is a cheap PPM meter good enough??

or not really??

i cant seem to get it right. dont know when to feed the plants and how much.

aslong as its calibrated ppm is ppm...whether $29.99 or $200

pballjunky420 said:

aslong as its calibrated ppm is ppm...whether $29.99 or $200

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Wrong. A good unit will repeate accuratly and be allot more accurate over the range. Cheap ones dont repeate accuratly and drift allot. I have never seen a cheap one hit 400 with the 400 solution then 1000 with the 1000 solution

i paid 34.99 for mine and its right on the nose in cal solution

If yiu researched quality EC meters you would find a quailty EC meter comes with the capability to use a cell (probe) with different k values. These K values (rate coefficients) are most typically 0.1, 1.0 and 10. 0.1 vcells are for low ppm water such as RO, DI and distilled water, 1.0 is general to include lightly brackish, and 10 for salt water (ocean water). A cheap TDS meter is made for testing low ppm water say 450 and below. Most typically they are used to test RO water and tap water that is fairly decent water. Preferably you use a meter best set up for the ppm of the water you will most often test. If the EC meter your looking to buy does not even say what the cell K value is your looking at the wrong manafacturers product. For hydro either a 1.0 or a 10.0 is a better choice. If you need to test RO water out put also just use a cheap TDS meter for that. As far as a $29 meter. Just one of my growing chambers 3 foot by 3 foot by 3 foot is producing every 6 weeks of budding 36 plants at 19 grams dry weight each. I am not the type of grower who relies on a $30 cheap meter when just one small chamber of mj is worth over $10,000 This is about as cheap as I would consider and its over $300. http://www.4oakton.com/proddetail.asp?parent=52&prod=301&seq=1&TotRec=10 They show up occasionally on eBay for a lot less. Here is a good used one for only $69.99. Think used Thermo orion, Hach, YSI and Oakton. Laboratory grade Hanna is OK. Better yet if running just one system get a conductivity analyzer/controller instead of a meter.

These are are brand new EC controller/analyzers and retail for $433 but are now $80 on ebay. Use one with two solenoid valves afor nutrients and they will adjust your EC for you 24/7. http://cgi.ebay.com/Cole-Parmer-Con...tem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3ca8438a9b Add a float and a gravity feed top off water container and all you need worry about is pH.

A good $250 pH meter needing a cheap probe is less than $40 here: http://cgi.ebay.com/COLE-PARMER-565...tem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c52ef8e85

i paid 39.00 for mine and it dont lie. yes you can grow good smoke with cheap ass meters, you just gotta calibrate more often.

sixstring2112 said:

i paid 39.00 for mine and it dont lie. yes you can grow good smoke with cheap ass meters, you just gotta calibrate more often.

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Dude a good grower can grow good buds with no meters at all. But it is so much easier with meters and even easier with good meters. After all if you know what your doing the cost of a pair of good meters (EC and pH) are recouped with a small percentage say 10% of just one grow of say 10 square feet or more. After all if your not getting at least $1000 per square foot in bud after drying you need to learn how to grow. Well at least you just said good smoke, not primo.

I'm guessing the OP was asking the question because he or she does not want to spend big bucks on meters. so MY answer is yes cheap meters(30.00 - 50.00) can and WILL help you grow better and they ARE better than not having one at all.It does not matter what KIND of smoke they grow, the CHEAP meter will help. even more so with new growers. A good grower can do without lots of this stuff, including fancy soil and nutes or shitloads of hid lighting right? some of us dont have $10,000 worth growing we just want are own smoke without paying big bucks, and a cheap meter helps keep things in check.

But a better meterbought cheaply is a better buy. Give up a couple grams or some cigarettes or beer and add the savings to a 40 dollar cheap *ss EC meter and get a qualty EC controller. This will not only read yuor EC but can be used to automatically adjust the EC, that is a hell of a lot better thrn a cheap *ss sad $40 EC meter. They do not make an acurrate $40 EC meter. But with the methodology of the typical growers accuracy with not help their grows much anyway. I think if I was a newbie I would read moreof waht the growers with decades of experiences are doing and how considering the difference in the quanity, quality and production cost is less than 50 cents per gram for a max, verus a large percentage of hobby growers who are lucky to break even.