Kyl
And how does it feel like, to wake up in the sun
Everyone is going to place different values to each unit. While I have not purchased my choice yet, I'll go through the methodology that lead to my decision as I have finalised it (just tying up some other loose ends before ordering). Keep in mind I am not in the US (Canada), so pricing is higher over-all, and with some things much higher right now.
Cost is a factor, but I am ignoring up-front costs as this hobby isn't one of short term buys. Total cost of ownership after a year plus is my baseline, and all the units, sans the KHG are close enough in overall cost after purchase / operation for said year to me that it's a wash. With that out of the way, I then looked at how they operate. I am after testing dKH for daily monitoring, and initially want to test it about 8x a day while I get things dialled in, rolling that back to 2x a day once it is. That excludes one solution right off the bat, leaving three.
Next was testing methodology, the remaining three all use PH based testing with an acid based reagent, and all should have similar reagent costs within a few cents. Test sample volumes don’t affect my choice as my tanks are on AWC, and can simply reduce the amount per day removed by awc to compensate for the amount removed from alk testing. Or apparently the reagent / sample mixture can be returned to the tank, if indeed it is simply an acid the only impact should be a ph / alkalinity drop in that ~50-100ml of water. That’s a specific use case decision, as I have noted, these testers are a full of specific use case reasoning.
Then it comes to company. I am not willing to entertain the KHG simply because the sole point of support for me, North of the border would be the distributor. Perhaps there would be no issue, but history has taught me otherwise with ‘niche’ hardware releases handled by a second party and having the border involved, should something go south. It ultimately came down to the KHD or Alkatronic. Build quality seems similar, at least to the point it was not the deciding factor. Maintenance costs will both include the PH probe at some point, and since the KH D relies on a 2.1 doser, it seems parts are a bit more readily available should I require servicing a pump or the head cap. They both have a good release history that has had issues but all current owners I've talked to are happy with their purchase, most stating every issue brought up has been addressed be it hardware or software.
So with both remaining options quite similar and given I am changing ecosystems it made sense to go with the KH Director. If I was remaining with the controller ecosystem I have now, the decision would have been Alkatronic since it can report via BNC back to an Apex using a “dKH” PH tile.
I think that's as neutral as you can get from someone that is still on the dKH monitoring side-lines, has rather extensively examined all the major market options at this point in time and is excluding all other company factors other than the product in question, except for the KHG (border, distributor).
Look forward to reading more decisions that people have taken.
Cost is a factor, but I am ignoring up-front costs as this hobby isn't one of short term buys. Total cost of ownership after a year plus is my baseline, and all the units, sans the KHG are close enough in overall cost after purchase / operation for said year to me that it's a wash. With that out of the way, I then looked at how they operate. I am after testing dKH for daily monitoring, and initially want to test it about 8x a day while I get things dialled in, rolling that back to 2x a day once it is. That excludes one solution right off the bat, leaving three.
Next was testing methodology, the remaining three all use PH based testing with an acid based reagent, and all should have similar reagent costs within a few cents. Test sample volumes don’t affect my choice as my tanks are on AWC, and can simply reduce the amount per day removed by awc to compensate for the amount removed from alk testing. Or apparently the reagent / sample mixture can be returned to the tank, if indeed it is simply an acid the only impact should be a ph / alkalinity drop in that ~50-100ml of water. That’s a specific use case decision, as I have noted, these testers are a full of specific use case reasoning.
Then it comes to company. I am not willing to entertain the KHG simply because the sole point of support for me, North of the border would be the distributor. Perhaps there would be no issue, but history has taught me otherwise with ‘niche’ hardware releases handled by a second party and having the border involved, should something go south. It ultimately came down to the KHD or Alkatronic. Build quality seems similar, at least to the point it was not the deciding factor. Maintenance costs will both include the PH probe at some point, and since the KH D relies on a 2.1 doser, it seems parts are a bit more readily available should I require servicing a pump or the head cap. They both have a good release history that has had issues but all current owners I've talked to are happy with their purchase, most stating every issue brought up has been addressed be it hardware or software.
So with both remaining options quite similar and given I am changing ecosystems it made sense to go with the KH Director. If I was remaining with the controller ecosystem I have now, the decision would have been Alkatronic since it can report via BNC back to an Apex using a “dKH” PH tile.
I think that's as neutral as you can get from someone that is still on the dKH monitoring side-lines, has rather extensively examined all the major market options at this point in time and is excluding all other company factors other than the product in question, except for the KHG (border, distributor).
Look forward to reading more decisions that people have taken.
). I will say this first though, mostly everyone will say that the unit that they are currently using is the best unit available. If you had to ask me, I put them in this order:
