So I’ve been on here and asked before about the ones you place directly into the soil and was told they’re not accurate. So then I was told apera is a good meter. But they’re super expensive. I was wondering if anyone had ever heard of the cheap brand vivosun. And if so are they accurate or any good at all? I was on Amazon looking and it’s like 20$ for the ph and tds meter together. So I was gonna get them but wanted to make sure they’re good first.
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Two things I learned in my 2nd grow, LIGHTS! Cheep lights grow cheep buds!, cheep ph meter tell you nothing as their readings can not be trusted. So why buy anything that has been proven ineffective. When all is done and you are not satisfied with the results you get those few dollars you saved won’t mean a thing to you if you get wimpy buds and small yeald never mind messing issues due to inaccurate ph readings! You can save money elsewhere.
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Exactly why I’m asking if anyone has used the brand and if they’re any good. I’m not spending a couple hundred dollars on a meter. That’s just crazy. Especially when you cant afford that. Trying to find something realistically affordable and still works. I’m not worried about my lights either. I have 2 different kinds and if neither work, even together, I always can use the sun. I need a ph meter and a TDs meter that are reliable. They both looked okay because you actually tested in the water, not a sensor stuck into the dirt.
An Apera PH meter is under $60
Save money and buy an inexpensive TDS meter. They’re less than $15.
Can’t cheap out now.
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I have replaced mine twice, then I got an apera ph20, the cheap tds still does what its supposed to, but ph is very important and just a few points off can wreck your grow, i say if you are going to get something cheap just do the tds meter, but go for something a little more reliable for your ph.
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Just think about the money you will save! Go to the dispensary and get a bag it’s about the same price as the ph pen. The ph pen will help you optimize harvest through several grows…the bag from the dispensary will last a few days?
I wore out two cheapatron meters and two Apera before I finally broke down and “spent $$ hundreds” on a Bluelab.
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I looked up the apera and it was like 120 for the cheapest. I’m probably gonna get a 20$ kit and get them both. If they burn out I’ll get more. As long as they’re pretty accurate I’m good. And as long as the ph is between 6 and 6.5 I’d be happy since 6.5 is decent and 6.3 is the goal.
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So far my aprea has held up nice, granted I dont use it everyday, but I think its been a few months since I calibrated it, but it still reads 7.0 in the 7 and 4.0 in the 4. One day I will get me some nice bluelab equipment, but not until I start my rdwc, then I can justify it to my wife lol.
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I used the apera pH 20 for quite a while. No issues.
I upgraded to the pH60 a couple years ago. No real issues, but the new probe I bought last month doesn’t seem to stay accurate. I’m re calibrating almost every time I use it.
Probably time to spend hundreds of dollars on a blue lab.
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@CoyoteCody, How do you get your links to show up like that? all my links just show up as a blue link.
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You can get the apera pH 20 for 50 bucks on eBay or you can get ph 60 model for 75 both of them free shipping. If you buy the $20 pH probe. Verify in clean bottle of 7 solution before you use it every time. cheaper ones you’re going to be chasing the calibration every time you use it. Good luck
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I’ve used the aperia ph20 for last 2 grows, never had to recalibrate. Started this grow and it stopped working, spoke with there cus service and they replaced it no charge. Very happy with it and them! Paid 49.94 on amazon originally
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Honestly I have no idea, I just copy and paste it, sometimes it works sometimes its doesn’t, and sometimes they get edited by a moderator and then they work lmao. Sorry I wish i knew how to answer that.
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Same here sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, just wondering if I was doing something different each time.
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Hello - Maybe I am just lucky but my “cheap” PH and TDS meters work fine. I have tested them to be fairly accurate. I don’t know how long that they will operate for but that can be said for everything. I am a beginner and certainly a novice but I don’t believe that you need laboratory precision to grow good weed. Just common sense and patience.
So more or less the cheap ones work fine too. Just may need to recalibrate all the time. That’s no big deal to me. As long as I k ow to recalibrate it first so when I do use it it’s reading accurate. Thanks guys. You’ve been a great help. I wish I had the money to even spend 50$ but 20$ for both is cheap and doable. I’m not even using a tent. Just my garage and reflective material at the moment. I’m a broke mofo who has a great idea of what I’m doing just need more hands on experience. And money helps to buy the top notch stuff. Going cheap is hard. That’s why I’m trying to be more organic and stuff and gonna use FFOF so I dont even need to really worry until around flowering time.
If you are going to use FFOF you definitely need a good ph meter.
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