensive to repair. Using
indicator solutions is awkward. I think that I am going to end up using some
of the test strips.

Bill
-- Fermez le Bush--about two years to go.