ArnaudForestier,
I've had many <$50 meters over time. They always broke, and gave wildly inaccurate readings. But to be fair, those meters were never meant to provide the kind of accuracy, across the demanding usage schedule that I needed. They were fragile, and I went through about 4 of those.
The ExTech PH110 meter was my first >$100 pH meter. I had some initial problems that were solved by tech support. Those were documented somewhere in this forum. But after those were cleared up, my pH meter worked fine. This meter does require more work and I had to get used to that. I had to learn to store it every time with the tip in a storage solution. I had to learn to how it sample with it.
What works for me is this.
> Tip not resting on the very bottom of the beaker.
> Sample and pH meter kept still.
> Sample and pH meter allowed to stand for about 1 min.
The bottom line for me is that the Extech PH110 is still a mid-priced pH meter, that, in my opinion, is not really designed for this level of work. In the grand scheme of things, this meter is designed to tell us how acidic a stain in a carpet might be, or the soil in our backyard, or one's pool in the backyard.
[Warning - incoming philosophical rant]
In my humble opinion, we as cheese makers (and wine makers) are asking a heck of a lot from our meters. We all need good pH meters, but we don't want to pony up the cost of a good meter. (well, I don't at least).
So we are all left using slightly underdesigned meters in a demanding environment that leaves darn little margin for error.
[/rant]
In this light, my ExTech gives me consistant readings, that over time, I have learned to trust it. It works worlds better than any meter that I have ever used. Key to my acceptance of this meter is
trust. That did not come easy. Truth be told, there were times when I doubted the accuracy of my PH110. But what I did to trust my pH meter readings was immediately check the meter readings against the closest buffer solution. In all cases (so far) when checked, my pH meter would correctly read that buffer solution at 4.01, or 7.01.
So, to me, its all comes down to trusting your equipment.
I try and buy the cheapest equipment possible that I find trustworthy. So far, I still trust my pH meter. But the moment I cannot trust my meter, it becomes useless to me.
I hope this helps a bit.
