When it comes to keeping hot tub or pool water balanced, there are plenty of options out there. But after trying different methods—including the test strips provided with my hot tub and various brand-name strips like HTH from Lowe’s—I’ve officially moved away from test strips altogether.
While test strips seem easy on paper, they just don’t give me the clarity or confidence I want when checking my water parameters.
The Problem with Test Strips
The biggest issue I run into with test strips is reading the results.
Hard-to-Read Colors: Half the time, the pads on the strip bleed, turn a patchy shade, or land somewhere awkwardly between two colors on the bottle chart.
Guesswork: Trying to hold a tiny wet strip next to a plastic container in natural light and figure out if your pH is 7.2 or 7.8 can feel like a total guessing game.
Inaccurate Dosing: If you can’t gauge where your pH, alkalinity, or chlorine levels actually are, it’s much harder to calculate the exact amount of chemicals you need to add.
Why I Prefer the HTH 6-Way Liquid Test Kit
Instead of strips, I use the HTH 6-Way Liquid Test Kit ($19.98 at Lowe’s). It uses liquid reagents and liquid drops instead of paper pads, and the results are night-and-day clearer. HTH 6-way test kit online (convenient by cost more)
How It Works:
Testing pH & Chlorine: You scoop water into the small acrylic test block (often called a comparator block or comparator cell). Add 5 drops of your pH indicator solution on one side, 5 drops for chlorine on the other, give it a quick mix, and you’re set.
Easy Color Matching: Holding the plastic comparator block up to natural light makes reading the color super crisp. There’s no guessing whether your water is yellow, orange, or hot pink—it stands out instantly against the built-in color scale.
Testing Alkalinity (Drop-by-Drop Titration): For alkalinity, you fill the small cylindrical vial (or test tube). You add your initial 5 drops of reagent, which equals 50 ppm base alkalinity. If it hasn’t turned pink, you simply add reagent drop-by-drop—counting each drop as 10 ppm—until the color shifts.
It takes maybe two minutes total, you hold it up to the light, call it a day, and know exactly where your levels sit.
Avoiding Overpriced Pool Store Traps
You could take a sample bottle down to a local pool supply store for free water testing, but that often comes with a catch: the sales pitch.
Pool stores love to hand you a list of specialized, marked-up chemicals in branded buckets. The reality? A lot of those expensive products are just basic household or hardware store staples in fancy packaging.
Alkalinity Increaser is often just pure baking soda.
pH Down or pH Up can easily be replaced by muriatic acid or borax/baking soda bought in bulk at Lowe’s or Walmart for a fraction of the cost.
By using a reliable drop test kit at home, you get exact numbers without feeling pressured to buy $30 buckets of relabeled baking soda. You can stick to budget-friendly essentials like liquid chlorine, muriatic acid, and borax, and handle your water balance on your own terms.
Helpful Product Links
HTH 6-Way Test Kit: Available at Lowe’s and major retailer pool sections.
Liquid Chlorine & Muriatic Acid: Found in the pool care or outdoor section at Lowe’s / Walmart.
Arm & Hammer Baking Soda / 20 Mule Team Borax: Available in the laundry/cleaning aisle at Walmart or grocery stores.
Transforming My Hot Tub: The DIY Borate Conversion Guide