Pool, Spa and Hot Tub Maintenance: Tips for Easy Water Testing

Until a few years ago water testing was done exclusively with liquid chemicals or tablets dissolved in water (reagents). These tests are accurate and for those people familiar with the methods it is a good way to go. Nowadays, test strips are far less fiddly, quicker and offer results that are as good or even better than liquid tests.

Test Strips

• A test strip has one or more pads with a substance that changes color in a proven way to measure the concentration of a particular chemical in the water.
  
• Many people simply dip test strips in the pool or spa. This is fine if the water is well mixed and has nothing on the surface. If there is any dust, leaf material or oil (from a liquid blanket, for instance) on the surface, always take water from about eighteen inches down. Oil and other contaminants can produce wildly inaccurate results. Use a clean container washed only with water. Chemicals in cleaners will interfere with results.
• When handling test strips never touch the pads, your skin chemicals will affect the results.
• Always protect test strips in storage from moisture, that is make sure your hands are dry when removing a strip from its container and replace the lid tightly as soon as possible.
• Dip the strip in water for the time recommended and read only after the time recommended.
• Once the strip is ready to read, hold against the comparator charts provided. Match the color and get the result in parts per million (ppm). For greater speed and accuracy a swimming pool water test meter can used (see below).

You will need to test for

• pH
• Total Alkalinity
• Total dissolved solids
• Water Hardness
• Sanitzer levels. Either Chlorine, Bromine or Biguanides

If your sanitizer is chlorine you will need to measure both free chlorine and total chlorine

Aquachek offer a good range of test strips which will measure all the important water properties.

The products pictured will allow you to test for every thing that needs to be tested. Of course, some tests need to be done less often than others so you can save money by buying strips which test for, say, chlorine only or just pH and alkalinity- whatever suits your maintenance regime best.

Any good pool store will sell test strips. Alternatively you can buy online at many websites eg:

Sensafe Test Strips

Industrial Test Systems, Inc.offer a huge range of test strips. They have tests for the five most important chemicals listed above and also offer more specialized tests. The checking of copper and silver levels can be important if you use an ionizer. Any dissolved metal can interfere with biguanide sanitizer. Ozone can be tested if you have any concerns about your ozonator. Aluminium Sulphate can be tested if you use this as a flocculent.

Their website isn't easy to use but browse here for their full range of test strips:

• http://www.sensafe.com/parameters.php

Water Test Meters

A recent development has been the introduction of meters that convert the colors of test strips into a digital readout in parts per million. A test strip is dipped in the water to be sampled and then slipped inside the machine. A photometer measures the wavelength of the light and converts it into a number that is displayed on a screen. This eliminates the need for color matching and comparison charts.

Aquachek TruTest Meter

This measures the chemicals that need monitoring most often- Free Chlorine/Bromine, pH and Total Alkalinity. It gives results in ppm and indicates if the levels are too high, too low or OK. Costs around $50.

http://www.aquachek.com/trutest/

eXact®XtraTM Micro meter from Industrial Test Systems

If you want to know how to test pool chemicals thoroughly, this meter is the rolls-royce model. It measures thirty or so individual chemicals that might be found in the water, performing all of  the five common tests plus biguanide, ozone and metal ions but costs around $133 for the meter only. 

http://www.sensafe.com/486662-M.php#486671

Bacteria and viruses in water cause significant amounts of illness each year, especially gastrointestinal illness. The kinds of bacteria routinely entering your pool or spa include E.coli and streptococcus. Common viruses include enterovirus and bacteriophage.

In a well managed pool or spa with properly maintained sanitizer levels, these organism are quickly destroyed. When bather load is high and maintenance is allowed to slip, potentially serious illnesses can spread.

Besides the problem of hygiene, if water isn’t well balanced it will quickly damage surfaces and ruin equipment such as pumps and heaters.

It will also leave your pool or spa vulnerable to algae.

How to Test Swimming Pool and Spa Water  for Bacteria

If you want to check your pool or spa for bacteria there are test strips available. The tests aren’t cheap at up to $4 dollars a time but can bring peace of mind.

http://www.spadepot.com/shop/WaterSafe-Bacteria-Test-for-Spas-Pools-P845C60.aspx offer a pack of ten for $20