sgrosenb
Active Member
Hi folks,
Figured I'd give some feedback on the GHL KH Director. I've had it up and running for 6 months. It's been a bumpy road, but ultimately I'm very pleased and it is working to perfection. Here are a few noteworthy items I experienced on my journey to getting the KH director up, running, and ultimately working accurately.
First off, the software for setting up the KH Director is complicated. There's no way around it. It's a bit shaky in terms of reliability (sometimes the computer doesn't connect to the KH Director, or it takes multiple tries). If you're not tech savvy, and don't have a lot of patience, I would caution you in purchasing the KH Director. You need to set up the software, calibrate each doing head, measure the length of tubing, diameter, etc. All very doable, but a lot of steps. However, GHL was (somewhat) responsive and helpful when I called with questions.
I purchased a KH Director online, and apparently it was an older one that had been sitting on the shelf for a while. If you purchase a KH Director, I would strongly recommend confirming the build date, then confirm with GHL that it was built after they made improvements. There were some manufacturing flaws which caused a bunch of headache - ultimately they were solved, but it took time, frustration, and effort.
The older models had incorrect tubing for the reagent fluid - both internal tubing in the unit (which caused the tubing to get stuck and the unit would not work) and external tubing, which caused the reagent line to get air bubbles. GHL ultimately sent the correct tubing after a few weeks/months. If you have an older unit that has the incorrect tubing, you need to take apart the KH Director and replace the tubing. GHL has a good instruction packet to explain how to do this, but it's a pain.
Prior to replacing the internal tubing, the KH Director didn't work at all. The reagent line would pop off because the pressure of the incorrect tubing would case it to get stuck closed. After replacing the internal tubing, the KH Director worked, but the readings were very volatile (off by +/- 2.0 dKH when testing one right after another). This was due to air getting into the external reagent tubing. Due to the fact that these readings were so far off, I strongly recommend NOT using the auto-adjusting dosing feature based upon the dKH reading initially.
That said, once I replaced the external reagent tubing, the air bubbles went away and it is reading within +/- 0.1 dKH on any reading - very very precise IMO, and makes me more comfortable using the auto-adjusting dosing feature.
Another thing I had problems with was calibrating the pH electrode - my computer and smart phone both would not stay connected to the KH Director, so it forced me to plug my computer in directly, which caused my to have to unplug the KH Director, tubing, etc any time I wanted to adjust something. I was told this was a network error on my end, but even when I plugged it into the LAN it had this same problem. So I was forced to unplug the KH Director constantly when setting it up - very frustrating. Oddly enough, I have not had this problem recently and have been able to control the KH Director and calibrate the pH probe through wireless. So it could indeed be my network, but I would've hoped this wasn't a problem, I hope it doesn't happen again, and I don't have any problems with any other wireless units (Apex, Ecosmart Live, etc etc).
Last issue I had was one of the dosing heads was locking up and wouldn't move (This was a slave doser, so not the KH Director). I talked to GHL and they sent me a new set of caps for all the dosing heads. I replaced the cap and it worked (after having to buy a special tool from Home Depot for $12...).
All in all, once I got everything up and running and replaced numerous parts, I am extremely pleased with this unit. There was certainly some headache in setting it up, but once I got all the right parts, it is working like a charm. Like I said, consistently reading with +/- 0.1 dKH.
Hope this helps anyone that might be interested in buying the GHL KH Director.
Figured I'd give some feedback on the GHL KH Director. I've had it up and running for 6 months. It's been a bumpy road, but ultimately I'm very pleased and it is working to perfection. Here are a few noteworthy items I experienced on my journey to getting the KH director up, running, and ultimately working accurately.
First off, the software for setting up the KH Director is complicated. There's no way around it. It's a bit shaky in terms of reliability (sometimes the computer doesn't connect to the KH Director, or it takes multiple tries). If you're not tech savvy, and don't have a lot of patience, I would caution you in purchasing the KH Director. You need to set up the software, calibrate each doing head, measure the length of tubing, diameter, etc. All very doable, but a lot of steps. However, GHL was (somewhat) responsive and helpful when I called with questions.
I purchased a KH Director online, and apparently it was an older one that had been sitting on the shelf for a while. If you purchase a KH Director, I would strongly recommend confirming the build date, then confirm with GHL that it was built after they made improvements. There were some manufacturing flaws which caused a bunch of headache - ultimately they were solved, but it took time, frustration, and effort.
The older models had incorrect tubing for the reagent fluid - both internal tubing in the unit (which caused the tubing to get stuck and the unit would not work) and external tubing, which caused the reagent line to get air bubbles. GHL ultimately sent the correct tubing after a few weeks/months. If you have an older unit that has the incorrect tubing, you need to take apart the KH Director and replace the tubing. GHL has a good instruction packet to explain how to do this, but it's a pain.
Prior to replacing the internal tubing, the KH Director didn't work at all. The reagent line would pop off because the pressure of the incorrect tubing would case it to get stuck closed. After replacing the internal tubing, the KH Director worked, but the readings were very volatile (off by +/- 2.0 dKH when testing one right after another). This was due to air getting into the external reagent tubing. Due to the fact that these readings were so far off, I strongly recommend NOT using the auto-adjusting dosing feature based upon the dKH reading initially.
That said, once I replaced the external reagent tubing, the air bubbles went away and it is reading within +/- 0.1 dKH on any reading - very very precise IMO, and makes me more comfortable using the auto-adjusting dosing feature.
Another thing I had problems with was calibrating the pH electrode - my computer and smart phone both would not stay connected to the KH Director, so it forced me to plug my computer in directly, which caused my to have to unplug the KH Director, tubing, etc any time I wanted to adjust something. I was told this was a network error on my end, but even when I plugged it into the LAN it had this same problem. So I was forced to unplug the KH Director constantly when setting it up - very frustrating. Oddly enough, I have not had this problem recently and have been able to control the KH Director and calibrate the pH probe through wireless. So it could indeed be my network, but I would've hoped this wasn't a problem, I hope it doesn't happen again, and I don't have any problems with any other wireless units (Apex, Ecosmart Live, etc etc).
Last issue I had was one of the dosing heads was locking up and wouldn't move (This was a slave doser, so not the KH Director). I talked to GHL and they sent me a new set of caps for all the dosing heads. I replaced the cap and it worked (after having to buy a special tool from Home Depot for $12...).
All in all, once I got everything up and running and replaced numerous parts, I am extremely pleased with this unit. There was certainly some headache in setting it up, but once I got all the right parts, it is working like a charm. Like I said, consistently reading with +/- 0.1 dKH.
Hope this helps anyone that might be interested in buying the GHL KH Director.
