Pool Water Testing Explained: What Pros Actually Use

Bad pool chemistry decisions usually start with one thing: a bad test. We walk through the real pros and cons of the tools most people rely on to test pool water, and why your “best” method changes based on whether you’re running 80 stops a week, bidding a new account, starting up fresh plaster, or managing commercial compliance.

We compare test strips, Taylor-style reagent test kits (including the popular K-2005 and K-2006), photometers like the Pool Lab 2.0 and ColorQ 2X Pro, and high-speed options like the LaMotte Spin Touch. You’ll hear where each method shines, where it can mislead you, and how factors like reagent shelf life, tablet handling, and simple user error can swing your readings. We also dig into why photometers are so powerful for accurate pH and chlorine numbers, plus how digital logging can support commercial pool records and customer trust.

To wrap it up, we share a practical “mix and match” approach for pool service businesses: use the affordable tools daily, verify weird results quickly, and pull out the precision gear when you’re balancing LSI or solving a stubborn problem. We also make the case for one digital tool that earns a permanent spot on your truck: a reliable TDS and salinity meter, while explaining why portable digital pH probes often create more hassle than value. If this helps, subscribe, share it with another pool pro, and leave a quick review with your go-to testing method.

We break down the four main ways to test pool water and explain why “best” depends on your route, your budget, and how precise you really need to be. We compare speed, cost, accuracy, and real-world use cases so you can stop guessing and start testing with purpose.  
• four common methods: test strips, reagent kits, photometers, digital testers  
• why Taylor reagent test kits stay the most affordable option for weekly service  
• the biggest drawback of reagent kits: color matching and human interpretation  
• how photometers work and why they deliver more precise digital readings  
• when logging and documentation matter for commercial pools and startups  
• why LaMotte Spin Touch is fast but expensive to run  
• when test strips are accurate enough and when they are not  
• using strips to verify odd readings and quickly confirm low chlorine  
• which test factors you do not need to measure every week  
• how user technique affects photometer accuracy with tablets and drops  
• why a TDS and salinity meter is the most useful digital tool  
• why portable digital pH probes often create more work than value  
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Transcript

Welcome And Testing Goal

SPEAKER_00 0:14

And welcome to the pool game podcast show. So I'm going to go over some of the testing methods to get the test factors at your stops. And of course, everyone has an opinion of which way which is the best way to test the pool water. And I'll cover all the different testers out there on the market. Are you a pool service pro looking to take your business to the next level? Join the pool guy coaching program. Get expert advice, business tips, exclusive content, and get direct support from me. I'm a 35-year veteran in the industry. Whether you're starting out or scaling up, I've got the tools to help you succeed. Learn more at swimmingpoollearning.com. There are really only four testing methods that are readily used out there. The first one is test strips. The second method and one of the more popular ones is reagent testing. And then the third method is a combination of reagents and maybe tablets or pills with a photometer. And then the fourth method is digital testing or digital water testing. Which method is best really depends on personal preference. A lot of people like to use the reagent test or like the Taylor kits. The Taylor test kits are probably the best known in the industry, the K2005, K2006. A lot of this has to do with the fact that they're really easy to use, they're fast,

Four Common Testing Methods

SPEAKER_00 1:40

and the reagents are affordable. So if you're looking at a strictly a monetary standpoint, you want a method that effectively tests the pool water, but also is affordable. The reagent test kit is the way to go. There are a couple drawbacks with the reagent test kit, and the first and major drawback is that it's really up to the user to determine the actual color that they're seeing in the vials where you put the reagents.

Taylor Reagent Kits Pros And Limits

SPEAKER_00 2:10

Usually you hold them up at eye level on a sunny day or in the shade, and you can get an idea of you know basically what the free chlorine level is, what the pH level is, but again, it's not something that is going to give you a spot-on accurate reading. Now, if you're going for the most accurate test kit, that would be the photometer. And these now use a combination of regents and tablets. And basically the reason why they are moving towards tablets more than just strictly regions is because regions have a very short life shelf lifespan, and a lot of times if you don't use them up, they go bad, especially the Lamotte region seem to go bad a lot faster. They're more specifically designed for the photometer, so I think they have a shorter shelf life than say the Taylor region. You can buy, you know, really large refill bottles of the Taylor region and you're perfectly fine. But as far as the photometer reagents, they do have a shorter shelf life because I think they're more fine-tuned to the photometer. Basically, the photometer

