Anything to calibrate pH meter at home?

snoop2217

snoop2217

Active Member
Is there anything around the house that I can see if my pH meter is correct. I dont wanna have to buy testing solution and dont know of anywhere in town I could get testing solution from. Can I do this with anything around the house? Or have any ideas of somewhere around town, maybe a pool store. I know they have cheap testing stuff but I dunno about buffer solutions
 
smokeybandit22

smokeybandit22

Well-Known Member
have yet to hear of anything that would work effectively. the solutions are really cheap and can be ordered on the net. considering ph is probably one of the most imp things to consider, why not just do it right?
 
tone702

tone702

Well-Known Member
snoop2217 said:
Is there anything around the house that I can see if my pH meter is correct. I dont wanna have to buy testing solution and dont know of anywhere in town I could get testing solution from. Can I do this with anything around the house? Or have any ideas of somewhere around town, maybe a pool store. I know they have cheap testing stuff but I dunno about buffer solutions
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you could use lemon/lime juice in a cup of water(you should test water with tester to see if its ph is at 7)then slowly squeeze either lime/lemon juice in the water and stir.. test again the ph in the water will begin to become very acidic as you add more lemon juice
 
snoop2217

snoop2217

Active Member
tone702 said:
you could use lemon/lime juice in a cup of water(you should test water with tester to see if its ph is at 7)then slowly squeeze either lime/lemon juice in the water and stir.. test again the ph in the water will begin to become very acidic as you add more lemon juice
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Im calibrating one so finding the pH of something unknown and I believe it has to be more accurate than water and lemons.
 
Kriegs

Kriegs

Well-Known Member
Absolutely not.. there is nothing in the world of household products that has the purity to give you a dead-on value you can calibrate to. Sorry... gotta buy the testing solutions if you want the right answers.

From a grower who was an analytical chemist for 12 years...
 
tone702

tone702

Well-Known Member
Well tap water is always at 7.0ph were I live.. I have one those cheap 10$ testers but every time I test tap or purified water its always at exactly 7.0 and sure enough adding lime/lemon juice to water/solution always brings the ph down to an acidic level... but sorry couldnt help
 
Kriegs

Kriegs

Well-Known Member
tone702 said:
Well tap water is always at 7.0ph were I live.. I have one those cheap 10$ testers but every time I test tap or purified water its always at exactly 7.0 and sure enough adding lime/lemon juice to water/solution always brings the ph down to an acidic level... but sorry couldnt help
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And maybe only where you live... tap water pH varies widely, can't use it. Mine is 8.0 out of the faucet; my in-laws is 4.7 just 5 miles away.

Not arguing with you tone702, it's just that sometimes people grab onto simple (but wrong) answers even when you say it's not really an answer..

I do think pH is a critical factor, so it drives me crazy when people abuse it -- either as an answer to everything, or by bastardizing the measurement process, which really needs to be precise to give you useful information. So, I jump in on it wherever I can...
 
rollwithyou22

rollwithyou22

Active Member
Get the pool strips that check pH, alkaline, and chlorine. They're like $4 at Wal-Mart or Lowe's. You can check your feeding solution, and then check your run off pH (what comes out of the bottom of your pot/bucket).
 
Kriegs

Kriegs

Well-Known Member
rollwithyou22 said:
Get the pool strips that check pH, alkaline, and chlorine. They're like $4 at Wal-Mart or Lowe's. You can check your feeding solution, and then check your run off pH (what comes out of the bottom of your pot/bucket).
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Good advice ... ppl steer away from strips, drops and pH paper when actually, these methods are more sound than cheap $50 meters, ESPECIALLY in untrained hands.

I've said before and I'll say again -- a pH meter under about $150 isn't really worth owning. Cheap, fragile electrodes, the calibrations drift like crazy.. Colorimetric pH is good enough for soil. For hydro, I'd get a decent meter with 2-point calibration and do it right.
 
motoracer110

motoracer110

Well-Known Member
Kriegs said:
Good advice ... ppl steer away from strips, drops and pH paper when actually, these methods are more sound than cheap $50 meters, ESPECIALLY in untrained hands.

I've said before and I'll say again -- a pH meter under about $150 isn't really worth owning. Cheap, fragile electrodes, the calibrations drift like crazy.. Colorimetric pH is good enough for soil. For hydro, I'd get a decent meter with 2-point calibration and do it right.
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There really is no reason to buy expensive ph meters if you have the ph solution. I purchased a cheap digital $26 meter off ebay with the two testing solutions and it only fluctuates to .1 up or down. I grow in hydro and in my opinion .1 off is nothing to worry about. it would be a different story if you were working for a pharmaceutical company but essentially we are growing weeds and they are pretty hardy.
 
snoop2217

snoop2217

Active Member
In the book for the meter it says to calibrate it with 6.86 solution, do I have to use that or will any buffer solution do?
 
Kriegs

Kriegs

Well-Known Member
snoop2217 said:
In the book for the meter it says to calibrate it with 6.86 solution, do I have to use that or will any buffer solution do?
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I'm assuming this is a "single-point" meter?

It won't matter if it's a 6.86 or 7.0 solution. With single points, the main thing is to calibrate with a solution that's closest to what you think your outcome will be -- you wouldn't calibrate with a 4.0 solution when your measured medium (the soil in this case) is likely and hopefully closer to 7.0. The further your measured medium is from your calibration, the more accuracy suffers.

Point well taken from motoracer110... makes me think about giving a cheap single point another try. I went through 3 of these things in 6 months once (on a job, so no cost to me 'cept frustration); really soured me on cheap meters. They could be better now...
 
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