HoneForest Digital TDS Meter, Accurate and Reliable, TDS, EC & Temp Meter 3 in 1, 0-9990ppm, Ideal Water Tester PPM Meter(Green)

Thrilled with purchase. Right away I found I was dangerously over-feeding my coco coir garden with General Hydroponics liquid nutrients. (I also confirmed my tap water is garbage with a PPM >400). This meter is easy to use and seems relatively accurate when comparing tap, RO and distilled water. I wish the meter would default to EC instead of PPM, but pushing one extra button changes the setting. The meter also changes to a backlit RED color when PPM is greater than 40, which I find distracting, but now I'm just being picky. If you're using liquid nutrients for your gardening, do yourself a favor and spend a few bucks for this meter.

First off, it comes with a little leather sheath, which is super cool. I bought one for the use of my planted aquarium and to monitor the TDS of the water column, after adding things like substrate or decorations (mainly rocks), and it works as expected. This is super easy to use, that it's almost intuitive. No directions needed! It has features that are useful and thus, I'd say, this purchase would have been worth $20, or even $30. Good buy. My only gripe is that the lid on the back end of the TDS reader does come off really easy, so you'd have to be careful. Perhaps adding a click able lid would be best (a message to the manufacturer). Otherwise, it's so great, that I am buying a white version of this TDS meter for my drinking water! (BTW, RO came up with a 4ppm reading and my planted aquarium came up with a 330ppm - time for a water change)

I got this meter for my aquariums to test TDS. My nitrates and phosphates are generally too low (due to fast plant growth) to use them as a baseline for water changes, so I change water when the TDS gets too high. So far no troubles with it, it's at the very least accurate enough to keep my fish and plants healthy so I'm quite happy with it. I also use it to tell me when to change the filters on my RO system and again, it's accurate enough for me. Not sure how much I trust the thermometer portion, it's always a couple of degrees off the temps my two cooking thermometers give me, but it's close enough to keep things fish safe when I can't find them. My only complaint is how difficult drying it between uses can be, it's hard to get anything in their to wick away the water for a new test and shaking it doesn't work to well either. All in all, it's a good product for the money in my opinion, I will likely buy another when this one gives out.

I use this TDS meter almost daily for checking the water in my shrimp tanks, testing tap water, and randomly test the hardness of lakes and streams I like to fish. I have never once dried the thing off after use and only rinse with distilled water if the happens to be the last thing I stuck it in, and I must say that it still works great! I bought the Inkbird TDS meter thinking that because it cost more it must be better but find myself still using this one because it is way more consistent and gives the reading in maybe a second at most. The Inkbird gives a different reading every time I stick it in the same sample and is all over the place. I HIGHLY RECCOMEND THIS TDS METER!

Product is great so far. I’ve been using my tds meter for monitoring my hydroponic system water for about 3 weeks and the readings seem accurate enough to tell me when I need to change my nutrient solution. Plants are thriving thanks to this little tool! LCD display is easy to read and backlight is a nice feature. Overall product design is good and easy to use. My only fear with this is dropping it. I fear a drop would easily crack the case or ruin this, and I do not think it could handle a dunk in water past the probe. I wish it had a strap or lanyard. It does come with a nice soft case for storage, however, and as long as you are careful, this device should give many years of service.

Right now, I am quite confused on this meter. The first water we checked came directly out of our gravity filter container. The gravity container has a charcoal filtering system, along with a chlorine and fluoride filter. Where this filtered water SHOULD show less than 50 PPM, it showed 164 PPM. Really?! I then tested a glass of distilled water, and it didn't show anything, which is what distilled water is supposed to be. A big zero. Now, here is where stuff gets hinky. I poured a glass of water directly from the tap. This is the water we pour into our gravity filter, to filter out the contaminants, chlorine and fluoride. When we checked it with the meter, it showed 165 PPM. How could we be putting the 165PPM water through a double filtering system, and it ONLY drops 1 PPM?!? Not sure if it's the meter, or possibly a faulty filtering system. The only thing I DO know is, the water out of the gravity filter does taste much better, and loses the chemically, bleachy, fluoride smell and taste that comes out of the tap. I'll do more testing to see if it's the meter reader or the water. I'll update with results. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~EDIT~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 01Aug2018: So far I have been contacted by the company... twice. I am guessing they REALLY want me to change my review. I had planned to add a 4th star HOWEVER, I still find this meter hinky. Here's why: By the companies OWN photo on the sell page (3rd one down) AND the accompanying booklet with the tester, my double filtered water should only have 50 ppm (as well as mountain spring water should have 50 ppm), yet it measured the same as from my tap. The company explained the difference between ppm and pH, which I already knew and understood, so I really didn't appreciate TWO emails from them dumbing down the way the tester works. I do NOT need pH strips... I already have them. What I NEED is a working tds meter, since I NEED to use water with a relatively low ppm level to take a certain compound. Although distilled water is relatively cheap, I don't like waste of plastic bottles. Although I appreciated the first email contact, the *follow up*, and within such a short period of time, was unnecessary. Plus, they could have just responded directly to this review. There was no need to email me twice.