This year’s simple pool test kit lineup includes the Pool Check 3-Way, 4-Way, 5-Way, and 6-Way test strips.

We also carry the Taylor Basic Phenol Red (pH) & OTO for Total Chlorine (K-1000), Taylor Basic Phenol Red (pH) & DPD for Free Chlorine (K-1001), and the Taylor Troubleshooter (K-1004) test kits.

No matter which test kit you select, please keep in mind that a test kit will do you absolutely no good if you never use it. Also, waiting until a problem starts to develop before you test will also do you no good.

Pool water testing alerts you to water quality deficiencies that could result in water quality issues (i.e. cloudiness, algae, stains, etc.). Catching the deficiency before it turns into a problem can save you hours of aggravation and quite a bit of money in chemicals that treat algae, cloudiness, staining, and other water problems.

Preferred water quality levels

Another question we get each year: “What levels should my pool water have?”

Below you will find a list of basic pool water parameters along with their optimal ranges:

• pH: 7.2 – 7.8
• Free Chlorine: 1.0 – 2.0 ppm
• Total Alkalinity: 80 – 120 ppm
• Calcium Hardness: 180 – 220 ppm, though some say 200 – 400 ppm for plaster and/or gunite pools..
• Cyanuric Acid: 25 – 50 ppm
• Total Dissolved Solids: 500 – 5000 ppm

Please note, however, that not all pools will require the exact same water chemistry to stay safe for swimming and crystal clear so if you have doubts about specific pool water quality concerns, definitely get in touch with a pool water professional (i.e. service company or staff in a local pool store) before adding water treatment chemicals.

Adding the wrong chemicals can make a problem much worse and often times a lot more expensive to correct!

• Pentair DPD-1 Test Tablets for free chlorine testing
• Pentair DPD-3 Test Tablets for total chlorine testing
• Pentair OTO & Phenol Red Test Kit Reagents for total chlorine and pH testing
• Poolmaster 5-Way Test Kit for chlorine, bromine, pH, total alkalinity, and acid demand testing
• Taylor K-1004 Trouble-Shooter Test Kit for free & total chlorine, bromine, pH, total alkalinity, and acid demand testing

So, if you have a need to test pool water and don’t know where to get hold of a basic pool water test kit or replacement reagents, definitely stop by the Pool Water Test Kit Store. We run the place so, um, well, we KNOW the products work well!

Your Best Source for Pool Check Test Strips

What makes this site unique? Well, for starters it offers flat rate shipping (just $5.55!) for all orders regardless of size so you can stock up on pool water testing supplies for the whole swimming season and not have to worry about outrageous shipping costs. Oh, and this site ships by USPS Priority Mail so you KNOW your order will arrive fast!

Additionally, the Pool Water Test Kit Store carries ONLY pool water testing supplies so you won’t get lost in a sea of pool toys and other stuff. They make it easy top get what you need without unnecessary distractions.

Moral of the story?

If you need pool water test strips the Pool Water Test Kit Store carries the Pool Check brand — which is made in the United States, by the way. Pool Check has pool water test strips ranging from basic 3 Way Pool Test Strips (free chlorine, pH & alkalinity) all the way up to the more advanced 6 Way Pool Test Strips (free chlorine, total chlorine, pH, alkalinity, total hardness & cyanuric acid).

One final (important) reminder: Flat rate USPS Priority Mail shipping of any order for just $5.55 so you won’t get stuck paying a huge amount for shipping! 🙂

Description: Pool water test kit accurately tests pool total chlorine and pH levels in seconds. Easy to use liquid solution kit includes test kit reagents and test cell with color comparator chart.

Every year thousands of pool owners wake up one morning around this time of year and think, “Hmmmm…. Where the #@%$ did we put that 2-way pool test kit at the end of last summer?!?”

