Are Hanna Checkers more cost effective long term vs Manual Test Kits

[JBslick81]

I was wondering people's thoughts on Hanna Checkers. Are they more economical to use or is it cheaper to do manual tests.

I know the Hanna Checkers are more accurate but is there a drastic cost difference between the two?

I just bought my first Hanna Checker for Phosphate and was surprised to see only 6 reagent packs. I'm not sure how many packets you get for $12 on BRS.

Any thoughts?

 

[Frop]

If it saves livestock it's worth it. Tank crash or coral loss is more expensive than test kits.

 

[pa1ntbru5h]

I've used Hanna kits exclusively for about a year. If you're testing a lot to dial things in like dosing, you're going to be blowing through the reagents. I've now just switched to salifert because it was getting too costly. And honesty I can run the salifert alk test faster than doing the Hanna test.
But I still continue to use Hanna for calcium and phosphates. Also it's nice to have different test kits to compare.

 

[Elysium]

BRStv did an Investigates video comparing the Salifert, Red Sea, and Hanna for costs per test using the reagent refills (if available).

Link

I use Red Sea for my usual testing of Alk, Ca, Mg. But I do have an Alk Hanna that I will periodically use as a spot check to make sure my current reagent is still good and when I open a new batch.

 

[Sabellafella]

I was wondering people's thoughts on Hanna Checkers. Are they more economical to use or is it cheaper to do manual tests.

I know the Hanna Checkers are more accurate but is there a drastic cost difference between the two?

I just bought my first Hanna Checker for Phosphate and was surprised to see only 6 reagent packs. I'm not sure how many packets you get for $12 on BRS.

Any thoughts?

25 test for all. But all the reagents cost around 8- 12 bucks. Salifert cost 20 a test kit, will fetch around 50-70 tests. So in reality, hannah checker reagents fall almost in the same price range as others test kits.

 

[Playa-1]

Hanna is more expensive in the long run. But it might be nice for consistency purposes.

 

[Chris86]

I guess that depends on how much money your time is worth.

 

[Playa-1]

Also not necessarily more accurate or time saving in some cases. I think the ALK checker makes more sense then some of the others. It does take the human eye and color charts out of the equation, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

 

[JBslick81]

Thanks for all the replies. I think I will use Red Sea for adjustments and Hanna for monitoring.

 

[Bigfishy1]

To me getting a number back instead of having to guess what color my sample matches is worth the cost.

 

[DixieReefer]

When it comes to testing, my brand loyalty goes out the window. I have hanna, red sea, api, salifert, and elos. We all seem to have a bad habit as Mike Paletta once said, to only retest when we get numbers we don't like. So I like to mix it up, and not get stuck with a particular brand. All have their pros and cons, but when it comes down to it, I can't limit the health of my reef for price point of a test.

 

[Mindi]

There is a difference between accuracy and precision... i dream of finding a comparison of these kits/eggs to a known standard to know how accurate they are. Having said that I figure Hanna are good...I have ULR Phosphorus, Alkalinity, and Calcium...all others I use Salifert. I quite often do a Salifert and Hanna Calcium on the same sample and the Salifert always comes out approx 20ppm higher. No idea which is accurate and have stopped worrying. Hanna eggs are great IMHO, but all they do is a more accurate colour change measurement than you can do. I have their standard 400ppm Calcium solution and my egg always says it is 404-405 so I reckon that is pretty good. The reagents are expensive here.. a bottle of Alkalinity fluid is about $16. A pack of 25 ULR Phos. powders is about $25....Calcium similar cost.

 

[Sabellafella]

There is a difference between accuracy and precision... i dream of finding a comparison of these kits/eggs to a known standard to know how accurate they are. Having said that I figure Hanna are good...I have ULR Phosphorus, Alkalinity, and Calcium...all others I use Salifert. I quite often do a Salifert and Hanna Calcium on the same sample and the Salifert always comes out approx 20ppm higher. No idea which is accurate and have stopped worrying. Hanna eggs are great IMHO, but all they do is a more accurate colour change measurement than you can do. I have their standard 400ppm Calcium solution and my egg always says it is 404-405 so I reckon that is pretty good. The reagents are expensive here.. a bottle of Alkalinity fluid is about $16. A pack of 25 ULR Phos. powders is about $25....Calcium similar cost.

I use 2 hannah checkers for alk, always 1 to 3 ppm off from eachother. But theres a ° of accuracy with all test kits, think for alk its +/-5 ppm. But thats something a standard test kit cant even test without their own degree of accuracy. So to me its wonderfull. Gad these checkers for 3 years now, havnt fell out of calibration or anything yet. Hach makes standards, pretty cheap but youll have to fix it up yourself. 16 dollars is about double of what the alk cost. Have you checked everyone online by you?