Planned Obsolescence

[reefsaver]

Okay so Hanna's Digital Salinity Meter requires calibration right? Could Hanna produce a Checker that did not require the purchase of calibration solutions?
For example if a Salt Mix Pack says "Mix 1g of salt to 1 liter of water for 35ppt" Bearing in mind Hanna Calibration solution is 35ppt, you should be able to calibrate any digital salinity meter by accurately measuring 1-gram SaltMix and 1-Litre RO-DI making your own calibration solution. I'm also wondering if you could actually do this instead of buying calibration solutions. Do I have a point? Or is Hanna going to come to my house and murder me for telling everyone this?

 

[davidcalgary29]

Okay so Hanna's Digital Salinity Meter requires calibration right? Could Hanna produce a Checker that did not require the purchase of calibration solutions?
For example if a Salt Mix Pack says "Mix 1g of salt to 1 liter of water for 35ppt" Bearing in mind Hanna Calibration solution is 35ppt, you should be able to calibrate any digital salinity meter by accurately measuring 1-gram SaltMix and 1-Litre RO-DI making your own calibration solution. I'm also wondering if you could actually do this instead of buying calibration solutions. Do I have a point? Or is Hanna going to come to my house and murder me for telling everyone this?

If you look on the Reef Chemistry sub-forum, you'll see a simple formula that will allow you to make your own calibration solution...so no, I think you're safe for now.

 

[Biglew11]

Everything we use to measure our tanks parameters should be calibrated from time to time.

Here's an article from Randy Holmes Farley for a diy calibration soltion. To make your own solution requires an accurate measurement of weights.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/rhf/index.htm

 

[wtac]

Stick with all weight/mass measurements...35g table salt to 965g RODI

 

[nim6us]

Yeah I don’t know that I’d call this planned obsolescence. Hanna is a company that makes scientific equipment and in that sphere you always calibrate your equipment each time before you test to ensure your results.

But thumbs up for hacks on cheaper reference solution.

 

[reefsaver]

Everything we use to measure our tanks parameters should be calibrated from time to time.

Here's an article from Randy Holmes Farley for a diy calibration soltion. To make your own solution requires an accurate measurement of weights.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/rhf/index.htm

This is fantastic, I really appreciate this. Salinity to me seems like such a simple parameter to measure out the gravity for and I really couldn't figure out before this, what Hanna could possibly add to the calibration solutions other than perfect salinity solutions of 35ppt.

 

[reefsaver]

Yeah I don’t know that I’d call this planned obsolescence. Hanna is a company that makes scientific equipment and in that sphere you always calibrate your equipment each time before you test to ensure your results.

But thumbs up for hacks on cheaper reference solution.

Yeah I suppose it's not really planned obsolescence because they don't really fail by a certain point.
Although it would be nice if Hanna gave us a guide on making our own calibration solutions. Or even told us that was a thing. I expected I would have to buy a 20 pack of calibration solutions just to store for peace of mind but after learning you can make your own solutions from this thread, I would now look at the solutions as a lazy purchase to be 100% sure of salinity without worry of minor inaccuracies. I still have 3 Salinity packs left from purchase and I think I'm going to follow the directions on this thread http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/rhf/index.htm and just write out what brands of salt I used, what weight in milligrams of salt was used to achieve 35ppt then I'll test the calibration solution to see how dead accurate I am, and I should have a broad little calibration solution recipe I can whip up whenever needed.