Photometers For Spot On Readings

SPEAKER_00 3:20

uses electronics and light rays to read the color of the reagent and give you the digital reading of that. If you've ever used a photometer like the pool lab 2.0, left the lid off while it was uh zeroing out, you'll see all the different colors going through the chamber, and basically it's calibrating to the water sample that's in there. Once you have that calibrated, you know, usually zero is what the pool lab 2.0 does. You can start putting the region tablet in there, crush it up, and then the color will change in the little tube that it's in, cover it up, hit start, and then the photometer will use light to read the color and give you a really accurate, you know, pretty much spot-on pH reading. Let's say if you're going for pH, it'll tell you that a pH is 7.45. And this is the most accurate tester, but it's the most time consuming except for one of the photometers I'll cover in a minute. So the photometer testing, yes, very accurate, but much more time consuming than the Taylor reagent test kit. The other benefit of the photometer is that you can usually send digital logs to yourself or a customer. This is great for commercial accounts where you want to log the readings or a customer at a startup. If there's a new plaster pool and you're starting it up and you want to keep a log of the chemistry, the photometer is the way to go. It also has more range than the reagent test kit. It'll read pH lower in most cases. And it may not read chlorine higher than the region test kit, but the range is a lot higher in other readings. It's really useful for other things like copper and iron. If you have a test kit, a photometer that does that, like the color Q2X Pro 9, you can do copper and iron readings as well, which is really handy and helpful in a lot of situations when you're trying to discover if the pool has any kind of metals, metal ions in the water. If you want to save time with a photometer, you have to spend a lot of money in order to do that, because the only photometer that I know that can read 10 test factors in one minute is the Lamont spin touch, and this is pretty much all there is out there that's going to use the technology of a photometer. But really the speed of I guess not even a region test kit, maybe like a test trip, because it is really fast. You fill up the chamber, the disc with water, put it in to the spin touch, it spins the disc, and then it gives you the readings in about a minute of over 10 test factors, roughly. And these test factors can be phosphates or it could be the salinity, could be copper and iron,

Spin Touch Speed Versus Cost

SPEAKER_00 6:15

could be borates, it could be free chlorine, total chlorine, pH alkalinity, and it's really fast, but it's a thousand dollar test kit. I call it the Ferrari of test kits because it's really useful, but it's really expensive, and just like an expensive luxury car, it's cost a lot to maintain it, in the fact that the discs are expensive. The unit itself doesn't need any maintenance, but the discs that it uses do cost a lot more than say a reagent refill, and the discs are not reusable. So it is something that comes in handy for commercial accounts and startups. New bids, of course, you go out to get a bid on a pool, you have the spin touch in its case, it looks really professional, and you can give the customer their readings right there in one minute. So it is accurate, it's fast, and it may be worth the money depending on when you're going to use it. I wouldn't use it for everyday testing of 80 pools a week on your pool route. That would get really expensive. And to be honest with you, all those test factors aren't necessary week in and week out when you are doing pool service. You don't really need the test of cyaneric acid or the salinity every week, or for phosphate unless you have a problem, or copper and iron. So it really becomes not really useful in that respect. Although they do have three disc series where it does the free chlorine, pH, and alkalinity. So they have different discs available for three test factors as well, and it's something that you may want to consider for your pool route, but also understand that it's not something you're gonna use at every single stop, it's something that's gonna be useful, maybe for once-a-month readings on your pool route, commercial pools every time you visit, of course, because that's really important, startups or bidding new customers. I'm going to kind of switch gears and talk about test strips. This is on the other end of the spectrum. I wouldn't say it's the cheapest way to test pool water now because test strip prices have really dramatically increased over the years. It used to be the cheapest way to test pool water, but the test strips aren't dirt cheap, but they are affordable and they are fast. Now, what do you get with a test strip? You get kind of a guesstimate of the water. They are much more accurate than they used to be when I first started the industry, that's for sure. But again, it's a lot like the reagent test kit where you take the test strip, take the bottle, match up the strip to the back of it, and kind of get an idea of where the pool is as far as the water chemistry, you know, where the alkalinity and pH are based on the color of the

Test Strips Fast Checks And Tradeoffs

SPEAKER_00 9:00

strip. I like them because they're fast and I feel like they're really accurate within range. I mean, if you use the test strip to get the alkalinity, you don't know if it's 80, 90, 100, or 70. There's really no way to know because it's kind of a guesstimate, but it really doesn't make a huge difference sometimes if the alkalinity is 70 and you think it's at 80, or the alkalinity is at 100, it's actually at 90. It's not gonna break the pool in any way. Same with the pH. Is the pH at 7.6 or 7.5 or 7.8? You know, there's really something to be said with accuracy when you need it. Commercial pools, of course, pools that have a problem. If you're trying to balance the LSI in the pool and the pool's kind of out of alignment, you definitely want to use something like a tailored test kit or a photometer to get some more accurate readings so you can kind of get the LSI dialed in to where you want it. But if you're doing everyday testing and you're in a rush, like a lot of times when it's windy out or you're doing filter cleanings or it's raining, dipping a test strip in the pool is quick and easy. And to me, it's accurate enough for what they're designed for. They're not designed for week in and week out use, of course, because you would want to get some kind of accurate reading, you know, maybe spot on. So I would say a combination approach is typically the best for your pool route, you know, Taylor, reagent test kit, maybe some test trips every so often, and then also maybe if you wanted to get a photometer to use once a month on your pool route or for startups or for commercial pools or for problem pools, I'm all for it. Now, with the tablets and some reagents, the photometers are a pretty good investment because you don't have to use up the reagents right away, or you don't have to use the tablets right away. They have a shelf life of like two or three years, some of them do, and it's a great way to do monthly testing, it's a great way to verify tests. Now, with test strips, I like them also when I'm doing a reagent test and the numbers come out kind of weird,

