Taylor K-2005

The K-2005 is Taylor's color-match test kit for pools and spas, and its product page calls it Taylor's best-selling kit. It runs the same tests as the K-2006C except one: chlorine is read by matching a DPD color rather than counting drops, and it adds a bromine test. Taylor sells it in two sizes. The K-2005 has .75 oz reagent bottles and lists at $114.47 on Taylor's store. The K-2005C Service Complete has 2 oz bottles and lists at $205.22.

What it tests

From Taylor's product page and its instruction card, number 5165:

• Free and total chlorine: DPD, matched against standards of 1, 2, 3, 5, 7.5 and 10 ppm. Combined chlorine is total minus free.
• Total bromine: DPD, against 2, 4, 6, 10, 15 and 20 ppm, in a second column of the same color blocks.
• pH: phenol red, matched from 7.0 to 8.0 in steps of 0.2, with acid demand and base demand tests that count drops toward the pH you want.
• Total alkalinity: titration, 1 drop = 10 ppm with a 25 mL sample, or 25 ppm with 10 mL when high alkalinity is expected.
• Calcium hardness: EDTA titration, 1 drop = 10 ppm, or 25 ppm with a 10 mL sample.
• Cyanuric acid: a turbidity test that reads 30 to 100 ppm.

Taylor's photograph of the K-2005 shows fourteen .75 oz dropper bottles: R-0001 through R-0012, R-0011L among them, and two of the cyanuric acid reagent R-0013. With them come the comparator, a calibrated bottle for the CYA test and Taylor's Watergram water balance wheel. The K-2005C photograph shows fifteen 2 oz bottles, with a third R-0013, and a dropper.

The chlorine and bromine tests, step by step

From Taylor's card:

1. Take the sample 18 inches below the surface. Rinse the tube, then fill the small tube to the 9 mL mark.
2. Add 5 drops of R-0001 and 5 drops of R-0002. Cap and turn it over to mix.
3. Match the color. For a chlorine pool, read the Cl column: that's your free chlorine. For a bromine pool, read the Br column: that's your total bromine, and you're done.
4. For total chlorine, add 5 drops of R-0003 to the same sample, cap and mix.
5. Match the color immediately. That's your total chlorine.
6. Subtract free from total. That's your combined chlorine.

Taylor's FAQ gives the reason to be quick: DPD darkens within seconds as it reacts with the air, so take readings right away unless an instruction says otherwise. Match colors in natural daylight, with the comparator at eye level and your back to the sun, and not through sunglasses. The card adds: facing north.

Where the chlorine scale stops

Taylor's card gives the DPD chlorine test a range of 0 to 10 ppm, and the top color block is 10. Above 10 ppm, Taylor says, the sample can bleach out partly or completely and read falsely low. That's the reading to distrust after a shock, when a pale pink can mean too much chlorine rather than too little.

The card's answer for a color off the scale is to dilute:

• Repeat the test with 4.5 mL of sample, made up to the 9 mL mark with tap water, and multiply by 2.
• If it's still off the scale, use 1.8 mL made up to 9 mL, and multiply by 5.

Taylor calls both results approximate. The FAS-DPD test in the K-2006 kits reads 0 to 20 ppm by counting drops, with no dilution. Shocking a pool to 40% of its cyanuric acid level means targets above 10 ppm once CYA passes 25. That's the range where the K-2005 is diluting and approximating.

How fine the readings are

Taylor gives the accuracy of a color-match test as half the gap between two color standards. On this comparator that works out to:

• Between 1 and 3 ppm: 0.5 ppm either way.
• Between 3 and 5 ppm: 1 ppm either way.
• Between 5 and 10 ppm: 1.25 ppm either way.
• Below 1 ppm: there's no lower standard to match against.

That matters most for combined chlorine, which is the gap between two such readings. The water quality guidelines Taylor reproduces in its FAQ, from the Pool & Hot Tub Alliance, put the maximum combined chlorine at 0.2 ppm for pools and 0.5 ppm for spas. With 1 ppm as the smallest step on the scale, the K-2005 can't show whether a pool is under that line. The K-2006's drop test reads combined chlorine directly, in 0.2 ppm steps with a 25 mL sample.

pH is matched the same way, in steps of 0.2. Alkalinity and hardness are drop tests on both kits, accurate to plus or minus one drop.

K-2005 or K-2005C

Both run the same tests. Taylor's FAQ gives the test counts for each size:

• Free chlorine, combined chlorine and pH: 110 each in the K-2005, 300 in the K-2005C.
• Total alkalinity, at 100 ppm: 52, or 150.
• Calcium hardness, at 200 ppm: 26, or 75.
• Cyanuric acid: 8, or 20.

