20 Best Hot Tub Test Strips (2023 Updated)

I thought that these would be good in a pinch while I waited for my real test kit to show up, but I could not get any results to relieve murky and dull pool water. Finally, my kit from Taylor arrived and within twenty-four hours was able to identify exactly what the problem was and resolve it.

My 18000 gallon pool is as clear as a lens now. Out of curiosity, I tried using a test strip after the Taylor tests told me that my pool was balanced. The test strip told me that all of my chemistry was too high.

Except for chlorine which the strip never showed as having enough. I thought that they would be good in a pinch but I won’t use the test strips again.

I have found this product to be very useful for Color-Blind people like myself. I can’t manually read the various color differences. The app makes it easy-peasy. I do find a slight variation in the reading depending on the length of exposure time.

15 seconds may not be long enough to get an accurate reading so I generally check it at about 15 sec. and again at about 30-45 sec.

I tried different products for monitoring my pool chemicals such as pH, chlorine levels, and alkalinity, and the best product so far is the “My Pool Care Assistant” from Clorox. It is really easy and simple to use, just dip the Smart Strip in the pool (about 1 to 1.

5 feet deep) and compare the results with the color chart displayed on the bottle. There are two ways this can be done: You can proceed either manually (visual determination of the test results and manually entering the results online at the WEB site “www.

cloroxpool. com”) or using the “Clorox Pool” App on your smart phone (place the Smart Strip on a grey background and scan it, preferably under natural daylight). Next, go to the test result analysis for diagnosis, and recommended solutions and agents needed to be added to the pool.

It is simple, accurate, and the Smart Strip provides an effective way to determine levels of your pool’s chemicals. Pros: Really easy to use. The Smart Strip gives a fast and reliable reading of the standard pool’s chemical levels (total hardness, free chlorine, total chlorine, pH, total alkalinity, and stabilizer).

The Clorox WEB site is user’s friendly and very well designed to obtain maximum results. The Clorox Pool App makes it even easier. Just follow the recommended solutions for proper balance and maintenance of the chemicals levels in your pool.

In just one reading, you can fix most of your pool problems. Cons: You need to proceed quickly because the color results on the strip tend to fade away with time. If you use the Clorox Pool App with the scan function, you will need a good and bright daylight for consistent results.

The results entered manually generally differ from the results obtained with the Clorox Pool App. So, if you want consistent reading of your pool chemicals, stick to only one method. I would preferably recommend the use the Clorox Pool App but using it all the time under the same amount of daylight because this can affect the reading.

These seem to be accurate, they agree with the Taylor strips that I’ve been using. I do not have any issues with colours bleeding. My only complaint is that the scale for Ph and Hardness is too broad; my spa calls for a hardness of 150-200, the 2 lowest indicators on this are 100 and 250, so there’s a lot of guesswork.

Ph is similar, I’m trying to keep 7. 2-7. 8 but on the results decoder everything between 7. 2 and 8. 4 looks pretty similar.

The test strips we received didn’t work accurately. By this I mean the colors for two of the readings were either false, didn’t have proper color, or was just a faulty product in general. For instance, if we would verify the readings from the canister’s chart, two colors were either not recognized or either fell on the color scale to match.

Further, we had a few strips left of the accurate test strips and the readings that these tests strips provided threw off the chemicals in the hot tub to the point that we had to readjust when we took the correct readings.

I’m not sure why the readings were so off, so I’ll chalk this up to a bad egg of a shipment. Thankfully, Google Express service was simply superb in a quick response with a full refund and return, hence the 3-star rating instead of a 1-star.

These strips test all you need to know. They seem to work just fine. Easy to use and easy to understand. They can dispense one strip at a time, which is just fine. The top of the container snaps shut and is easily opened.

Test strips are what they ***. quick read, but not as accurate as a test kit. These are okay, but find on many strips so far that the sponges don’t actually provide a very good reading at all when you compare to the scale on the bottle.

