Mastertronic Honest Review.

davbenav · Dec 13, 2021

crazymattb said:
Seaflo

Seaflower to Utah. My only concern is warranty. They said I’d have to ship it back there and pay for it. Also, I’m concerned that it might be difficult to sell if I ever change my mind.

It is a serious consideration.

Harold999 · Dec 28, 2021

BMW has a new supercar. They limited the speed though because they don't want owners of older models feel bad about their purchase.

This is basically what they're doing with the Mastertronic only allowing one kh test per day, or am i totally wrong here?
For this alone i'm looking elsewhere like the new Reefbot V2.

KGV · Dec 30, 2021

Harold999 said:
BMW has a new supercar. They limited the speed though because they don't want owners of older models feel bad about their purchase.

This is basically what they're doing with the Mastertronic only allowing one kh test per day, or am i totally wrong here?
For this alone i'm looking elsewhere like the new Reefbot V2.

Not really. Most reagent based Alk test use like 1ml of reagent for precision (Hanna for example). But the MT has only 20 ml vials and only 10 ml of these is usable. So you just can’t do much tests with these small vials. Maybe that’s what they don’t want you tod do.

n2585722 · Dec 30, 2021

KGV said:
Not really. Most reagent based Alk test use like 1ml of reagent for precision (Hanna for example). But the MT has only 20 ml vials and only 10 ml of these is usable. So you just can’t do much tests with these small vials. Maybe that’s what they don’t want you tod do.

Not to mention it would get expensive doing multiple test a day. The Alkatronic uses a different reagent to do the test. Also each test takes a while so if you have all the different test setup it will take a while to go through all of them.

KGV · Dec 30, 2021

n2585722 said:
Not to mention it would get expensive doing multiple test a day. The Alkatronic uses a different reagent to do the test. Also each test takes a while so if you have all the different test setup it will take a while to go through all of them.

Exactly!

FishyFishFish · Dec 30, 2021

So is one test per day not sufficient to adjust the doser? As well as limiting it to one test per day (and not allowing the user to decide whether they want to spend the money to test more frequently), they have also disabled the link to the dosetronic.

The only reasons that I can see for this are, they want to force you to buy the Alkatronic, or they don’t trust the Mastertronic Alk tests (which is what they suggest in the manual).

If they are restricting this functionality to encourage people to buy the Alkatronic, it may have the opposite effect as it may persuade me not to buy the Mastertronic/Dosetronic either.

KGV · Dec 30, 2021

I have my MT since March 2021 and I like it. But honestly, I use it only for PO4 and NO3 because all other parameters change so slowly and I only test them once every 4 months (like ca2+ and Mg2+). The PO4 and NO3 values get tested several times a week and the values have always matched reference fluids and my Hanna checker. I really learned a lot about these params.

Harold999 · Dec 30, 2021

KGV said:
Not really. Most reagent based Alk test use like 1ml of reagent for precision (Hanna for example). But the MT has only 20 ml vials and only 10 ml of these is usable. So you just can’t do much tests with these small vials. Maybe that’s what they don’t want you tod do.

If i'm willing to top off the vial every 3 days or so so i can do 3 tests per day what would be the problem?
This is like BMW limiting the speed of their new supercar because the gastank is not that big.

"We from BMW don't want that you'll have to visit a gasstation every other day so we just limit horsepower for your convenience".
It just doesn't make sense.

Harold999 · Dec 30, 2021

FishyFishFish said:
The only reasons that I can see for this are, they want to force you to buy the Alkatronic

Yep, but they'll have to make the Alkatronic a lot cheaper if they want to tempt me, it's too expensive imho for a one-parameter only machine.

Yodeling · Dec 31, 2021

Harold999 said:
Yep, but they'll have to make the Alkatronic a lot cheaper if they want to tempt me, it's too expensive imho for a one-parameter only machine.

Agree, I think most of the manufacturers are pricing these types of products a bit too high. Apparently there is enough demand to support this business model, but for "financially sensible" buyers, spending $1k on an Alkalinity tester may not be justifiable. Hanna Alk test takes less than a minute to complete, and you don't have to worry about spending weeks calling tech support to make it work (like the experience @Nathan80 described).

sivob · Jan 2, 2022

Does anyone know where to get one of these? I’m in the US

n2585722 · Jan 2, 2022

sivob said:
Does anyone know where to get one of these? I’m in the US

CoralVue got some in but I think you have to go through a dealer to get one https://www.coralvue.com/mastertronic-automated-water-tester

Harold999 · Jan 2, 2022

Parker's reef who reviewed this thing on Youtube a while ago says that he is not familiar with the "only one KH measurement per day" issue, he did multiple kh measurements per day.
So where is that story coming from?

n2585722 · Jan 2, 2022

Harold999 said:
Parker's reef who reviewed this thing on Youtube a while ago says that he is not familiar with the "only one KH measurement per day" issue, he did multiple kh measurements per day.
So where is that story coming from?

It say that on the Focustronic website under notes here is a link

Mastertronic - Core Products - Products

Mastertronic (MT) is the latest addition to our product range for automated water testing equipment. MT will be able to communicate with our other products such as Alkatronic, Dosetronic, Solartronic (patented dynamic lighting fixture), and Powertronic (

www.focustronic.net

Harold999 · Jan 2, 2022

n2585722 said:
It say that on the Focustronic website under notes here is a link

Mastertronic - Core Products - Products

Mastertronic (MT) is the latest addition to our product range for automated water testing equipment. MT will be able to communicate with our other products such as Alkatronic, Dosetronic, Solartronic (patented dynamic lighting fixture), and Powertronic (

www.focustronic.net

Maybe those notes are outdated (from before the release).

Notes:

Specifications may vary in end product upon release.

Alkalinity test is limited to 1 test per day and will not carry out actions like in Alkatronic. For multiple tests, best to use Alkatronic

Yodeling · Jan 2, 2022

Harold999 said:
...For multiple tests, best to use Alkatronic...

Translation: Please give us more money.

Harold999 · Jan 2, 2022

Yodeling said:
Translation: Please give us more money

Maybe if the Alkatronic was a lot cheaper, but it is almost as expensive as the Mastertronic.

Personally i don't mind testing alk "only" one time per day, i think that's more than enough and more than i ever did manually.

n2585722 · Jan 2, 2022

Harold999 said:
Maybe if the Alkatronic was a lot cheaper, but it is almost as expensive as the Mastertronic.

Personally i don't mind testing alk "only" one time per day, i think that's more than enough and more than i ever did manually.

I only do it once a week currently with a Hanna tester.

Harold999 · Jan 4, 2022

Okay, you can do as many KH tests per day as you want, but only manually by opening the app and start a test.
Scheduled (automatic) KH test is 1 per day max.

tmccaff · Jan 24, 2022

I am curious why get this over ION Director/KH Director from GHL? The ION director can be used standalone and uses its own reagents. I was looking at both the ION Director and mastertronic and curious on why mastertronic?