Building A Smart Testing Mix

SPEAKER_00 11:05

you know, showing that the you know pH is really low in the pool, or it shows alkalinity is really high in the pool. I'll use a test strip to kind of verify that reading to make sure that it's accurate. Or if you're having problems reading the chlorine in the pool, if it's showing you know one part per million and you think there's more in there, test strip's a great way to kind of make an accurate assessment because you'll dip it in there, and if the color there's no color on the chlorine part of it, you know that it really has no chlorine in the pool. So they come in handy for that purpose. They also have a lot of test factors they can do that a reagent and photometer can't do. For instance, you can get a phosphate test strip, you can get copper and iron, you can get borates. So the test strips have more ranges or more test factors that you can utilize than, say, the Taylor reagent test kit. And I did do an analysis a while back of like I meant what I mentioned in the beginning with the most affordable way to test the pool, and it does fall into the tailor test kit reagent test. There's still the lowest cost for your pool route. So if you have employees out there and you're looking for a way to test the pools without spending a lot of money, the tailor test kit is the way to go because it is the most affordable with the reagent refills. Test trips are a little more expensive, but they're still fairly cheap to use and they're easy to use. If you have employees that you want to give test trips to and they can test the pools every so often with them, that's fine as well. Photometer, there's a learning curve, and there is something to be said with accuracy when you're putting the tablet and crushing it, or when you're adding the reads and drops to the photometer. Because it's such an accurate tester, all the user error happens when you are actually putting the read and tablet in there. If you don't crush it all the way, you're not going to get an accurate reading. And if you're putting the region in there and you put too many drops, you're not gonna get an accurate reading as well. So they're really fine machines basically, that if you want an accurate reading, you have to actually do the testing very you know accurately and skillfully. Same with the spin touch disc, you have to fill them up to a certain point. There's like a little line on there that you have to you can barely see, and if you

User Error And Better Technique

SPEAKER_00 13:15

fill it too little, it's not gonna get an accurate reading. You can overfill it. I think it's better to overfill it than underfill it, but again, these take a little fine, a little finesse when you're using the photometer testers to get the accuracy that you're looking for, and they are very accurate. I've tested the pool lab 2.0 across the color cube 2x Pro 7 and then the Spin Touch, and I'm getting very similar readings across the board. Now I'll end with the digital testers. Now these are something that you can invest in. They have a pH tester, you dip it in there. The one that I use the most is the TDS and salinity tester. I like the digital tester for this because you can't really use a test strip or reagent to get the total dissolved solids, and I find that if you get a TDS salinity, and you also have conductivity, which I really never use that, and temperature, if you get a probe that does that, you know, either Lamont or Hawk, those are really good brands, you'll find that they're pretty essential on your pool route because you'll be able to get the salinity reading or salt level of the pool pretty accurately with it. Also, you'll get the total dissolved solids

Digital Meters For Salt And TDS

SPEAKER_00 14:25

in the pool, and this is really handy to have. So out of all the digital testers, I think the TDS salinity tester, salt level tester, is the one to get. You should have that on your truck for sure. Now, should you have a pH digital tester? I find that the probes are really sensitive, they dry out, they don't you have to calibrate it a lot. So for me, the pH digital tester is more trouble than it's actually worth in most cases because you have to realize that if that probe is inaccurate because it has a little bit of calcium buildup, or it's not calibrated properly, you're not going to get an accurate digital pH reading out of that probe. Now there's a lot of smart water monitors out there that do pH and do it pretty well. I've used all of them, you know, the crystal water, and also I have the finwheel in my pool right now. I feel like the pH probes are pretty accurate and they're really good in those kind of environments where it's in one pool all the time, not drying out, and calibrated to that pool. I find those to be very accurate. But the ones you take with you and dip into different pools, I find that the maintenance and the longevity of those just aren't worth the investment. So for a digital tester, definitely TDS and salt, and then everything else I would probably not bother with. I would just rely on test trips, the region testers, the photometers, and then that one digital meter on your truck would be handy. Looking for other podcasts, you can find those by going to my website, swingingpolearning.com. On the website, there is a podcast icon. Click on that, there'll be a drop down menu of over 1900 podcasts. And if you're interested in the coaching program that I offer, you can learn more at poolguidecoaching.com. Thanks for listening to this podcast. Have your rest of your week. God bless.