Apera Instruments Value Series Salt20 Salinity Tester Kit (AI214)

Perfect price and works great

UPDATE - Used this for about 6 weeks so far. When properly calibrated, from what I gather from the Apera docs on this and the EC60, it provides an [NaCl ?] equivalent to conductivity with a factor of 0.50. Calibration solution provided is 12.88 mS/cm solution (reads 6.4 to 6.5ppt). The resolution is 0.1ppt (100ppm), but the manual "SPECIFICATION" section lists this as 0.01ppt (incorrect). The Apera EC60 EC/TDS/Salt instrument is advertised to have 10x better resolution, but the salinity range is still limited to 10ppt (with better resolution). No where in the PDF user manuals online now tell you the conductivity calibration solution is 12.88 mS/cm (6.44ppt). The older printed manual in the box does say that. The Salt20 meter can be set to mg/L display instead of ppt. [The EC60 reads: EC, TDS, Salinity and Temperature and the EC tempo is based on NaCl, but this is adjustable on the EC60 - not the Salt20]I sometimes double check this meter with some salt test strips to see if they are in the ballpark. My local pool supply store often tells me my salt level is lower than this meter by a substantial amount (10% lower). I think they are trying to sell me more salt, which would not be harmful to my pool, but not required. This instrument is saving me some money. I still rate this as a good, moderate cost instrument, though with low resolution (good enough for my purposes). The EC60 would give more precision, but the TDS readings might not make a lot of sense, as what Im really looking at is dissolved salt?ORIGINAL REVIEWHave had this for a few days now - currently the *only* measure I have for salt in the salt-based chlorine-generator pool system. I have some other backup test methods on order. The sample I provided to a commercial outfit for pool testing said my system needed more salt (< 3100 ppm). The light on my chlorine generator said OK, so it was in the range ~ 3400 ppm. This device showed me it is 3300~ 3400 ppm (3.3~3.4 ppt) after I did a initial calibration. Id like to have a 3rd method to determine salt -- I don't need to keep adding #40 bags of salt when not needed (I just wonder how often these pool dudes in stores calibrate their equipment..., or maybe they don't follow the best practices in using their instrumentation.) I'd sooner have my own methods to double check readings. If the chlorine generator fails, I might not know. Id like to have a Chlorine tester, but they appear to be fairly expensive. Not sure that Apera even makes one.PROS: Don't have to calibrate often, don't have to keep the probe wet in storage, very acceptable price range.CONS: Small sample of calibration fluid - I need to get a big bottle even though it don't cal often.

Very happy with this purchase, hard to find affordable Salt Testers in Australia and this one does everything we need, highly recommended!

I purchased this device to test pond salinity. The instructions are designed to cover multiple different instruments, and are inherently confusing as a consequence. The challenge is to calibrate using included fluid. No explanation as to what the results should be, or what to do if the results vary from the salinity of the testing fluid. No directions as to whther the entire process needs to be repeated for every water test. What if I get a questionable result when I do a test - do I need to recalibrate? All this thing does is p(*& me off. in addition, if you use for a freshwater pond, the display only shows ppt of less than 1 in a single digit (e.g., .3 ppt) So a reading of .3 could be as low as .251 or as high as .349. Avoid it.

The quality is good, the results are accurate within the instrument's range, but we didn't realize when we bought it that it only tests up to 10 ppt, so it is not very useful for salt-water aquaculture. We are testing oysters in a low-salinity (5 to 20 ppt) estuary; We can still use it, but it isn't what we need. The description does say 'up to 10 ppt', so we were warned ahead of time.

Used for swimming pool working perfect.

Works great, has a calibration solution too!I hope that it stays working and is accurate.The only con is that it does PPT instead of PPM so its not as accurate since you are getting a reading like 0.6PPT when you could have 630ppm.Otherwise it works fine and its very fast, comes in a nice case with instructions and batteries.Ok, this meter does not read like other TDS meters.The ms/cm conversion factor is 0.5 so the values come out differently than other meters.Personally I think this is a bit useless for pool water because the value is not what you need to read for PPM when the # is wrong.Now I can convert it by MS/CM but if the value itself is inaccurate then what is the use if I have to do further conversion after using the meter itself?The meter was telling me that my pool had 4.6ppt salinity level (4600ppm) when the entire TDS level on the pool was 3800.The pool fell to 3000ppm and the meter was still reading over 4.0PPT.It was showing my tap water as 0.2PPT when the tap water had 110ppm TDS.Honestly I understand that the company has a different conversion factor, but if the number that it gives you is not directly translatable to other numbers then why should you use this meter?I am waiting on a new calibration solution that they tell me might fix the whole meter.

I just got this tester yesterday and I love it. So much easier than using the strips to test our salt level.