Sine don’t actually look like they are fully changing to anything. Test strips are expensive and had always thought this was the top brand. Will reconsider when buying again on what I will purchase.

I believe this to be a high quality set of test strips that work well in my daily work, They make my job much easier than using the previous method that I had been using for 2 years. The only thing that I see that could be improved is changing the bottle as necessary to put the chart on it instead of on a separate piece of plastic with is hard to carry around all day in my pocket without damaging it, That piece of plastic is very nice looking and works well but restricts my ability to handle the product easily due to the necessity of keeping the strips clean and dry while trying to open the bottle with the plastic attached to it and pulling out the strips individually without touching more than one strip at a time.

If the bottle had the chart on it I believe it would be much easier. But I do thank you for having a very good product and would highly recommend the strips since they have been pretty accurate so far.

I work on about 50 pools a week so I am fairly knowledgeable on the subject.

Recommended to these by my friend who owns his own pool service business. It is the only thing he uses. Used these for 6 weeks, they work great, very simple to use. Dip in water, wait 10 seconds, compare the colors.

Much less time consuming than bringing a sample to the pool place. The best part is the simple 20 page booklet that comes with them. It gives an overview of the parameters, chemistry, how to adjust it, how much to add based on pool volume and what order to adjust it in.

It is at the right technical level (for me), detailed enough to be interesting and simple enough to follow.

These salt strips are outstanding! They are easy to use, easy to read, and save me from a weekly argument with my husband attempting to use his expensive salinity check device. I have 3 different pools to monitor; our own, a tenant and my son’s pool.

I’ve used Clorex products now for the last two years. In general, I’m a big fan of all of the Clorox products, but sometimes they are a little hard to get. that said, I had not used your chemical balance strips.

I do use the Clorox iPhone app–like it, but with another brands chem strips. Again, the Clorox brand chem strips are easy to read; wish I could get them all the time–offer us a direct mail option please.

With multiple pools, summer coming (sun eats chlorine in the heat), I use a lot of chem strips keeping the chlorine at peak across all 3 pools. This was the first time I’ve used both products, the salt and chem strips and THANK YOU.

Waiting for Lowe’s to always have the right product is a pain, and in Florida, I’m using your chemicals all year round.

Been basing our need for salt in our first season pool. 26 bags later still reading the same low. Bought a digital reader on Amazon and are at LEAST 4x over. That’s the max reading. Flushing with fresh water.

Not only frustrating but threatens to wear out equipment. BTW the test that tests everything else doesn’t work any better.

Very accurate and easy to use. FINALLY, a test strip that gives both Total and Free Chlorine! These 2 readings need to be as equal as possible or you may need to shock your pool. Pools need enough Free Chlorine (FC) as that is what fights bacteria and potential algae blooms.

Most strips and OTC reagent kits only give Total Chlorine (TC) reading which is not helpful at all. I’m very happy with this product. I hope this info helps anyone hesitating about these strips. If you want your FC reading, these are great!.

These test strips are ideal as they test for all required measurements on one strip for public pools in Ontario. We have used many different strips, but these ones are great, fairly accurate, and easy to read.

Love the Bromine, Total Chlorine, AND Free Available Chlorine testing! These work perfectly for my pool and hot tub, and I don’t have to stock any additional strips on site.

I use this product to check the water chemistry of my jacuzzi. I really like the ease of use! I was really happy until I ordered it a second time and compared the strips from the first order to the second.

The pH did not agree and now I wonder which one is correct? The pads that carry the chemistry were also ***. the pads on the second batch were thicker and more difficult to read than the first batch.

I’m disappointed in the consistency and wonder if I should try another brand.

We just installed a whole house chlorinator system. We didn’t realize there was so much to setting it up, cleaning the existing plumbing, setting it up again for household use, and keeping an eye on the water’s chlorine several times a day if not daily for the first 30 days after install.

and you go through a HUGE amount of these strips. We bought the Clorox, and another brand name, and we settled on these, first off because they are Hach brandname and because its only $20 for 200 strips! Clorox is $10 for 50!We now have purchased the Hach CN-66 testing unit for a more precise measure, and because our NYS Health Dept uses that for their testing.

