This question was asked some time ago though that thread seems to be locked.  I have tried to include the posts below but may well explode across the screen when I add the topic!

With home patients in mind, what are units currently using in the way of total chlorine test strips?  We have tried Sensafe total chlorine strips but feel the that discerning between the colour changes is a not very clear.  I will contacty L.in.C to see if they still provide the one mentioned below.

Do any units use other monitoring methids that they find acceptable for home patinet use?

Thanks

Garry

		Total Chlorine Test Strips Posted on:
		I'm interested in any data from people who've tried the new Total Cl test strips made by Stericheck and distributed by Gambro. We've compared the results they appear to give to readings from a calibrated chlorometer and noticed large discrepencies. Has anyone else compared them to a known standard?On the basis of our results, I'd be cautious about relying on them without independant verification.

guest		Posted on:
		This comment has been removed.

		chlorine test strips Posted on:
		I have tried them and have found that they vary compared with our DPD tests.As an aside, the hard water test strips are fine.

Robert Lambourne		Chlorine test strips Posted on:
		At present we are using WaterCheck2 strips ( supplied by LINC) When the patient checks the water if any colour change they contact us then we preform a check with our chlorine meterWe use them as an indicator (No colour change = OK) as the fist 8) colour change on the box is 0.1we have using them at home for over 12months

		Test strips Posted on:
		Thanks for the info Robert, it sound a very good system - do the patients do this before every session, weekly etc?? How do you get them to check? Pre-filter, pre RO or pre machine? Have you checked them against a chlorometer or the like? My concern is that other compounds present in tap water may mask the true readings.

		test strips Posted on:
		Patients check the water once a week At present we have two different RO units. On the Elga system the water is tested from the from inlet in to the header tank which is directly after the carbon bed (15Kg of carbon in a cylinder)The Purite Prestige system the sample is taken on the product output from the ROThe results do seem to compare quite well with our hanna chlorine meter [/b]

thanks Gerry, you've answered my post on GAC beds.

The reason I asked the question was that we started picking up high readings post GAC after only 13 months of use. This was even more surprising as the GAC were overspec'd to accommodate future expansion of our unit. Our two beds in series give us around 20mins EBCT at the current flow rate and our 'normal' incoming total chlorine level is only around 0.25. I assumed there was something mechanically wrong with the GAC, possibly being bypassed. After getting the installer to check them they confirmed there were no mechanical issues and recommended replacing the media. Incidently the meter the installer used was the new electronic method, which did not correspond with the two colorimeters we have., actually giving  significantly lower levels. It also showed the free/combined chlorine composition to be different from what we measure, and what  Wessex water say we should have. I suggested to them that their meter was incorrect but it fell on deaf ears. A suspicious man would suggest the lower reading suited them :-)

Fraser

Sorry Garry, I just clicked on Gerry's post and replied to it, didn't actually see your post.

I have posted before on the subject of test strips, I sourced some from www.accepta.com which were supposed to be sensitive down to 0.05 mg/l. I haven't been able to test them though.

Fraser