Testing with Test Strips

Testing with test strips is quick, easy and convenient. While there are several different types and brands of Test Strips, my favorite are the Select strips by Aquacheck which test for Free Chlorine, Total Chlorine, Bromine, PH, Total Alkalinity, Total Hardness and Stabilizer (CYA). These are the five most important tests for maintaining your swimming pool chemistry.

How to use Aquachek 5-Way Strips

Get ready because this will take all of 10 seconds to explain and understand.
Using these strips is as easy as dipping one of them in your pool-water, immediately removing it, waiting 10-15 seconds and comparing colors on the chart that's on the bottle of strips. That's all there is to it!  For the greatest accuracy, obtain an elbow-deep sample of water from the deepest end of your pool. As with all testing, you might experiment with different sections of your pool and get an average at first to make sure you are getting an accurate reading for your overall pool chemistry. Don't worry if you don't know what the corresponding numbers mean on the chart. The bottle will tell you if they are in the right range. A handy instruction manual will even give you some help as to how much of what chemical to add to get your numbers closer to the ideal range.

Buy them here: Aquachek Select