Luster Leaf1880 Rapitest Electronic 4-Way Analyzer

I have been using this for a couple of weeks now and it has become the most used tool in my home. I have over 200 houseplants, and I was struggling to find the right light for all of them. The light meter is fantastic, and it picks up both on natural light and grow lights. I bought it pretty much for the light meter feature, but I've been using the moisture one a lot. With over 200 plants, it can be a bit annoying sticking your finger in dirt all the time to see if they need watering. I also realized with this meter that sometimes the dirt will look completely dry, but it is not fully dry yet, so I should wait longer to water. It has also made my calatheas a lot happier; since they are drama queens, it can be hard to figure out the exact time to water them, in a way that they don't dry but also don't get root rot. Now I just wait until the marker is down to 2 and water them again. This is a must have tool for anyone venturing in the world of houseplants.Note that the moisture feature does not work well in chunky mixes, like aroid or orchid mixes. With that being said, those are super well draining so no one should have a problem figuring those out anyways....(I have never used the fertility or ph function).

The first meter I ordered from Amazon did not seem to function properly. The pH and moisture seemed OK, but fertilizer always seemed to read at the low-end of ideal and light always seemed to read 2000 fc no matter how bright or indirect the sunlight. I filled out a return online and had a replacement within 3 days and a free return label -- good service.The replacement unit seems to function OK. Over the range of pH 6-8 the meter seemed accurate. I tested pH on distilled water (it was 7), on baking soda (it was 8) on soil of known slight acidity (it was 6-6.5). However, when tested on very acid soil (verified to be pH 4 with a chemical test kit), the meter read between pH 1-2.The moisture meter seems to work fine. It read 0 on dry soil, 9 on soaking wet soil, and somewhere in between on moderately damp soil.The light meter was way too sensistive. I compared it to a professional meter and it was reading 1000 footcandles when there was only 200 fc. I "recalibrated" it by putting black tape over 95% of the sensor on top until the readings matched the professional meter -- it is now more or less correct.The fertility meter seems pretty accurate. I mixed up a batch of half strength Miracle-Gro fertilizer solution and poured it over some old spent soil and took a reading -- it read "Too little". Using regular strength MG it read "Ideal" and using double strength MG it read "Too much". I've used this weekly to monitor my fertilizer levels and tell me when to reapply my liquid fertilizer to different vegetables and this is the most useful (and difficult to find) function on a meter like this.Something to note, you MUST insert the probes a full 3.5 inches into the soil for an accurate reading. This makes it difficult to use the meter in very hard clay soils or in shallow house plant pots (like my Bonsai trees).- Rob Thompson

Given the price, you can't expect lab accuracy. It's a good value.A couple of comments:1 - You need to scrub the probes before using. There is a scrubby sponge in the box.2 - Succulents are having their day in the sun, but this unit will not work for gritty succulent soil. Not enough soil contact, probably, and certainly you can't make mud of it for pH.3 - Light is measured in LUX, which is really not a measurement of anything plants need. You can get the same measurement on your cell phone. But a light meter that measures PPFD is quite expensive. LUX can be a good proxy measurement for outdoor sunlight, but for plants under grow lights like houseplants and seedlings, it's pretty useless.

I'm reviewing and critcizing Luster Leaf's1880 Rapitest Electronic 4-Way Analyzer. Luster Leaf 1880 Rapitest Electronic 4-Way Analyzer First, I apologize for not writing this review earlier. I received my Rapitest soil analyzer just as I was getting into my very busy schedukle of planting our vegetable garden back in late May.As soon as I received the unit, I tested the pH meter by putting it in various soils with different compositions. The pH meter level was consistently at 7 (plus or minus a hair or two). Suspecting a defective pH meter, I engineered a small amount of very acidic soil by putting alot of non-pH adjusted sphagnum peat moss in it. (Non-pH-adjusted sphagnum peat moss typically registers a pH level below 5.5.) I thoroughly mixed and moistened the soil and let it set over night. I tested it the next day. The Rapitest pH meter registered 7.0. Not good!Their pH meter does not work right. The main reason I purchased the Rapitest soil analyzer was to guage the pH of potting soil I specifically engineer for various types of vegetable garden plants. I never checked any of the 3 other guages on it. I don't trust it.I haven't contact Leaf Luster yet to inform them about the defective unit they shipped to me. I will do that once I get a bit of spare time after putting our vegetable garden in. (I am making time to write this review now, so other people can take it into account when making their purchase decisions.)I am upset at myself for waiting until the "last minute" to order an instantaneous pH meter. But, I'm more upset at Luster Leaf. I specifically avoided less expensive units (with poor ratings) to increase my chances of gettng a good accurate pH meter. That strategy clearly didn't work. I ended up spending more money for a soil analyzer and still ended up with a worthless meter.