Taylor Phenol Red R-0014 vs R-0004

[steveinaz]

AHA! MOMENT.

I have the Taylor FAS-DPD Service kit, and I always wondered why my "new" pH reagent looked pale, and very difficult to read---crap.

I should be using R-0004, huh? I'm about 95.5% sure the bottle I've been using is the R-0014. Man, the little details will get ya every time.

[steveinaz]

Thank you Anna for bringing this question up. In my own defense, I figured the change in part number was due to the larger bottle.

[AnnaK]

Heh!

The larger bottle is why I asked. I'm in process of putting in a refill order and discovered that my favorite online vendor carries the R-0004 in the 2 oz bottle but not the R-0014. In fact, I'm having no luck finding a 2 oz size of R-0014 anywhere.

No big deal, I can always pick it up at Leslie's down the road.

One year I bought Phenol Red from the pool store where I get my chlorinating liquid. It was the HTH brand. Though my test turned into an interesting shade of mauve I couldn't match it to the color chip on my little comparator. I know where the pH of my water should be, so I started playing around with different numbers of drops. As it turned out, this particular brand of Phenol Red produced believable results with 3 drops rather than five.

I guess it's kinda like cooking: you can substitute with potassium chloride but it's not ever going to taste as good as using real salt.

[steveinaz]

Well, I was (sadly) right. The stuff I had was R-0014--I picked up some R-0004 this evening...WOW what a difference. I'm a dumba$$.

No wonder my TA is 180ppm! It's on now, bring it high pH, I'm ready. [Grandma from the Klumps] "Come on Cletis, I ain't a scared of you, you'll walk ovah, but your limpin' back"....LOL[/grandma]