The test kit is the cheapest thing on this entire site and it changes more outcomes than any piece of equipment you can buy.
I have watched people spend $80 clearing an algae bloom that a drop kit would have caught two weeks earlier. I have watched people shock a perfectly fine pool because a strip that lived in a hot shed for two summers read low.
Key takeaways
- FAS-DPD counts drops instead of matching colors. Counting is objective; color matching in changing daylight is not.
- Any kit without a cyanuric acid test is missing the number that sets your entire chlorine target.
- Taylor says to replace reagents once a year and store them between 36°F and 85°F. Keep the kit indoors, not in the pool shed.
- A digital photometer removes color judgment but is still reagent-dependent and still needs calibration.
- One avoided algae bloom can pay for a good kit.
My picks at a glance
- 1
Taylor K-2006C
Best overall · anyone who wants numbers they can act on
- 2
LaMotte ColorQ 2X Pro 7
Best digital · anyone who struggles with color matching
- 3
AquaChek Select Connect
Fine for a quick check · a fast pH glance between proper tests
Beyond these three, the test kit pages also cover Taylor's color-matching K-2005.
Why drop kits beat everything else
A color-match test asks you to compare a shade of pink against printed blocks. In changing daylight. Possibly with a degree of color vision deficiency you have never been tested for. And above 10 ppm, Taylor says, a DPD color sample can bleach out and read falsely low.
A FAS-DPD test asks you to count drops until pink turns clear. Counting is objective. It does not care about the light or your eyes, and Taylor's kit reads anywhere from 0 to 20 ppm, so it works as well at 15 ppm during a shock as at 3 ppm on a Tuesday.
That is the whole argument, and it is why every professional I know owns one. A photometer such as the LaMotte ColorQ 2x PRO 7 takes the color judgment away too, but its chlorine test stops at 10 ppm, and above that you dilute the sample and double the result.
The picks
Taylor K-2006C
Best for anyone who wants numbers they can act on
The kit most pool professionals actually carry. Drop-count titration for free and combined chlorine, plus pH, acid and base demand, total alkalinity, calcium hardness and cyanuric acid. The C version ships with 2 oz reagent bottles rather than .75 oz, which by Taylor's counts for the same two sizes of its K-2005 means 300 pH tests against 110, and 20 cyanuric acid tests against 8.
Strengths
- Free chlorine in 0.2 ppm steps by titration, not color matching
- Reads chlorine up to 20 ppm, where Taylor's color-match DPD test stops at 10
- Includes a proper cyanuric acid turbidity test
- Reagents sold individually, so refills are cheap
Trade-offs
- Takes a couple of minutes longer than dipping a strip
- Taylor says to replace the reagents every year
- Looks intimidating out of the box, though it is not
LaMotte ColorQ 2X Pro 7
Best for anyone who struggles with color matching
A waterproof photometer that reads the reagent color for you and gives a number on a screen, covering seven parameters. That genuinely matters if you have any degree of color vision deficiency or you are usually testing in poor light. It removes the judgment call, not the chemistry.
Strengths
- No color judgment required — the meter reads it
- NSF certifies its combined chlorine test at L1, the top level
- Seven parameters from one unit, waterproof housing
Trade-offs
- About $110 more than the Taylor kit at the same retailer
- Still reagent-dependent, and reagents still expire
- Chlorine reads only to 10 ppm; above that you dilute and double
AquaChek Select Connect
Best for a fast pH glance between proper tests
Perfectly good at what it actually is: a fifteen-second sanity check, once sold as the AquaChek Select. One strip runs seven tests on six pads — total hardness, total chlorine or bromine, free chlorine, pH, alkalinity and cyanuric acid — and AquaChek's app can read it by photo. Just do not make a dosing decision on the chlorine or CYA readings: you estimate between color blocks, and moisture spoils the strips if the cap is left off.
