Luster Leaf 1880 Rapitest Electronic 4-Way Analyzer

Given the price, you can't expect lab accuracy. It's a good value. A couple of comments: 1 - You need to scrub the probes before using. There is a scrubby sponge in the box. 2 - Succulents are having their day in the sun, but this unit will not work for gritty succulent soil. Not enough soil contact, probably, and certainly you can't make mud of it for pH. 3 - Light is measured in LUX, which is really not a measurement of anything plants need. You can get the same measurement on your cell phone. But a light meter that measures PPFD is quite expensive. LUX can be a good proxy measurement for outdoor sunlight, but for plants under grow lights like houseplants and seedlings, it's pretty useless.

The first meter I ordered from Amazon did not seem to function properly. The pH and moisture seemed OK, but fertilizer always seemed to read at the low-end of ideal and light always seemed to read 2000 fc no matter how bright or indirect the sunlight. I filled out a return online and had a replacement within 3 days and a free return label -- good service. The replacement unit seems to function OK. Over the range of pH 6-8 the meter seemed accurate. I tested pH on distilled water (it was 7), on baking soda (it was 8) on soil of known slight acidity (it was 6-6.5). However, when tested on very acid soil (verified to be pH 4 with a chemical test kit), the meter read between pH 1-2. The moisture meter seems to work fine. It read 0 on dry soil, 9 on soaking wet soil, and somewhere in between on moderately damp soil. The light meter was way too sensistive. I compared it to a professional meter and it was reading 1000 footcandles when there was only 200 fc. I "recalibrated" it by putting black tape over 95% of the sensor on top until the readings matched the professional meter -- it is now more or less correct. The fertility meter seems pretty accurate. I mixed up a batch of half strength Miracle-Gro fertilizer solution and poured it over some old spent soil and took a reading -- it read "Too little". Using regular strength MG it read "Ideal" and using double strength MG it read "Too much". I've used this weekly to monitor my fertilizer levels and tell me when to reapply my liquid fertilizer to different vegetables and this is the most useful (and difficult to find) function on a meter like this. Something to note, you MUST insert the probes a full 3.5 inches into the soil for an accurate reading. This makes it difficult to use the meter in very hard clay soils or in shallow house plant pots (like my Bonsai trees). - Rob Thompson

Works great. Use it indoors and out.

I'm reviewing and critcizing Luster Leaf's1880 Rapitest Electronic 4-Way Analyzer. Luster Leaf 1880 Rapitest Electronic 4-Way Analyzer First, I apologize for not writing this review earlier. I received my Rapitest soil analyzer just as I was getting into my very busy schedukle of planting our vegetable garden back in late May. As soon as I received the unit, I tested the pH meter by putting it in various soils with different compositions. The pH meter level was consistently at 7 (plus or minus a hair or two). Suspecting a defective pH meter, I engineered a small amount of very acidic soil by putting alot of non-pH adjusted sphagnum peat moss in it. (Non-pH-adjusted sphagnum peat moss typically registers a pH level below 5.5.) I thoroughly mixed and moistened the soil and let it set over night. I tested it the next day. The Rapitest pH meter registered 7.0. Not good! Their pH meter does not work right. The main reason I purchased the Rapitest soil analyzer was to guage the pH of potting soil I specifically engineer for various types of vegetable garden plants. I never checked any of the 3 other guages on it. I don't trust it. I haven't contact Leaf Luster yet to inform them about the defective unit they shipped to me. I will do that once I get a bit of spare time after putting our vegetable garden in. (I am making time to write this review now, so other people can take it into account when making their purchase decisions.) I am upset at myself for waiting until the "last minute" to order an instantaneous pH meter. But, I'm more upset at Luster Leaf. I specifically avoided less expensive units (with poor ratings) to increase my chances of gettng a good accurate pH meter. That strategy clearly didn't work. I ended up spending more money for a soil analyzer and still ended up with a worthless meter.

I was looking forward to checking our garden soil with this. At first the meter did not seem to move at all for checking fertilizer or ph. I contacted the company and they were very good about responding and giving me some tips on additional ways to try using the meter. I finally put soil in three pots... added a lot of water to make mud. One was good potting soil out of a bag. One was garden soil. One was from the compost pile which had been well composted. The meter did move, however all three pots were almost identical on ph and fertilizer. All three said fertilizer was required. I thought maybe the garden soil would say that, but the other two should have been better. I am in the process of returning the product. The manufacturer did offer to send me a replacement, but I decided on a refund instead. The light and moisture meters were probably more accurate, but that is not what I required.

Does what it says it will...

Overall this is a very economical tester for consumer use. I feel the need to point out that this device is not intended for commercial use and as such is not going to give you high precision test results. That being said, this device is quite accurate particularly considering the price point. The pH and moisture testing is quite accurate if you follow the instructions and are your bread and butter so to speak. Unfortunately I'm unable to assess the light meter feature at this time as I do not have a precision meter to compare results. Finally the fertilizer meter. Although useful in assessing the overall soil nutrient content, it really isn't of much use other than a guide. I highly recommend using individual chemical tests for N-P-K once a year so amendments can be added appropriately if necessary. Although this product seems to have some production quality issues, I believe many of the negative reviews are due to improper use and care for the device. This device measures conductivity in the soil to determine pH, moisture and dissolved solids. It is critical that the probes be kept clean and dry when not in use as oxidation of the probes will result in inaccurate readings.

Una forma rápida y sencilla para conocer las condiciones del suelo a un buen precio

早速土壌ペーハーを使用したが気にいらず他のメーカー品を使用している

肥沃計機能に期待して購入。「見えないモノの見える化」で、今後の施肥はバッチリかも・・・