If we ever sell the house, we will have the whole set up that our NYS Health Dept recommends. I would use the strips because, IMO, there are good enough. , but we are headed into retirement and thinking of maybe a change of location??.

I use these to keep my pool chemistry in check. The six way test is a must as you get more information compared to a 3 way test. I use these with the Clorox pool app. They app isn’t perfect as they are a bit pushy sometimes on needing more of certain chemicals but it is useful to know what your pool needs.

All pools are different and using these strips, you will get a feel for what your pool needs when. The test strip colors can be a bit tricky to read sometimes as the edges change colors more easily than then center of the testing squares.

These strips are worthless, since they give incorrect test results and suggest buying the wrong products for your pool water. I recently got a result that told me to add 15 pounds of pH Protect, 1. 25 pounds of pH down, and 1.

25 quarts of Scale, Metal, and Stain control. I questioned the results and took a water sample to my pool care professional. He said all I needed was a quart of acid because my pH was at 8. 0. These test strips said my pH was 6.

8. How can they be that far off??? The test strip said my alkalinity was 40, yet the pro reads it at 80. Totally unacceptable.

I purchased this product hesitantly due to the high price. High for me anyway. I started using the kit the same day. You scan the strip and the software tells you everything you need to do. No guess work.

By the end of the second day, my pool was crystal clear. Thank you Clorox.

Okay, I’ve always “guessd” at what my numbers were using those strips and trying to guess is that PH level orange, no red, no maybe redish. Bottom line is you can be WAAAY off and not know it. Hot tub has been so much better knowing my numbers are spot on.

BUY IT, BUY IT, BUY IT! No, I’m not on commission! LOL.

Work’s every time if you use it according to instructions

I normally use this brand, but the recent purchase through Walmart has me questioning. The chlorine and free chlorine seem to be marking much higher than it should with the first few strips I’ve used and almost always read the same, so I’m never sure which is accurate.

I decided to test my tap water and all markers were in the okay zone, free Chlorine was zero, but complete chlorine was 1. So I’m not sure if complete chlorine is the actual free chlorine reading as my pool is well balanced otherwise and is algae free even with all the rain we’ve had.

We’ve owned for pools for 30 years. For a long time we used a regular test kit, where you fill vials with water. Clearly that is your best option if you’ve got pool issues and are really trying to dial in your pool chemistry.

But we’ve been using these the last few years. The ease of use is far superior to the test kit, and we get the information we need to adjust the water chemistry appropriately.

I have used these for years. They work great. For quick pool check they are convenient to use. I will sometimes double check results. Note: store them inside. Do not leave them outside.

I am not just picking on these, but all guess strips. When I first got my spa, I thought this concept was great. Used this and another brand together for 4 months and thought I was doing ok. But I kept having weird issues, and things never seemed quite right.

Plus, two brands of strips never seemed to tell me the exact same thing, so I had to guess which strip was the most accurate. But I was new, so I would just add more chemical (ie money). Forget it. Go buy a real test kit and you will see how far you are really off, and you really can have your chemistry perfect with really little extra time, and less money wasted blindly stumbling around.

Above all, buying a real test kit gave me piece of mind.

I have tested Alkazone Ph Test Strips for Water, Micro Essential Lab 9800 pHydrion pH Range: 0. 0 To 14. 0, 100 pH (Strips/Vial, Plastic pH Test Strips), and Nature2’s Spa Test Strips. While the Alkazone strips are an improvement over the Micro Essential Lab 9800 pHydrion (pHydrion) strips (which don’t work at all), the colors are not as vivid as they appear on the comparison sample on the container.

In addition, a solution I knew to be a pH of 9 tested as a 7 using the Alkazone strips. In fact, plain Fiji bottled water tested at a 7 and the pH reading on the Alkazone strips appeared unchanged even after adding alkalizing drops and/or baking soda both of which should have brought the pH above 9.

