Palintest AS 101 Hardness Yes/No Tablets

In my photo, I have tested 2 known samples. One hard (red) and one softened (green) so the tablets work fine. However, the instructions tell you to dissolve 2 tablets in a 50ml container (none supplied). This is nonsense. I dissolved a single tablet in each of my tests in a 10ml sample. This is perfectly adequate. No need to waste tablets!

Easy to us, fairly clear instructions but make sure you use the correctly measured quantity of water. I have a clear 100ml bottle marked at 10, 25, 40 and 50ml to give me <20mg/l, ,15mg/l, 8mg/l and 4mg/l indication with one tablet if I fill it slowly. Easy Green to red colour change. My water softener is 14 years old and it`s capacity has reduced by half, with these tablets it was easy to find the right time to regenerate.

I use this to check my water softener is working properly. Easy to use and seems quite accurate b

My previous Palintest tabs indicated soft (blue) with just ONE tablet in 50ml. I find these require FOUR for a comparable (green) result. This equates to 52 pence per 50ml test of softened water and an exorbitant £5 PER TEST of the hard water here. I will reduce the soft water sample to 25ml to use two tabs (I doubt one will do) and halve the cost but, at this "strength", these are poor value at this price.

We've had water softeners for years and I like to check they are working properly now and again, although the first sign is usually apparent in the shower when the soap is not working well! Anyway this method works much better than the sticks because the colour change is so obvious; red to green is much clearer than murky brown to a muddy green. As a result of my initial tests with these tablets I tweaked the water softener to a harder water setting and now the test comes up green.

Value for money

None

Ease of use