Ph meter customer service.

I am sorry to hear about your pH meter woes. I have listened to a few podcasts where I have heard that pH meters in general have a short life.

Maybe some other BAs can relate 'better' stories for you?

Cheers!

 

The more I read about pH meters, the more I want to just buy some litmus strips. $25 max.

 

Beckman Coulter has been great. I dropped $2250 on a new meter with three different electrodes (2x pH, 1x TDS). Meter could not calibrate correctly (was taking too much time to calculate a standard curve slope when calibrating), and without hesitation they had a new meter on my desk in 2 days and let me keep the old one for home brewing.

I recently purchased a back up one from them specifically for home brewing and have been quite happy with it.

At work I'm a biochemist and rely on accurate pH for measuring kinetic constants for many different enzymes and chemical reactions, and have not had problems or inconsistencies with reaction or buffer pH when compared to other readings with standards (using other meters), titrations of buffer with pH indicators or even strips.

Depends how quantitative you want to be. Strips can have huge error if read with an untrained (or color blind) eye, if they are getting old or manufacturing variance; even if in perfect working order, error is still around +/- 0.2-3 pH units compared to +/- 0.1 with a lower end meter or +/- 0.01 with a good meter. That being said, I always have them on hand in case my meter stops working and to periodically check my pH calibration buffers and stocks.

 

You're not kidding. Some homebrewers us ColorpHast strips, apparently a gold standard of sorts for strips. But even they seem to suck pretty bad for fine work. From another thread...
-----------------
There's a table in Kai's paper on mash parameters, in which he compares pH as measured by meter and colorpHast strips for 10 samples. The lowest difference between meter and strips was 0.12. The largest was 0.62. The numbers in between were all over the place..
Rounding the differences to one decimal place...

0.1 -> 20%
0.2 -> 20%
0.3 -> 30%
0.4 -> 10%
0.5 -> 10%
0.6 -> 10%
-------------

 

I got the pH 55 meter from MI, which in the description says it can read samples up to 150*F. Here's what went down. Maybe I'm the idiot here, but it was pretty frustrating.

My Message to Milwaukee Instruments:
Good morning,
I have tried several times to calibrate the pH 55 meter I purchased using this video as a guideline:
http://www.milwaukeetesters.com/video-cal-pH55.html
It seems to calibrate fine with the 7.01 solution, but when I move the meter to the 4.01 solution, it reads “4.01 REC” for a few seconds, then displays “WRNG” instead of “OK 2”.
Do I have a damaged probe?
I use the meter for testing the pH of my mash while brewing beer (sample is usually around 130 degrees Fahrenheit by the time the probe is immersed in it); is this too hot?
Thanks
Tyler

Response:
Hi Tyler – even though the unit will read at temperatures up to 150 to 160° perhaps once or twice but the gel in the probe cannot stand temp past 110 to 120 and up – with you taking measurements at 130+ this will liquefy the gel and lose its power to be able to read. We recommend the finger test – if you can put your finger in the liquid and leave it there then it is ok for the probe.
You need to purchase a replacement probe model Mi56p – and also in your application we would recommend a pH probe cleaning solution MA9016 due to the high contamination you are testing in which can clog a junction in the probe which will also cause it to fail.
Bryan
Milwaukee Instruments customer support manager
Milwaukee Instruments, USA

 

Thank you for the lunch time reading. Just downloaded it. Interesting to see that the two mash pH's measured without any pH adjustment had fairly large variance. Would like to see four or five points measured there to get an idea about error in strip measurement or variance of strip color development (If checking with strips for anything I tend to use three or four strips at once and chuck the outlier).

 

Yeah, pH meters do not like high temperatures. The standard procedure is to pull a sample, cool to room temp, then measure. The often stated pH of 5.2 to 5.6 range is what is read at room temperature, not mash temperature.

 

I've used pH meters in the work-place for going on two decades and they can be SOBs.
I'm hesitant to buy one for brewing.

 

I have a Hanna Phmeter for 4 years , i have calibrated it several times , I think it works fine(at least that is what I believe) because I have no issues with my mash efficiency :


HANNA HI98103 CHECKER 1

 

are you sure your 4.01 solution is 4.01?
get some fresh solution before you write off this meter.

truth is cheap pH meters do not last very long and require a lot of TLC. so you are not alone.
Cheers.

 

“…truth is cheap pH meters do not last very long…”

Thanks for your personal insight here. I have heard the same from several other folks but I appreciate reading your opinion as well.

Cheers!

 

I have owned Milwaukee and Hanna pH meters for brewing in recent years (once had a nice surplus Mettler benchtop instrument, but new probes began to cost much more than cheap meters). The super cheapo Milwaukee lasted 3 years before crapping out. It had a long fibrous junction that could be trimmed when it got clogged... up to a point. It was always within 0.1 units of the high end benchtop meter at work until its sudden failure. I've had the Hanna, pretty much what Tebuken has, for a little over 2 years and it is generally accurate to about 0.03 units. However, it failed to calibrate a couple months ago, very similar to OP's experience. It has been well cared for and looks immaculate, so just on a hunch I changed the batteries and it worked perfectly again. It might have sat in a warehouse a long time before shipping, thus reducing the battery life (or it just shipped with crappy batteries). Not saying you will be so lucky; pH meters are very temperamental, but a homebrew probe that is used every couple of weeks, or less, should last longer than a workplace probe that gets used several hours every day.

As hopfenunmalz noted, definitely let the mash cool before measuring. Even if you have a fancy temperature compensated meter, the increased/slightly different ion activity due to the elevated temperature will change your reading from what it should be.

 

I've used these at work too and they seem like a perfect solution for someone who can't afford one of these.
http://us.mt.com/us/en/home/supportive_content/specific_overviews/LifeScience5.html

 

I doubt your finished saison's pH is truly that high. Doubly doubt with raspberries.

 

I also use this unit. Do you also store the unit in the storage solution and use the cleaner solution as well?

 

Nope, I just wash probe and use its cover