troutrunner
New Member
Hello all....
Where is the best place to buy and what are the preference in make and price please:
Where is the best place to buy and what are the preference in make and price please:
PH meter/tester
- Thread starter troutrunner
- Start date
Help Support The Homebrew Forum:
MisterFister
New Member
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2014
- Messages
- 17
- Reaction score
- 0
To be fair I think only you can answer that however there are a few options
1) Cheap and nasty Chinese pH Meters from China around 5-15 quid
2) A more expensive version of the Chinese ones but from a known supplier (35-45 quid)
3) Clones of Lab grade meters from China at around 100 to 150
4) Lab Grade meters at 250 quid plus like this one
which you can see in use on my site
airymary
Senior Member
I think the ones on Ebay at around 7 squid are a great improvement on litmus sticks. At least, that's where I got mine...
Cheers,
Chris
Cheers,
Chris
troutrunner
New Member
Thanks Chris,
I have bitten the bullet and bought one as you say but from Amazon, it arrived today and I have discovered PH level of about a 7.8 at first test straight from the tap, will check again tomorrow after standing over night.
Seems at first testing my water will need adjusting a little:whistle:
I have bitten the bullet and bought one as you say but from Amazon, it arrived today and I have discovered PH level of about a 7.8 at first test straight from the tap, will check again tomorrow after standing over night.
Seems at first testing my water will need adjusting a little:whistle:
airymary
Senior Member
Hope you calibrated the new meter first? I used mine for the first time on my last AG a couple of weeks ago. Litmus sticks gave me the impression that mash ph tended to be on the low side - nearer to 5 than 5.4. The meter showed me it was 5.6 - quelle surprise! Adjustments to my water treatment will be made...
Cheers,
Chris
MisterFister
New Member
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2014
- Messages
- 17
- Reaction score
- 0
Chris is right the first thing that you need to do is to calibrate your meter with pH 4.0 and pH7.0 buffers. Assuming your cheapo Chinese meter allows you to calibrate it. Remember that you will have to calibrate it ever time you use it. When I was in the lab we often had to calibrate between reading samples, but that was following strict protocols.
Remember that the pH of the water is pretty much irrelevant for brewing, especially when you realise that the water companies artificially raise it to greater than 7.0 to protect the copper pipes we have in our houses. According to the 'standards I think it can be up to 8.4 and still be safe to drink, so your 7.8 is not out of the ball park. There are some good water treatment posts on thbf site here
What you need to know is the pH of your mash 10 minutes in. So Dough in wait 10 minutes withdraw a sample of the mash liquor, cool it to 20C, measure it with the meter, and record it. Ideally you want it to be between 5.2 and 5.7, if you have missed it this time, record what you did treatment wise and adjust it for the next batch, it doesn't take long to get it dialled in.
Remember that the pH of the water is pretty much irrelevant for brewing, especially when you realise that the water companies artificially raise it to greater than 7.0 to protect the copper pipes we have in our houses. According to the 'standards I think it can be up to 8.4 and still be safe to drink, so your 7.8 is not out of the ball park. There are some good water treatment posts on thbf site here
What you need to know is the pH of your mash 10 minutes in. So Dough in wait 10 minutes withdraw a sample of the mash liquor, cool it to 20C, measure it with the meter, and record it. Ideally you want it to be between 5.2 and 5.7, if you have missed it this time, record what you did treatment wise and adjust it for the next batch, it doesn't take long to get it dialled in.
troutrunner
New Member
Hi Chris,
I did realise that the two packets of stuff in the kit were for calibration but didn't know it had to be calibrated before use. There is nothing in the instructions about calibrating it before use and I would have thought it would be ready done.
I'll re-read the paper work, thanks for the comment :hat:
I did realise that the two packets of stuff in the kit were for calibration but didn't know it had to be calibrated before use. There is nothing in the instructions about calibrating it before use and I would have thought it would be ready done.
I'll re-read the paper work, thanks for the comment :hat:
airymary
Senior Member
I used distilled water. It has a ph of 7, so I calibrated to that. You should have a mini screwdriver to adjust the display. Mine wasn't 'true', and had to be calibrated before use.
Cheers,
Chris
MisterFister
New Member
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2014
- Messages
- 17
- Reaction score
- 0
Distilled water should have a pH of 7.0, it may actually differ from that depending on how much CO2 it's absorbed, if you really want to calibrate to a known value you should use buffer calibration solution which are normally available in pH4.0, 7.0 and 10.0 The Powdered form are great you just make them up with distilled/deionised water and then calibrate your meter with that. I prefer to use the liquid form, but that is only because I can get small quantities free 
troutrunner
New Member
I'll get some tomorrow and try it:hat:
