HANNA ULR Phosphate Checker

[xabo]

Anyone else experience their ULR Phosphate checker freezing during the 3 minute countdown?

 

[paul01609]

Mine always been fine

 

[CK00020]

3 min countdown, mine throws a number out almost instantly within 5 sec
Is there something wrong?

 

[fcmatt]

Ulr.. u need to hold the button down in a certain step. Not just press it. Fyi.

And if it freezes that is not good. Changing the battery may be your only option left to debug it.

 

[windemerejack]

3 min countdown, mine throws a number out almost instantly within 5 sec
Is there something wrong?

Do you not hold the button in until it starts the 3 minute countdown?
If not you have been doing it wrong, I would re-read the instructions.

 

[CK00020]

I’ll check that out thanks

 

[windemerejack]

Anyone else experience their ULR Phosphate checker freezing during the 3 minute countdown?

I would send it back for repair or a replacement if still under warranty.

 

[xabo]

Ulr.. u need to hold the button down in a certain step. Not just press it. Fyi.

And if it freezes that is not good. Changing the battery may be your only option left to debug it.

Yes I hold the button until the 3:00 shows on the display.

 

[Angelwolf21203]

I would send it back for repair or a replacement if still under warranty.

I just recently got mine replaced. Did a side by side of the new and old one using the same reagent powder and got +.90 on the old one, and .57 on the new one! Pretty big difference! It's not often, but occasionally, as with any sensitive piece of testing equipment, they can have issues. The company was wonderful about replacing mine!

 

[Nick Steele]

Do you not hold the button in until it starts the 3 minute countdown?
If not you have been doing it wrong, I would re-read the instructions.

You can skip that step. I don’t use that timer I just self count the 3 mins. Works just the same.

 

[CK00020]

You can skip that step. I don’t use that timer I just self count the 3 mins. Works just the same.

Aren’t you just waiting for reagent to dissolve, I do that and shake

 

[Nick Steele]

Aren’t you just waiting for reagent to dissolve, I do that and shake

Yeah I just shake it in my hand when it’s dissolved add it to the checker and press button for it to give me the reading

 

[legrunt]

If I'm not wrong, this reagent requires an exact amount of time to sit in the water and react. It takes something like 40 minutes to react completely, but that's too long to wait, so the meter is calibrated to read after an exact amount of time, which is 3 minutes after a 2 minute shake.

I'll do an experiment tomorrow. I'll fill one cuvette with sample water, use that to zero the meter and fill another cuvette with sample and reagent. I'll zero using the first cuvette multiple times and see if the other cuvette's reading changes over time...

 

[Scorpius]

You shouldn't be shaking the curvette to dissolve the power.

 

[CK00020]

Doesn’t it say something about a 2 min shake in the directions

 

[Angelwolf21203]

This should help.

 

[mike550]

I know that when my checker started acting up I replaced the battery and it started acting like it always did. I was a bit surprised that it “sort of” functioned rather than simply going dark. But lesson learned.

 

[CK00020]

Thank you, I wonder how much it’s off if you aren’t right on the spot with the timing, I couldn’t have been more than a min or two early

 

[legrunt]

So here's the result.

Control test, following the instructions exactly, using only 1 cuvette, 0.1ppm

Timing test, using two cuvettes. 1 with pure sample tank water, another with tank water plus reagent. Zeroing using first cuvette, then testing using the second.
At 15 seconds (after shaking to see all powder dissolved) 0.18ppm
At 1 minute, 0.11ppm
At 2 minutes, 0.09ppm
At 3 minutes, 0.1ppm
At 4 minutes, 0.1ppm
At 5 minutes, 0.1ppm

It does appear that some timing is required to get a stable reading, but you can shorten the time a bit.

 

[CK00020]

That’s great thanks!