Water Quality Tester, Accurate TDS Meter EC Meter & Temperature Test Pen with Backlit LCD for Drinking Water, Hydroponics, Swimming Pools, Aquariums

Supposedly the best of several similar inexpensive TDS water-testing devices, the "Water Quality Tester, Accurate TDS Meter EC Meter & Temperature Test Pen with Backlit LCD for Drinking Water, Hydroponics, Swimming Pools, Aquariums" was selected for purchase. As with similar devices, it also offers a temperature option that may be required by fish-keepers and those with some reptiles as pets. It is powered by a single fitted CR-2032 button cell hidden beneath the smaller black cap and likely to require replacement after several months. A chart on the device provides a guide to possible levels and readings.While some authorities suggest that TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) levels of 100-150 are ideal for drinking, those significantly lower or higher are said to be potentially dangerous to health. Certain household products such as coffee makers, steam irons and others claim to require very low TDS levels of around 30 to 50 to prevent heavy furring that will affect their performance.There are areas of the UK where local water supply is extremely soft and others, especially London and most of South-Eastern England, where the water is very hard and causes fur build-up surprisingly quickly, possibly a millimetre or more in a week and decalcifying then becomes a frequent requirement. Some appliances possess a warning system that presupposes a certain level of water hardness and, based on that, emits a sound or illuminates an indicator to advise the user when a peak is presumed. Unfortunately, without a meter such as this it is unlikely that local TDS levels will ever be known, hence the need for occasional testing.Because of past experience of furring, and with a more recently noticed metallic hint on the tongue when consumed straight from the tap, a water filtration system was added a few months ago with resulting improvements. The flavour of the water is much improved and furring also much reduced.Accuracy is unknown unless there is means and opportunity to check it against a professional equivalent. It is not intended to be definitive but only to provide a useful indication.

Works well, but when I received it was not working! The battery supplied was completely flat. Bought a new battery and all working ok

We bought this. Completely useless. No help available from the supplier/maker.Sorry to say amazons return system not a great success, in this instance. It required us to drive 50+ miles to return the useless device

Controls are a bit weird and not too intuitive but it measures what it says it will and is pretty easy to use if you read the instructions ; nice device for not too much money

Came with a dead battery

The item is very compact accurate I feel it gives very interesting results. We all buy designer water now we can actually see which is best! The device comes in a neat leather wallet that can be belt mounted. The device can measure temperature, total dissolved solids and electric conductivity. These are translatable into the purity of water. There is a scale on the back that shows the colour coding versus the readout into hardness and general purity of the water I find this handy having it ready to check against. It will be best used by comparison of the read outs in a range of waters such as bottled water designer expensive so called pure waters and tap waterEasy to use and read with very interesting results

the unit was easy to use. we just installed a water softener in our home and wanted a means to check the hardness etc. only just started to use so these are initial findings

Always interesting to peek behind the scenes of things you see every day but take for granted, after recently going down a bit of a 'coffee brewing' rabbit hole I thought it might be interesting to get a quick overview of the water I've been using (I actually found the United Utilities site was actually really helpful in telling you the composition of my tap water too, if you're interested in that sort of thing). Wanting to measure the relative total dissolved solids I compared distilled water, tap water and brita filtered tap water. The Brita filter used was only a week old so I was surprised to find it only seemed to making about a 10% relative reduction in the TDS number shown, but I did wonder if this was perhaps because the charcoal particulates from the filter were adding parts of themselves into the water - so the TDS might be similar but the contents of those solids might be different. The distilled water scored a perfect zero though, which was good to see. The meter uses a standard 2032 coin cell battery and comes with a little protective outer cover.