With the pHydrion strips, plain Fiji bottled water tested between a 3-4 pH while the Fiji bottle claims it is a 7. 8 pH. Also, the color of the pHydrion strips does not change consistently throughout the strip.

In fact, anything under a pH of 8 will only change the edges of the litmus paper such that the edges will be green while the center remains peach/orange/yellow. The Nature2’s Spa Test Strips appear to work the best for testing water.

They appear to be relatively accurate; unfortunately, these strips don’t test pH above an 8.

Work great with my Nature2 System. Important to use these and not other test strips, because these are the most important readings for the Nature2 low chlorine system, when you’re using MPS Shock. I use this regularly, and it has been very helpful in maintaining my hottub, using the Nature2 system, which we converted from Bacqua Spa to.

Couldn’t be happier. If you’re thinking of getting rid of BacquaSpa, but don’t want to use a lot of chlorine, or bromine, the Nature2 system is what you want. A little expensive at $10 for 50, but i don’t use them every day.

One of these should last me all winter.

I just started up my new hot tub and I decided to use Bromine instead of Chlorine for a sanitizer. I already had test strips but I needed a test strip for Bromine levels so I bought these. I tested and tested and could never get a reading on Bromine on these strips.

Finally I called a hot tub store and asked why my test strip wasn’t working for Bromine. He told me test strips for Bromine don’t work and to open the Bromine tablet floating about a quarter way. Since I can smell the sanitizer in the water, I’m assuming I have enough.

These strips work better than the other strips I have for the other 3 tests which is why I give them 3 stars.

I trust these little strips after trying multiple brands for the past 2 years on my bromine hot tub. People need to understand just how “off” your water can be before they start saying the strips don’t work.

For examples, my well water was so acidic it took about 25x the normal amount for my 275 gal portable hot tub to register on the color strip. It was easily 1/3 of a bottle of pH reducer before I saw it change.

I confirmed it with a different strip to make sure it was correct.

Chlorine test pad stays white even after adding loads of chlorine granules for several days in a row. You can smell the chlorine now but the strip still shows white (low chlorine). I don’t trust the accuracy of these strips.

I have some really bad test strips from another company that gives you 1 second to read it before it smears all over. These test strips are excellent. once you put it in the water and take it out you get no smear or discoloration for 5 minutes more than enough time to read it.

Good job keep up the great work.

As SO many others have stated, these don’t accurately test bromine! The strip is always white and regardless of how much bromine you use, the strip never detects any. I do not recommend this product.

It’s not an exact science but I’ve managed to keep my hot tub clean and clear using theses strips to make any chemical adjustments. Takes some trial and error if you are new to adjusting chemicals. At first I was using many of these strips until I figured the whole thing out.

Now I test just once a day. It’s really not complicated.

I have been using this product for in excess of ten years without a single problem. They are easy to use and have never had a pad fall off. Color matching is a snap. Perhaps some reviewers should be tested for color blindness.

This works fine but for my purposes, a small hot tub. The other ones I got also have a bromine reading so yeah I’d prefer to just buy one set of strips that include bromine as well.

I was introduced to these strips with the delivery of my last spa (I have owned 3 over the past 30 years), they were easy to use, the patches easy to read and fast. Lately, when running out, I tried the HTH I had used in the past, big mistake, I did not even try to finish using the HTH, came right back to these.

These strips are paramount in ensuring the Hot Tub is not only safe to use but allows confidence for all users preventing any build up of bacteria by Chlorine and any skin irritants due to incorrect PH values.

The guidance colour chart on the outside of the plastic container is simple to follow to ensure correct values are maintained. Chlorine seems to be the element most required on a daily basis.

It’s a very straightforward test kit. Just dip in the water and the results are instant. Compare the colours on the side of the packaging and you know if you need to top up the chlorine and adjust the pH.

Would recommend.

Product came with all the strips damaged. As if they had already been used. Unusable. Very disappointed