LaMotte ColorQ Water Tester

[MikeInMo]

Last night the ask alan website was showing a 2-3 week back order notice but when I looked at it today the notice was removed. I'll give it 4 or 5 business days and if haven't received it I'll escalate.

[Poolsean]

I used mine afew times this week. Works pretty good and easy to use. Takes away the human error factor, as long as you can count drops. The meter measures then shows you the test result.
Very nice but a little bulky to carry in my suitcase when I travel.
I was just in Phoenix (110 degrees!!!! WOW!) and the tester worked just fine. It didn't melt in my hands...

[donaldm823]

Well here goes my full review-had the new LaMotte ColorQ water tester now for 3 weeks. Love the tester. Initially had a problem with Hardness accuracy, but LaMotte tech support replaced the unit quickly. The unit cost $129 plus shipping and comes with 140 tests (liquid reagents) except CYA (uses pills which) there are 50. A refill package is in the $45 range, but you get enough chemicals with the tester itself to last a pool season without a refill kit.

The unit comes in a handy test kit rubber bag (zippered) which hold the 4 test tubes that come with the unit, all of the reagents, and of course the electronic device (colorimeter)(size of your hand) which measures the color intensity of each test which is correlated to a ppm reading that reads out on a digital meter. Unit is powered by 2 AA batteries and is guaranteed for 6 months.

You basically add 5 drops of a specific liquid reagent based on the test performing (one test tube per test), and they put the 5ml tube into the unit and read the tests in sequence, replacing the test tubes for each tests. You read a blank at the start (pool water) which calibrates the colorimeter. Have tests for free and total Cl up to 10ppm, pH, TA, CH hardness, and CYA.

I am very please with the unit and its accuracy. Have compared all of the tests results against by Ben Pool Solution kit, and all the results were within the accuracy accept for Hardness. Since they just replaced the unit for the hardness issue, I do not have a lot of run time, but the hardness result was 220ppm and my Taylor reports a 260-280ppm-close enough for my use

Highly recommend if you are tired of all of the titrant kits. At $129 not a bad buy. Checkout LaMotte.com website under pool/spa water/new products. They also sell the refill kits as well as spare test tubes

[salinda]

Don,

What was the issue with your CH test? I just used my new ColorQ for the first time and pH, alk, CH, and Cya were all off both from Ben's kit and from fairly recent pool store tests. CH was WAY off. My CH is high, holding steady at over 500 for a couple of years now, both by my measurements and the pool store. The Lamotte thing measured it at 235!
We have had no rain in CA for months and I don't backwash because I have a cartridge filter, so there is no way the CH could have dropped, especially this much. I'll be calling them today and give you all an update.

[salinda]

Well, I just got off the phone with them and the instructions that are so clear in many places are completely wrong on one thing: The cap must be ON for the blanking test.

I will now be retesting and calling them back.

[donaldm823]

Well, I just got off the phone with them and the instructions that are so clear in many places are completely wrong on one thing: The cap must be ON for the blanking test.

I will now be retesting and calling them back.

Salinda:
What did you resolve with the CH?? Is it still reading 50% of the Taylor?

I also got colorQ CH results lower than my Taylor titrant. Yesterday's reading was 199 with the colorQ and 280 with Taylor. I assumed the colorQ was correct.

LaMotte as part of their troubleshooting, sent me a 250ppm test standard for me to measure at home. The ColorQ read 230 and the Taylor read 290. They suspect interference from metal in my pool water although my copper measurement was no detectable copper. I do have high phosphate in the water and have used Jack's as treatment. Anyway, I gave up, and use the ColorQ CH measure as an approximation as it is a good trending device. All of the other analysis were accurate based on my other tester and the poolstore

[salinda]

My retest with the cap on for blanking gave the same numbers, probably because I tested inside so the lighting didn't interfere much. Almost all of the numbers were off for me, including alkalinity, pH, cya, and CH.

They requested me to send them a sample of my pool water at their expense. I shipped it out last Friday, but with the holiday on Wednesday I expect it will be about a week before I can provide you with an update.

So far, I have been impressed with their customer service, but I will have to request a refund if the kit can't test MY pool water.