Strengths
- Fast, cheap and requires nothing but the strip
- Genuinely useful for a midweek pH spot check
- Seven tests on one strip, including CYA
Trade-offs
- Chlorine pads stop at 10 ppm, and you estimate between color blocks
- The CYA pad needs pH 7.0 to 8.4 and alkalinity at or below 240 ppm
- Reads total hardness, not calcium hardness
How we scored these
Test kits are the one category where the specification genuinely tells you most of what you need — the method a kit uses determines its precision, and that is published. Here is the weighting.
| WeightMy default | Why | |
|---|---|---|
| Measurement method | High | Titration, photometry and color pads have genuinely different precision. This is physics, not preference. |
| Does it test CYA | High | Cyanuric acid sets your chlorine target. A kit without it cannot tell you if your chlorine is adequate. |
| Useful range | High | A kit that saturates at 5 ppm is no use during the shock when you most need a reading. |
| Reagent cost and availability | Medium | Individually sold refills let you replace reagents every year without buying a whole new kit. |
| Ease of use | Medium | A kit nobody wants to use gets used once a month, which defeats the purpose. |
What a kit has to be able to do
A kit that cannot measure all of these leaves you guessing on something that matters:
| Test | Why it has to be there |
|---|---|
| Free chlorine | The only sanitizer number that matters day to day |
| Combined chlorine | Above 0.5 ppm means shock. FAS-DPD measures it directly; color kits derive it from total minus free |
| pH | Drives chlorine effectiveness and swimmer comfort |
| Total alkalinity | The buffer holding pH still |
| Calcium hardness | Protects plaster, grout and heat exchangers |
| Cyanuric acid | Sets your entire free chlorine target |
That last row is the one people skip, and it is the most consequential. A kit without a CYA test cannot tell you whether your chlorine reading is adequate, because "adequate" is defined by CYA. It is like being handed a speed with no speed limit.
The model numbers that look alike
Taylor's naming trips people up, and buying the wrong one is easy.
K-2006 and K-2006C run the same tests. The C denotes larger reagent bottles — two ounces rather than three-quarters of an ounce. Taylor's counts for the same two sizes of its K-2005, which it says differs only in the chlorine test, put that at 300 pH tests instead of 110, 150 alkalinity tests instead of 52, and 20 cyanuric acid tests instead of 8. At Poolweb in September 2026 the C was $149.23 and the K-2006 $93.63, so the C is the better buy for anyone testing through a whole season. The K-2006C's page has the full procedure and every reagent number.
K-2005 is the color-matching version. It looks nearly identical on a shelf and it is not the same kit: Taylor says the only difference is the chlorine test, which on the K-2005 is DPD color comparison rather than FAS-DPD titration — precisely the thing that makes the 2006 worth owning.
K-1000 and K-1001 are Taylor's basic three-way kits. The K-1000 tests total chlorine by OTO, plus bromine and pH; the K-1001 tests free chlorine by DPD, plus bromine and pH. Neither tests alkalinity, hardness or cyanuric acid.
K-2006C-SALT adds a salt titration, which is worth having on a saltwater pool and pointless on any other. Taylor lists it at $433.46 against $250.20 for the K-2006C.
If you are ordering from a marketplace listing rather than a pool retailer, read the model number in the title against the photograph. Mismatches are common enough to be worth ten seconds.
The FAS-DPD test, step by step
If you have never used one it looks more intimidating than it is. The whole thing takes about ninety seconds.
- Take pool water from about 18 inches down, elbow depth, and fill the tube to 25 mL for 0.2 ppm a drop or 10 mL for 0.5 ppm.
- Add two dippers of DPD powder. The sample turns pink if there is chlorine present; if it does not, or the pink fades, Taylor says to add more powder until it stays pink.
- Add the titrating reagent one drop at a time, swirling and counting after each drop.
- When the pink goes completely clear, stop. Multiply your drop count by 0.2 or 0.5, whichever your sample size set.
That is your free chlorine, measured objectively. No color comparison, no lighting conditions, no guessing.
For combined chlorine you add five drops of a second reagent to the same sample, which turns it pink again, and count new drops until it clears. Those new drops, multiplied the same way, are your combined chlorine. Add the two readings together for total chlorine.
The cost of testing badly
It is easy to look at $150 for a kit against $20 for a bottle of strips and pick the strips. Here is what the strips actually cost you.