Well, after digging through the shed, rummaging through dusty boxes in the garage and checking between various containers of pool chemicals left over from the previous year a good percentage of them suddenly realize one of several conclusions:

• The damn kids lost it again!
• My stupid husband/wife must have misplaced it again!
• I’ll KILL that mangy mutt for using my test kit as a chew toy again!
• Oops. I seem to remember something about stepping on it toward the tail end of our annual Family Labor Day Keg Party… No, no, no it must have been the kids/spouse/dog.

Regardless of WHICH situation you face this year, rest assured that we have you covered when it comes to making it easy for you to replace your stolen, lost, misplaced, chewed up, and/or stepped on (by someone else!) 2-way pool water test kit. Oh, and by ‘we’, we mean In the Swim since they carry 2-way pool test kits and our pool water test kit store does not.

But, on the other hand, if you don’t care for 2-way test kits and prefer to use something even simpler, our pool water test kit store carries a good selection of Pool Check test strips ranging from basic 3-way pool test strips to the more advanced (yet still easy to use!) 6- way pool test strips.

For additional articles dealing with pool water, please either take a trip over to Pool Water Testing Blog or check out the pool water section of our web site.

Each year millions of pool owners will venture out into their sheds, begin to rummage through boxes marked ‘pool stuff’ in their garages, etc. and come up empty handed. What did they go looking for? Their simple, trusted 2-way pool water test kit.

Where did all those test kits go? No one really knows, but some have hypothesized that an alien race of testing gnomes creeps out in the off season and harvests a select number of 2-way test kits that they will sacrifice to the Pool Gods on our behalf in exchange for a bountiful, fun and safe swimming season.

Regardless of whether or not that last bit sounded believable, if you find yourself in need of a 2-way pool water test kit for total chlorine and pH, sites like InTheSwim.Com and PoolCenter.Com carry those and more.

Now… if you want to take BETTER care of your pool water — and possibly save yourself numerous water chemistry headaches which cost money to correct — you may want to consider taking a look at a 4-way pool test kit or more advanced Taylor Test Kit.

Taylor K2005C Pool Water Test Kit

As an example, a test kit for bacteria which could help a person determine whether or not a pond, lake, pool, hot tub or river contains an unhealthy level of bacteria unsafe for swimming or bathing cannot definitively tell a person whether or not a person should drink the water.

A kit like…

… will tell you if the water contains unsafe levels of bacteria that would make swimming or bathing unsafe.

A kit like…

WaterWorks^TM Bacteria Check

… detects down to 1 coliform unit of bacteria, the EPA limit for safe drinking water.

Now as we ALWAYS say, “No at-home test kit gives the same level of precision and accuracy as a professional, certified water analysis laboratory!” — It’s your water, your health and ultimately your LIFE!

For most people opening their swimming pool means raising the water level off with fresh, untreated water from a garden hose or in some cases, a delivery truck. Once full of water, the testing can begin.

How Should Pool & Spa Owners Test Their Water?

Excellent question! In the ‘old’ days most pool and spa owners had a simple two-sided test kit for chlorine/bromine and pH which looked like this:

click here for more details Part Number: A8100

2-Way Liquid Solution Water Test Kit 2-Way Test Kit “Pool water test kit reagents should be replaced every year. Testing swimming pool water every day will ensure proper chlorine, pH and alkalinity levels in the pool water. In The Swim pool test kits.”

… and each year the owners of these pool water and spa water owners made a pilgrimage to their local pool store to acquire replacement reagents for their pool and/or spa water test kits which looked like this:

click here for more details Part Number: A8120

2-Way Liquid Solution Water Test Kit Reagent 1 (chlorine) 1 oz. “Pool water test kit reagents should be replaced every year. Testing swimming pool water every day will ensure proper chlorine, pH and alkalinity levels in the pool water. In The Swim pool test kits.”

click here for more details Part Number: A8122

2-Way Liquid Solution Water Test Kit Reagent 2 (pH) 1 oz. “Pool water test kit reagents should be replaced every year. Testing swimming pool water every day will ensure proper chlorine, pH and alkalinity levels in the pool water. In The Swim pool test kits.”

