A Review of Hanna pH Meters

I recently tested three of Hanna’s pH Meters in my high school science lab. Hanna is a specialist and leader in pH technology for industry as well as education and I looked forwarded forward to trying these pH meters out.

pHep Pocket pH Tester

I really liked this pocket pH tester for use in EcoColumns. It is fairly inexpensive ($39.95) and has nice features. This pH meter comes with packets of buffer solutions for calibration and calibration was easy and electronic. This is an improvement on the cheap pH probes (different brand) I previously used that required a screwdriver to calibrate. They are also waterproof! A big plus with students who aren’t as careful as they should be. Would be a good probe for an Ocean Acidification Lab for Chemistry or Environmental Science. The tester can also be purchased on Amazon if your school has an Amazon account.

Calibration also held fairly well with five groups of students using the testers each lab day. I needed to calibrate after about 3-4 weeks of ecocolumn data which I have found to be a good length of time for holding calibration .

This pH meter also comes with temperature which means there is no need to purchase a separate temperature probe. It also has an automatic on/off feature (great for students who forget to turn them off) and uses small coin batteries.

Checker® pH Tester with 0.1 pH Resolution

The Checker pH tester ($29.95) is another inexpensive pH meter, but without the temperature add-on. I found that it did not hold calibration as well as the pHep and was not as easy to calibrate (but okay once I figured it out). Its is an option if you want to save a few bucks. It also has electronic calibration which is very nice compared to the screwdriver method with cheaper probes. It has automatic on/off, uses coin batteries and comes with calibration solutions.

HALO® Wireless Field pH Meter

This HALO Wireless Field pH meter is much more precise than the first two. But, it comes with a higher price tab ($165) too. Its a high quality pH meter that would be helpful in chemistry classes that need a more precise pH meter for titration or other labs. The meter also measures temperature and adjusts pH for temperature.

This pH meter does not have a digital display, but instead links to an app on a phone, computer or tablet. The free app is easy to use and connects seamlessly with Bluetooth.

This pH meter is much more versatile with the ability for a 5 buffer calibration (but you don’t need that many for regular high school lab work). The app can graph, do calculations and share data– it is a powerful tool lab tool.

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