Inline tds meter

[Ronny#66]

The filter guys sugested an inline tds meter that monitors inflow and out flow. I didn't think about it at the time . Any draw backs like meter geting full of crud from water after a while and becoming an inacurate measureing devise ?

[jefnalyssa]

Its more of a convenience. They are not as accurate as a handhelp meter.

[AZDesertRat]

They are not temperature compensated so can be off by quite a bit if your water temperature and air temperature are different. Its something like 2% for every degree C difference.
You also lose the portability that a handheld gives you. I much prefer the HM Digital COM-100 handheld, its the best hobbyist grade instrument around. With it you can test your tap water, after the prefilter and carbon, post RO, RO/DI, your neighbors, after your softener, the LFS, the grocery, the water kiosk on the corner etc. With an inline the are a dedicated instrument meaning they depend on flow past the probe and cannot just be dipped in a glass of water. You only test two dedicated points, normally post RO and post RO/DI and thats it, no tap water, no after the first DI if you have a dual DI system etc. For that you have to but two meters and you still will not have the accuracy.
I have two of the dual inlines but rarely use them, I would rather test with the COM-100.

[IslandCrow]

I use both the inline as well as a handheld. If I only had the handheld, I know I'd be bad about checking my RO/DI. With the inline, I check every time I make water.

[Ronny#66]

The jury still out ont this thread will check in little while before I purchase .

[mixed_reefer]

I use the inline on the machine and i have a hanna com-100 handheld as well. I would get both.

[Thefilterguys]

Think about it if a dual inline tds meter was off by 20% at scale of 999 ppm due to air and water temp what are we saying? We are looking at the narrow end of the scale for our purposes which is zero and the % will be less. Even if the error was still at 20% on the narrow end were talking .20 and the meter is still going to read zero. In most cases we use 2-3 tds as a trigger point for resin change so does .20 mean anything? Dual inline tds meters get used in many cases daily where handhelds tend to go in the drawer after while and not come out again until you already have a problem. Hands down the best choice for a single meter is the dual inline.

Jim

[VisionsSS]

Well put from the Man Himself.

I say for the cost and convenience its well worth it. Still good to have a handheld but its so easy to check when your making water. You'll know when your DI needs changing and wont forget to stay on top of checking with the handheld.

What ever you do give your biz to The Filter Guys. Great prices and best service!

[AZDesertRat]

I would still disagree. Having both is nice but use the inline as a guide only. Why not provide the best accuracy you can?

[Thefilterguys]

Rat I expect nothing less from you and I understand for a man with multiple meters it would be hard to tell which zero reading meter is correct.

But for the average reef hobbyist one meter is more then enough and my choice would be the dual inline. I have nothing against handhelds but a meter at the ready is going to get used more. One other point a properly placed dual inline allows you to read post RO and finished DI product water with the flip of a switch.

Jim

[Bud Reeferman]

I use an RO/DI three-phase filter -- two mechanical and one resin Thinking of adding a Dual Inline to help me know when to change filter inserts. So... when the TDS gets high, should I change all three filters?

[Thefilterguys]

The dual inline meter is used to monitor you membrane and DI performance in most cases. Some people use it to monitor tap water and DI and others monitor dual stages of DI. For carbon and sediment filters we recommend a time frame of six months for changes. Some people go longer but in general it is a better practice then keeping track of volume as high quality filters are not that expensive.

Jim

[Flipper62]

Jim,

I got my Reef +5 from you 4 weeks ago. I am just now hooking it up....to replace my old one. I was thinking That the inline TDS meter that came with the RO/DI unit was good, but I should check the TDS with the COM-100 meter I bought from you before I used the water. My thought was...if the Com-100 read a higher reading, that is a heads up that the filters need to be changed

[Thefilterguys]

The COM 100's is sensitive enough that with the best fresh premium grade 18.2 meg ohm semiconductor DI resin you will see a digital reading just above zero. The water is considered ultra pure and the reading is normal. That reading will stay that way and does not indicated a resin change is necessary. That is why we use a tds value of 2-3 to indicate a resin change. You may change resin sooner but I would not change it on a value between 0-1.

Jim