Cleaning of electronic PH probe?

Looking for some ways to clean my probe since it is showing an inaccurate reading compared to a ph test kit that I bought. Have had it for awhile so I hope that I can get it back to where it was before so I can make use of it.
thanks!!!

 

the recommended solution is vinegar... soak in vinegar overnight should do the trick... just make sure you rinse it well with RO/DI water and calibrate the probe using a calibration solution in the range for the pH you're testing for.

 

+1 vinegar is great to clean it and you need to calibrate it also ... I think you're false readings are probably due more to the fact that it needs to be calibrated. Anyways what test kit are you using? I believe probes are more precise than any color changing test kit... so do not go by that only!!!

 

According to lab instructions, for the most accurate reading probes should be cleaned before every test in hydrochloric acid... for lesser accuracy once a day. Since we probably aren't going to use HCl near our tanks, vinegar works almost as good...

The probe is a glass bead that measures the ions on the bead. In order for it to take an accurate reading, it must be clean...

However, I believe that for our purposes maintenance cleaning is good enough (once every month or few months should be fine) as long as the probe IS calibrated properly.

If it's not calibrated, then you can forget about trusting the readings. You must calibrate AFTER you clean it, as the reading is going to be different after the cleaning than before, as any build up on the glass bead are going to throw the readings off.

FWIW, I haven't cleaned or calibrated the probe in my calcium reactor since I set it up a year ago, and it is still working as it should. I should probably do a maintenance cleaning at some point, but I don't think I'm going to until it's time to change the media out... and I have a few months at least on that.

 

I soak mine in vinegar for about 3 hours. That usually does the trick with a light toothbrushing of the probe, if necessary. I rinse it in fresh water, and drop it back in the sump. I don't calibrate it afterward unless it's giving off funky readings (which it does for the first 10-15 minutes after putting it back in the tank).

 

I'm not sure how you'd know it's calibrated, unless you perform one. I stopped myself from making that mistake in my statements above... I haven't calibrated in a while, but I know there is a chance it's off... everything seems to be working fine, so I don't plan to re-calibrate until I change the media in my reactor.