K-1766

highly accurate, confirmed my Orapxi probe readings for my salt water pool. Rinse your Orapxi probe if not used weekly. That's how you get bad readings. Glad I didn't add Salt !

I found out thru using this test that my SWG was out of whack. This test is not subject to temperature or other variances that you get with electrical conductivity or salt test strips, it just works. The only thing I found difficult to use is the amount of precipitate that forms with no explanation that it is supposed to happen. Also, the tube gets some residue on the sides that seems unusual, but most likely is just normal. Overall, Taylor gets like a 1 for the explanations. Finally, the dropper is maybe a 2 out of 5, each drop is 200 ppm chg with a 10 ml sample, I'm not exactly sure why they supply a 25 ml bottle... In spite of the challenges of understanding what is expected outcomes for precipate/residue, and a poorly designed dropper bottle, this kit gives me confidence that I am getting very close to the actual salt content (within 200-400 ppm), which you won't get out of another system. What I have also discovered is that my SWG once exposed to sunlight gives me a more accurate reading, albeit still like 1000 ppm to low compared to this Taylor kit, but that's ok, fits in the middle of the range for my pool system.

Bought this to add to my Taylor Test Kit to use for my salt water pool. Taylor is the best, and this makes pool maintenance a breeze.

Does the job 🧪

It works fairly well. I measured with my handheld eSeasongear SALT-3050 Waterproof Tester and there was only a 200ppm difference. Respectable... and who's to say which was more accurate? It does take a lot of swirling as the drops from bottle 2 like to clump a bit. It's also a bit of a guessing game as to getting to the proper 'salmon' color you need. I find it a bit odd they don't give different size bottles. Bottle 1 is always just 1 drop and bottle 2 is usually going to be 15 to 20 drops for each test. There's 440 drops in each 22 mL bottle. If you have too much salt in your pool, you might hit 22 drops (4,400 ppm) and even at that rate, you would get 20 uses out of bottle 2, while getting 440 uses out of bottle 1. But.. unlike pH, chlorine and everything else, once your salt is set, you're typically good for the summer, so this is more than enough for a couple summers - at which point, I'd still have plenty left but would buy new to assure it hasn't lost it's magical powers. If you're new to salt-testing.. For safe swimming conditions, the ideal salt level is going to be between 2500 ppm and 4000 ppm. Many consider 3,200ppm to be optimal. An overly salted pool will generally not be a major problem (aside from salty-tasting water), but at levels over 6000 ppm there may be corrosion damage to some of the metallic equipment. 1 bag of salt = 480ppm. ORDER OF CHEMICALS: 1. Salt water ppm first. Always shoot for 1 bag less than called for and then test (Much easier to add than subtract, which requires draining). The level should last all summer. 2. Alkalinity. If TA is below 80ppm, add alkalinity increaser. If it's above 120ppm, use Muriatic ( Hydrochloric ) Acid.. 3. pH. 7.4 is great. 7.6 works best. Try to keep between 7.2 and 7.6. pH rises faster when it's low, so the best strategy is often to let it rise to 7.8 and then knock it down to 7.6 (it will stay there longer). -- At a pH of 7.2, chlorine is 65 percent effective; at 7.8, 32 percent effective; and at 8.0, 20 percent. As you can see, chlorine effectiveness decreases dramatically as the pH in water increases. 4. Calcium. 180-220 is ideal but flexible. Many pools operate much higher w/out a problem. Below 180 causes staining though, so keep it over that. A lot of people can get by without testing this in smaller pools. 5. Cyanuric (Stabilizer) Adjustments. Newly filled pools are at ZERO levels of stabilizer. We need this to keep the sun from burning chlorine out. Add 3 lbs to 10,000 lbs of water. 6. Chlorine. Adjust this last after all other levels are met. 1-3 ppm. Pool shock (granular chlorine) is most often used to raise levels and destroy contaminants. Do it weekly and always shock at dusk (sunlight is chlorine's enemy). 7. Add algaecides last - after chlorine levels are below 3 ppm. - Wait about 30 minutes before allowing anyone to swim after the algaecide application. -- Add algaecide weekly - after every shock treatment. Isn't pool maintenance fun?!!

I blamed this product for giving inaccurate readings but I was TOTAlly wrong. What happened was I was getting high salt ppm readings and I tested via two other methods: test strips and a pool store free water test. It turns out that the test strips are wildly inaccurate. The pool store test gave me yet a different result but I found out (after two tests) that their equipment would not give results above 5000ppm. So if the water was 7000ppm, they said 5000ppm. Of course I have to drain water to get my salt levels down - all due to my idiot pool installer putting in WAY TOO much salt in the initial install. Sorry for the scorching review - It is a good, easy to use tester. Mea Culpa.

I converted my 24' above ground pool to a "salt water" pool. The recommended amount of pool salt to get 3000 ppm was 350 lb. I purchased 9 40-lb bags and put 8 bags (320 lbs) in the pool. I looked for the best way to test salinity, and saw many recommendations for the Taylor test kits. I purchased the Taylor K-2006 "Complete" test kit, but it didn't include the salt test. Then I purchased the K-1766 kit, which consistently gave 3600 ppm results. I took a water sample to my pool store, and they read 2800 ppm and told me to add 45 lbs of salt. So I added another 40 lb bag and retested after 24 hours. The K-1766 now gave me a result of 8800 ppm! I tried it again, and after adding 50 drops of reagent, the color never changed! So this kit is worthless. I attempted to return it, but that's not allowed. So buyer beware! I will say that the other tests in the K-2006 kit seem to work pretty well; it's just this "salt" test kit that's worthless.

I use the bigger "complete" kit already. I switched to SWG this season so I needed a salt test. This works great and eliminates guessing with stupid strips. A bit of advice. When adding drops, it helps to swirl the beaker with one hand and drip with the other. So that the test is always swirling as the drops add. This way you get a very solid flash to reddish. I was adding then swirling and it wasn't as obvious. The test kinda coagulates like milk and lemon juice so if you don't constantly mix I feel like it's perhaps not as accurate and obvious when the color flashes. It's still a top notch test.