Pool Check Borate Test Strips for Pools & Spas – 50 Count | Made in USA | Professional-Grade Accuracy Used by Pool Pros

great item

I never had much faith in the reading from the pool supply places so I got their tester and their family of test strips. 'The pool looks good and I have confidence in their reading so I'm satisfied . PS - while not common practice, using boric acid as an additional buffer, along with CYA, helps keep the chlorine and acid in balance better. If you are not using it, I suggest you read up and see if it's right for your pool. Thanks

Absolutely crap!! I tested my water before adding anything. Strips showed almost zero. Added 16lbs of borax to bring it up. Tested again and strips STILL show next to zero. You can see the photo. Left strip was yesterday before I added borax, right strip was this morning after having all night to mix 16lbs of borax into the water. I do NOT recommend these test strips.

I added boric acid (“borate”) to my pool water for the first time last summer and bought these test strips to make sure I kept them at 50ppm. They are super easy to use and good value for the money, but color matching can get a little difficult. I wish it had more borate numbers to test for. Jumping from 25 to 50 to 100 is a lot — they should include lower values, also. The Taylor brand ones are more expensive and a more “well known” brand in the Pool World, but these are a lot more accurate and cheaper. My Taylor ones stayed the same exact pink color the entire season, so who knows what my borate levels actually were. The strips were not old, either. I highly recommend these ones whether you are new to adding borate to your pool or not. Ideal levels for borate in swimming pools is 30ppm to 50ppm. This keeps the water safe for kids and pets and makes it super sparkly and gives it a “soft feel.”

I have used a number of the Industrial Test Systems' products and have found them to be quite accurate. While I am not a big fan of comparing any strips to a color chart, I believe this is close enough to insure I have about + or - the right amount for the borate to do its job of buffering the pool chemistry. The gradient around the correct amount (50ppm) ranges from 25, then 50, then 100ppm. The color differential from 25 to 50 is quite pronounced but from 50 to a 100 is just a slight, to me, change. I've went to 25, then added a couple of pounds, then checked it the next day, added a few more, checked it the next day, etc. until I got to 50ppm and held off adding any more at that point.

Strips are generally not this best option for pool water testing. These strips work but difficult to determine color differences one to the next are very subtle. Strips tell you that borates are in the pool and ballpark is probably all you need.

These are probably fine for what I need. But I'm ticked off because it's July 22nd, 2025 and this bottle of 50 tests expires on September 30, 2025. I can practically test daily before they expire. I was planning to test about once a quarter...

This was a very valuable tool 8n keeping my saltwater pool clean and sparkling all season long. Fast...Easy to use and accurate. I tested it against a reagent test and the results were the same.