A missed algae bloom. Chlorine reads "OK" on a strip while sitting well below what your CYA demands. Two weeks later you are clearing green water: $100 to $250 in chlorine, a week of brushing, several filter cleans.
Over-shocking. A strip reads low when the level is fine, and you dump $40 of chlorine into a pool that did not need it.
Undiagnosed CYA creep. The expensive one. Nobody tests it, tablets push it past 100 ppm, and the fix is draining and refilling thousands of gallons plus rebalancing.
One avoided bloom can pay for the kit.
Reagent economics
The kit is a one-time cost. Reagents are the running cost, and they are modest.
Taylor's instructions say to replace reagents once each year, and every bottle carries a best-by date. At Taylor's own list prices, one of each of the K-2006C's thirteen reagents in 2 oz bottles, with a 10 g bottle of DPD powder, comes to about $146; the kit itself sells well below Taylor's list, so compare prices on refills too. Buy individual reagent bottles rather than replacing the whole kit.
Store the kit indoors. Not the shed. Taylor's range for reagents is 36°F to 85°F, and a kit that lives in a garage hitting 120°F in August is giving you readings you should not act on.
Looking after the kit
Three habits separate a kit that reads true for a decade from one that quietly stops.
Rinse the tubes before and after every test. Taylor's card says so, and its FAQ gives the reason: leftover DPD reagent #3 from a combined chlorine test throws off the next free chlorine reading.
Screw the caps back on tightly and hold bottles vertically. Taylor's standard drop is 25 drops per mL, and an upright bottle keeps it uniform. Drops that gradually shrink can be static on the tip, which Taylor clears by wiping around the tip, not over it, with a damp cloth.
Replace reagents on a schedule rather than on suspicion. Taylor says once each year, for every reagent, including the ones that are not empty yet.
And store it indoors. That instruction appears twice on this page because it is the one people ignore.
Go deeperHow to test properlySampling technique, how often to test what, and the reading errors that send people chasing problems they do not have.Frequently asked questions
What is the most accurate pool test kit?
A FAS-DPD drop-count kit such as the Taylor K-2006C. Instead of matching a shade of pink against printed blocks, you count drops until the sample turns clear, which removes the subjectivity entirely. It reads free chlorine in 0.2 ppm steps up to 20 ppm, twice the range Taylor gives its color-match DPD test, which can bleach out and read falsely low above 10 ppm.
How much does a good pool test kit cost?
The Taylor K-2006C was $149.23 at Poolweb in September 2026, against a list price of $250.20 on Taylor's own store, and the smaller K-2006 was $93.63. A LaMotte ColorQ 2X Pro 7 photometer was $262.70 at the same retailer. The AquaChek Select Connect strips were $19.00 for 50 at Pool Warehouse. Taylor says to replace a drop kit's reagents every year, and one of each of the K-2006C's thirteen lists at about $146 on its store.
Are pool test strips worth using?
For a quick pH check between proper tests, yes. For free chlorine, combined chlorine and cyanuric acid, no — the color blocks are too coarse and the pads degrade once opened. Any decision that involves buying chemicals should be made on a drop-based kit.
What is the difference between the Taylor K-2006 and K-2006C?
The chemistry and the tests are the same. The C version ships with 2 oz reagent bottles instead of 0.75 oz ones, which by Taylor's counts for the same two sizes of its K-2005 means 300 pH tests instead of 110 and 150 alkalinity tests instead of 52. At Poolweb the difference was $149.23 against $93.63 in September 2026, and for anyone testing twice a week through a season the larger kit is the better buy.
Do I need a separate cyanuric acid test?
You need a CYA test, and it should be in your main kit rather than bought separately. Cyanuric acid sets your entire free chlorine target, so a kit without it cannot tell you whether your chlorine reading is adequate. Any decent drop kit includes the turbidity test.
How long do pool test reagents last?
Taylor's instructions say to replace reagents once each year, and every bottle carries a best-by date. Taylor says to store them between 36°F and 85°F, out of direct sunlight and away from pool chemicals, so keep the kit indoors rather than in the pool shed — a kit that spends two summers in a garage that hits 120°F is giving you numbers you should not act on. Buy reagents individually rather than replacing the whole kit.
