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PH meter

Started by tsoonamee, September 03, 2022, 07:53:36 PM

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tsoonamee

Hi Folks. I would like to ask you kindly for advise for budget ph meter which could also work in mash temperatures. From the amazon things I see only ones which work max upbto 50*C .What are you using to test water/mash. I am just starting my journey with water addition to my RO water .. Any advise welcome
Nothing is better than smoked bacon

tsoonamee

Further reading brought me to the point that wort needs to be cooled before tests as majority of the meters may not calibrate at higher than 50*C .I think I'll stick to the cheaper meters at the start with my water/ wort chemistry  :)
Nothing is better than smoked bacon

DEMPSEY

RO water is not a good test material on its own as all the buffers are gone so the readings I find can be all over the place.
Dei miscendarum discipulus
Forgive us our Hangovers as we forgive those who hangover against us

DEMPSEY

I ment to add that its fine though for making up the test solutions for calibrating the PH meter.
Dei miscendarum discipulus
Forgive us our Hangovers as we forgive those who hangover against us

Water_Wolf

I've given up on using the cheap 'pen' style pH meters. If you use them infrequently like I do then they are a pain to try and maintain for the amount of use you get out of them. You'll need to store the tip in storage buffer and recalibrate with fixed pH level buffers and even then they tend to lose accuracy and the electronics break down. I don't know if the more expensive meters are any less trouble?

phildo79

All you have to do is wait for a tiny amount of wort to cool from around 70c to 50c. I wouldn't have thought that would take that long.

FWIW, I bought a pen for about £10, calibrated it and it said my tap water was 7pH. I then sent my tap water to a lab for a proper analysis and they said it was 7.5pH. TBH, since I received that report, I haven't used the pen once.

The local water report for my postcode shows the pH (hydrogen ion) as Min: 7.1, Mean: 7.512, Max: 7.95. And all the other things like sulphate, chloride etc. was pretty close to the lab results.

Mossy

Quote from: phildo79 on September 06, 2022, 02:52:05 PMThe local water report for my postcode shows the pH (hydrogen ion) as Min: 7.1, Mean: 7.512, Max: 7.95. And all the other things like sulphate, chloride etc. was pretty close
Is that from water.ie?


DEMPSEY

I have 2 pens. First one I'm happy with and keep it clean with the tip always soaking in PH 4 solution. Decided to buy a second one and this one is pure crap. Both are cheap enough so cost is not always a good marker
Dei miscendarum discipulus
Forgive us our Hangovers as we forgive those who hangover against us

Slev

I bought a pen pH meter a few years back. Without doubt, it has been my worse brewing purchase.
I sent several brews trialing it, trying to adjust the mash,etc. Taking readings at various times and temps.
Was a quick route to insanity. I was trying to correlate it to Brun Waters predicted pH.
In the end, I realised that going with RO and mineral additions as per Brun Water, which have been tried and tested is a much more reliable route.
Havent use that instrument since. Still brings back bad memories!

tsoonamee

Thank you everyone for input.
Quote from: DEMPSEY on September 06, 2022, 08:55:26 AMRO water is not a good test material on its own as all the buffers are gone so the readings I find can be all over the place.

I was told that after 6 stage( last is uv light-never used that) filtering ro water won't be showing more that 10 ppm. Isn't that good enough base ? I expect that =>10 ppm would be more like median for chlorine addition at various levels =<5ppm depending of external conditions (weather,pipe maintenance). Usually heavy chlorine smell can be smelled in tap water.For strong smell of chlorine I'd assume my Cl =15ppm . Would that be far from other brewers results ?
Nothing is better than smoked bacon

DEMPSEY

Here is a quote from a Water page,
Quote;
Reverse osmosis water is nearly pure water with a PH of 7. Reverse osmosis is a filtration method that removes more than 99% of all the contaminants in water.

The result is nearly pure water, which has neutral pH of 7. But if it's exposed to air, RO water drops down to an acidic pH range of 5 – 5.5. Why? Pure water is very hungry. it actually grabs CO2 right out of the air! Within about an hour, a glass of pure RO water can drop from a pH of 7 down to a pH of 5.5 or lower and become acidic water.
Quote;.
This would explain for me why I would try test my RO water and with a later test get a different reading.
Dei miscendarum discipulus
Forgive us our Hangovers as we forgive those who hangover against us

tsoonamee

If water dilutes CO2 within an hour( it is 0.04% CO2 in the air ) then many brewers should get similar results according to promised 99% filtration by RO system..Actually I have to collect my water over 24 hr to get get sufficient amount for brewing which means it would be exposed to air anyway. I'll check my water ph after filtration and after atmosphere gas saturation and share results here
Nothing is better than smoked bacon

DEMPSEY

Be a good thing to check as I did wonder why I would get different readings throughout the day I test the water.
Dei miscendarum discipulus
Forgive us our Hangovers as we forgive those who hangover against us

tsoonamee

Quote from: DEMPSEY on September 12, 2022, 01:06:00 AMHere is a quote from a Water page,
Quote;
Reverse osmosis water is nearly pure water with a PH of 7. Reverse osmosis is a filtration method that removes more than 99% of all the contaminants in water.

The result is nearly pure water, which has neutral pH of 7. But if it's exposed to air, RO water drops down to an acidic pH range of 5 – 5.5. Why? Pure water is very hungry. it actually grabs CO2 right out of the air! Within about an hour, a glass of pure RO water can drop from a pH of 7 down to a pH of 5.5 or lower and become acidic water.
Quote;.
This would explain for me why I would try test my RO water and with a later test get a different reading.

 PH after I pour water from RO - 6.95
PPM after I pour water from RO - 10
PH after 36 hr - 6.94
PPM after 36 hr - 28

Temperature 28.8, open glass to absorb gas from atmosphere

cost of the PH meter - 29$ ( accuracy questionable )
Nothing is better than smoked bacon