While at their local pool store picking up the replacement reagents for their pool/spa water test kits, pool and spa owners would usually submit a sample of water from their freshly filled pool or spa to a smiling person behind the counter at the ‘water testing station’. Within minutes of handing over a soda can, mason jar, yogurt container or other (hopefully) sealed container full of water the same smiling water station attendant would return with a sheet of paper telling them the free chlorine, total chlorine, ph, alkalinity, total (or calcium) hardness, cyanuric acid, total dissolved solids, copper and iron levels in their water.

Can’t Pool & Spa Owners Test Their Own Water?

Of course they can. Swimming pool and spa water test kits

Then came the fun part: Picking up and paying for all the various tubs and canisters of powders and liquids that would hopefully bring their water back in line with what pool and spa water professionals consider healthy.

This seems like a good time to end today’s posting. Later we will go into the different methods a person can use to test their OWN pool or spa water: At-Home Pool & Spa Water Test Kits & Water Testing Meters and At-Home Pool & Spa Water Test Kits and Testing Supplies

Problem: Some pools just don’t pass muster.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It’s the right season to take a dip in the neighborhood pool, but WCNC found almost half the pools in Mecklenburg County fail their first inspection.

The problems were serious enough at 15 percent of Mecklenburg County pools that inspectors shut them down immediately. (source: 6/25/2008 article by Stuart Watson WCNC)

An ‘open’ pool does not necessarily mean a safe pool. Visitors of public swimming facilities, especially those which have privatized maintenance, as in the case of an apartment complex, may want to test the pool water for basic parameters before going for a swim.

Taking a few minutes to use one of the Pool Check^TM brand or Aquachek brand of test strips will tell you right away if the pool contains the right amount of necessary chemicals. Properly maintained pool water will have a perfect balance of pH, Total Alkalinity, Hardness, and Sanitizer(s). Too much or too little of each parameter may result in potentially unsafe swimming conditions.

Pool service companies and/or maintenance technicians reading this entry may want to take a look at the FAS DPD Service Kit and/or the Taylor Pool Service Test Kit since those kits use more traditional (liquid test kit) testing methods.

Most local health inspectors do not allow pool operators to rely solely upon test strips and require that public swimming facility operators use either liquid test kits like the ones just mentioned or more sophisticated meters.

In need of replacement test reagents for Taylor Swimming Pool Test Kits? You can find a full selection of replacement Taylor Test Kit Reagents on the PoolCenter.Com web site.

Monitoring the water chemistry in a pool will not cause you the pain you suffered through earlier in life. For the average pool owner, simple dip-n-read Pool Check test strips will work just fine. They allow for easy monitoring of the basics: Chlorine Level, pH, Total Alkalinity, and Hardness. Additionally, a trip to the pool store with a sample of water works equally well. Plus the fine folks at the store will give excellent directions on how to correct any problems they may find.

For those who maintain commercial or public pools, use of dip-n-read test strips will typically NOT suffice.

Most local Health Departments prefer to see pool/spa professionals using EPA Compliant methods for the monitoring of certain things like Free & Total Chlorine. They also want to see a host of other parameters like Cyanuric Acid (chlorine stabilizer) monitored on a regular basis. Sound intimidating? Let us help you with that.

Prior to the introduction of portable, easy-to-use handheld meters like the eXact Micro 7+ Advanced Photometric System, EPA Compliant chlorine testing required messy wet kits, dropper bottles, titrants, tablets and/or irritating dusts. No other chlorine detection method involving DPD Chemistry existed.

Now, however, with affordable EPA Compliant (for chlorine monitoring) water quality testing meters such as the eXact Micro 7+ Advanced Photometric System which makes use of a new, more convenient DPD Delivery System known as DPD ReagentStrips available, chlorine testing has become a lot easier and pretty much anyone can obtain accurate, reliable water test results in minutes.