Taylor gives no count for bromine. The bromine test uses the same R-0001 and R-0002 as free chlorine, 5 drops of each, so the two share the same bottles. As arithmetic from Taylor's figures, a .75 oz (22 mL) bottle at 25 drops per mL holds about 550 drops, which at 5 drops a test is Taylor's 110.

At Taylor's list prices, the 2 oz kit costs $205.22 against $114.47 for nearly three times the chlorine, pH and alkalinity tests.

The kits it gets mixed up with

• K-2006 and K-2006C: Taylor's FAQ says the only difference is the chlorine test. The K-2006 counts drops of FAS-DPD reagent for free and combined chlorine, reads to 20 ppm, and has no bromine test. It lists at $142.71, or $250.20 for the 2 oz K-2006C. The K-2006C page has its full procedure.
• K-2005-SALT and K-2005C-SALT: the K-2005 with a salt titration added, at 200 ppm a drop. Taylor lists them at $180.89 and $417.06.
• K-1005: Taylor's 9-way DPD kit, with the same nine tests at $69.38. Its color standards are different: chlorine at 0.5, 1, 2, 3 and 5 ppm, bromine at 1, 2, 4, 6 and 10, and pH at 6.8, 7.2, 7.5, 7.8 and 8.2. It reads lower but stops sooner, and its pH scale is wider but in coarser steps than the K-2005's.

Readings that look wrong

• Chlorine reads low, or oddly pale, after a shock. Above 10 ppm the DPD sample can bleach. Dilute and retest, as above.
• The chlorine sample is cloudy. Taylor puts it down to calcium hardness above 500 ppm. Add the R-0001 and R-0002 to the tube first, then the sample.
• Free chlorine reads wrong. Leftover R-0003 in the tube from an earlier total chlorine test will throw it off. Rinse the tubes before and after every test.
• Combined chlorine reads high after a non-chlorine shock. Monopersulfate reacts with R-0003. Taylor's K-2041 removes the interference for kits with .75 oz reagents, and K-2042 for 2 oz.
• Alkalinity reads high. Taylor says cyanuric acid above 30 ppm titrates as alkalinity. Subtract one third of your CYA reading from the alkalinity result.
• The pH test turns blue or purple, or alkalinity goes blue then yellow. Chlorine above about 10 ppm. Add one drop of R-0007 to the pH sample first, or one extra drop to the alkalinity test.
• The hardness endpoint is purple. Metals, most likely copper or iron. Add five or six drops of R-0012 before the buffer and indicator, and count them.

Keeping the reagents good

Taylor's storage rules: keep reagents between 36°F and 85°F, out of direct sunlight, away from pool treatment chemicals, with the caps screwed back on tightly.

Taylor's card says to replace reagents once each year, and every bottle carries a best-by date and lot number. At Taylor's list prices on 13 September 2026, replacing every reagent bottle in the K-2005 comes to $85.09, against $114.47 for a new kit. For the K-2005C, it comes to $154.03, against $205.22.

Use Taylor reagents only. Taylor says its comparator color standards are made for its own reagent concentrations, and even its two phenol red solutions aren't interchangeable: R-0004 is for 2000 Series comparators like this one, and R-0014 for Residential comparators.

Taylor recommends replacing the comparator every two to three years.

Where Taylor's documents disagree, or are unclear

• Ideal bromine. The instruction card gives total bromine as 2 to 3 ppm for residential pools and 2 to 4 for residential spas. The Pool & Hot Tub Alliance table in Taylor's FAQ gives 4 to 6 ppm as ideal for all types.
• Ideal chlorine in a spa. The card gives free chlorine as 2 to 4 ppm for pools or spas. The FAQ's table gives 3 to 5 for spas.
• The bottom of the range. The card says the DPD chlorine test reads from 0 ppm. The case label says 1 to 10 ppm, and the lowest color block is 1.
• How often to replace reagents. The card says once each year. The FAQ says seasonally, and to replace any reagent past its best-by date.
• The comparator's number. Taylor's product page doesn't name the comparator. This page gives 9056 because its standards match the one in Taylor's photographs of both kits.

Buying it

Taylor's site publishes no warranty for its test kits. Its return policy covers orders from Taylor's own store: returns within 30 days, unused and resalable, with an RMA number, and a 20% restocking fee unless Taylor shipped the wrong item.

Taylor's FAQ gives its support line as 877-837-8548, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern, Monday to Friday. Have the kit number, which starts with K- and is on the case label, and the reagent names and lot codes ready.

If you're choosing between this and the K-2006, the test kit roundup explains why the drop-count chlorine test is the one it picks.