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Time for a new pH pen

PRIMO

PRIMO

New member
Well my hanna pH pen went from not working worth a crap to not working at all, batteries ...maybe,dont care i'm gonna upgrade. What i'm looking for is experienced grower opinions, please no tutorial links or web directions. "I already know how to google stuff"I just value your opinions my friends, ya'll know the drill pros...cons etc. Thanks
 
I got one of those "pens" at Amazon. I used it 3 times before going back to the drops.Way too much trouble calibrating and such for me anyway (still in the package on the closet shelf).
 
Oh, I'm not very experienced though. Just finished my first grow. All I know is mine is a hand me down, probably over 8 years old. The probe was changed once before me. I calibrated it once and has been spot on. Just needs a little cleaning every now and then. Pretty hard to argue with an electronic device that last that long these days. If you take care of your tools, they take care of you. If you treat them like shit, you get shitty results.
 
dontknownuttin said:
I got one of those "pens" at Amazon. I used it 3 times before going back to the drops.Way too much trouble calibrating and such for me anyway (still in the package on the closet shelf).
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The General Hydroponics pH drops that came with my pH Up and Down has two colors to compare with on the side of the bottle: orange for pH 5 and yellow-green for pH 6. Yes, calibrating a pen and keeping the glass tip wet all the time (which you should do for long life and best accuracy--trust me, I used to work in a lab) is a pain, but at least it gives me results that are accurate to one decimal place. Drops don't give me anywhere near acceptable resolution.
 
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I love the pens, I have such a hard time with the drops and does that look right not to mention and I’m convinced my brownish nute water is going to have an effect on those drops. I keep some of those ph test strips on hand in case I think my pen is giving me funny readings. I did forget to put the cap on one day, it was acting odd. Steadily dropping never stopping with distilled water read my well water fine. cleaned the probe with some distilled water and a tooth brush checked the calibration and it’s worked great since again.
 
Usually all they need is a cleaning if taken care of. And for sure keep the pH probe wet. Just a couple drops of some storage solution into the cap and put it on, done. Just remember to rinse before next use
 
Rosey,doc, 99,ozzy and DKN Thanks for the input. When I got my pen I lost the cap right straightaway so I filled a pill bottle half way with storage solution & drilled a 5/8 in. hole in the cap problem solved. I did the gentle brush clean and calibrated still wonky results. I've been doing the drops,just look for pea green & call it good. On my next grow I want to try being a little more exact with things and see if it makes that much difference.
 
I’d say GH drops they work for me I just make sure it goes to yellow when I check it and let it go up to yellow green which is about 6.5 according to the bottle and so far no problems at all except one time when I let it go up to green which is like 7 plus I believe. I only grow one plant at a time and been using it since I started 4 grows ago and all is good..
 
What you gonna do when you nutes change your water color, like molasses does, ?
Nothin wrong with drops, but meters are way more accurate, an very often you need to be very accurate.
 
PRIMO said:
Well my hanna pH pen went from not working worth a crap to not working at all, batteries ...maybe,dont care i'm gonna upgrade. What i'm looking for is experienced grower opinions, please no tutorial links or web directions. "I already know how to google stuff"I just value your opinions my friends, ya'll know the drill pros...cons etc. Thanks
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Here ya go at $19,999.00 with no tax and free shipping it's a steal. https://hannainst.com/hi902c-automat...xoC8IIQAvD_BwE:p It has gotta be an upgrade.

With my googling i did find batteries for your old meter for around $20.00. Looks like it might be a good meter worth repairing. Of course there are far cheaper meters on Amazon.
 
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D.A.A.S.69 I have used molasses and with my nutes and all I still get an accurate reading. So far no problems ( knock on wood) I guess it’s just a preference thing. I just don’t get it when people post they check with they’re drops if they feel the pen is off or acting weird. What’s the point of the pen if you trust the drops reading over the pen’s reading? Sometimes I would like to be dead on a 5.5 or on 6.3 whatever it may be but on GWE it says NOT to ph you water to the acact reading every time because plants absorb nutes at different numbers so as long as your within range your good.. like I said so far that’s been working for me. On the Sirius tutorial on DWC he recommends the drops keep it simple. I do have a pen for my ppm and water temps though just like the tutorial.
 
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