Extech EC210 Compact Conductivity and TDS Meter

I use this to do spot water quality tests on the water coming from the private well that feeds my home. For the most part, it's easy to use and is as accurate as any tests I've tried. TDS, Salinity, ph and conductivity are easily determined from a single test sample in under five minutes. Of course, it would be ideal is the unit could also test for additional contaminants (iron, nitrates, chlorine, etc), but for what it offers, this is a great probe that gives you a quick understanding of whether you've had any changes to your water quality.Definitely a good way to get started with water quality testing.

Easy to understand

Good conductivity meter, salinity and temperature of solution. I have used it mainly for measuring salt content of surfaces using scrubbing method.PROS:User friendlyquick readportableCONS:A sample of a certain size is required. Droplet size samples can't be analyzed, which is very important for measuring the salt content of surfaces using the Bresle patch method.

I bought several Chinese knock offs before buying this one.Yeah, this is the one to have. Instantly gives you PH and TDS readings. Guess I'll toss the Chinese cheapies.

I do monthly stream water quality monitoring using a very expensive YSI DSS Pro probe system. A county agency maintains and calibrates it. But in the winter I like to do more frequent monitoring of conductivity so I can track excessive use of road salt. I have been using an EC100, but needed a second for a friend. The EC150 adds total dissolved solids to basic conductivity. I do not use TDS but the EC150 tends to be easier to find on Amazon, and I just leave it set on conductivity.There are cheaper conductivity meters, around $10. They are pure junk. These Extech ECs have proper temperature compensation and are very linear. Their readings match those of the expensive YSI probe within a couple of microSiemens, and they hold calibration quite well (as long as the batteries are good). I check calibration each time I take them out, using 1000 microSiemen calibration fluid. The only time I've had bad readings was when the EC100's batteries were weak.

I bought this instrument Extech EC400 Conductivity, TDS, Salinity, and Temperature meter to check the salt levels of our pool. We have a saltwater pool with an in-line chlorinator, and the salt level is important to the operation of the chlorinator. For this application you would normally use the Salinity feature, which will read in ppm (parts per million) NaCl (salt) or ppt (parts per thousand). My pool system recommends 2800-3200 ppm salt levels. The extech will read these levels in ppt, which will be 2.8-3.2 ppt.This instrument is not a toy. When I first got it, I took it to the lab to compare it with instruments and standards we have there. I first tried a 500 ppm NaCl standard and the EC400 read 501, which is excellent. I then compared readings of several different waters with the EC400 and our expensive laboratory instruments, and again, I saw excellent agreement between the EC400 and the other instrument.This instrument does have a lot of features and can be a bit intimidating. The display screen is a bit small for my eyes, but that aside, this is an excellent buy.To keep the probes clean, which will help it to stay calibrated, be sure you rinse it with purified water (distilled water is good). If you get it into really nasty water, or oils, or acids or caustic, that will probably cause the unit to malfunction.I haven't had it a long time, but I am very happy with what I see initially.I also plan to use this probe to check the purified water I buy at the store for drinking or home brewing. My pool water runs about 3.0 ppt Salt, or 3000 ppm Salt. My tap water in the house runs about 300 ppm Salt, and the purified water runs about 10 ppm salt. Ultrapure water I have at the lab runs <1 ppm Salt.You should also understand that real water is a mixture of several different ions which combine to make salts, that can include sodium, magnesium, calcium, chlorides, sulfates, phosphates, and carbonates, to name a few. Most salinity instruments, including this one will read the salt concentration, as though it were all NaCl, and that is the concentration that is reported. This can be misleading, when there is an abundance of other salts in the water you are measuring and the concentration will not accurately measure the true concentration of salt.Better living through Chemistry...

I am a senior chemist in an environmental laboratory and have used ExStik II quite a bit already mainly for measuring conductivity, temperature, and pH of solutions used in liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. It has an excellent response time (pretty quick) and is the most accurate you will find without buying a separate pH meter or conductivity meter. This unit is VERY portable. I will say that the unit is NOT so accurate at very low conductivity(lower than 5uS/cm the error may be 2-3uS/cm). It IS reproducible from dad to day measurements though.

This tester works well and has multiple setting to allow you to translate the Conductivity into Salinity. It appears to be quite accurate.