Testing for borates?

[kelemvor]

I've been thinking of adding borates to my pool as I've seen numerous posts indicating it can be beneficial. Is there any kind of drops based test for borates? I saw some old 2007 posts referencing various test strips, but I'd prefer to avoid strips if possible.

[waterbear]

Proteam used to have a drop based kit but it was expensive and difficult to do (it was a multistep test with a difficult color change to see not once but TWICE during the testing procedure.) I do not believe they still sell it. I have the kit but relay on LaMotte borate test strips now. They are faster, easier, less expensive, and have enough precision to keep your pool in the 30 to 50 ppm range for borate. I have checked the strips against the drop based kit and also against a LaMotte coloriimeter borate test and recommend them fully. Teh color change is from rose to tan so they are easy to read. (Hint: don't try and read them under artificial light of any kind, use natural sunlight.) There are also borate test strips form Aqaucheck (and others) but the color change is very close shades of tan that make them pretty worthless, IMHO. I will caution that borate strips do need to be fresh so replace them each season. Old strips will read higher than the actual borate concentration, particularly the tan ones.