I'll ask that you go back and reread my last post both because I edited it substantially clearly while you were typing and because you missed the part where I pointed out that the OP did not state that he averaged the two readings - only that two readings are better than one.
Really? I've seen dozens. Many in this forum, many in others, many in the Amazon reviews. Go check there.
So you are assuming that there are thousands of satisfied customers out there who are afraid to speak up? The silent Trump voters of the pH meter world! Again, I appeal to your common sense.
It certainly isn't. I've been in engineering long enough to be able to tell the difference between a well made product and a shoddily made one.
Just curious, do you have any experience in industry?
The object in operating a business is to turn a profit. If you can do that by producing a high quality product priced at a point where the purchase of it makes sense to a business then it will sell. If it doesn't perform, you don't. A meter like the Hach Pro+ is intended to be used commercially and thus, if they hadn't fixed the electrode problem, would have failed. The $12 pH meters are really toys. Look at the Amazon reviews and you will quickly come to appreciate the sophistication of the "Works great - only problem is that you have to calibrate it" reviewer. You will also find that 30% of the reviews say "Didn't work", "Don't waste your money", "Only lasted 3 months" etc.
That would require a Consumer Reports activity of some sort. I've said that I'm not going to do it so I guess you will have to.
Again I have to ask if you have any experience in manufacturing or marketing of technical equipment.
I think Milwaukee's stuff was at first made in Romania but is now done in Italy. Or is that Hanna?
First off, I don't think Milwaukee makes a pen style but I don't really know about that and in any case we are comparing the ~$100 MW101 to the generic $11 Chinese pen. I have no idea what the markup may be on the MW101 but assuming that it is about at the same rate as the Chinese offering then you have x10 the materials cost assuming that Romanian labour is about the same as Chinese which it may not be. In any case, you have a unit which is much more reliable and appreciably more accurate.
"The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten".
Well its been three years and so far I guess still only feeling the "sweetness" of the money I saved in not buying over the over the top equipment I would never enjoy or utilize to its potential for brewing beer. Unlike you I am speaking from my own experience using these meters and I would know if they are working correctly for me.. The only reason I had bought 2 at all was because after reading threads like this here I was wondering how accurate and how long these would stay calibrated so I use them both periodically to check them against each other and when they are out of sinc I recalibrate. them.
I dont know what amazon reviews your refering to because I just looked and these almost all have 3.5 stars or more which is actually very high for something so low cost and entry level... as a matter of fact being that these are so cheap it wouldnt be surprising if they got a lot of bum reviews both good and bad from people new to having a ph meter and their limitations... I bet if you were to offer a similar higher priced meter with the built in probe for the same price you would see similar complaints from these same people due to their inability to read directions or understand how to use them.
When people drop more coin on something they are more likely to do a little research or at least read the directions beforehand and these is apparent by some of the reviews you read form places like you tube and amazon... There are some that just complain regardless to see what they can get from the seller out of it.
But since you asked more than once were im coming from and my experience Ill get on my soapbox once again. I work in the commercial printing field now and actually spend time in one of our manufacturing plants up in canada last week for the company I work for now..
I worked in a field where Ive dealt mainly with engineering and design departments of all types for the last 20 years... Since nafta many have begun singing a common tune as their factories close up and they outsource most of their products to manufacturing and even engineering overseas... Since the engineers are usually the last ones to go before the management to line the stockholders pockets they are usually pretty open to discussion and complaining while im there putting say a $14 part they are paying 4 or $500 for because thats what it costs after going through multiple markups from the equipment manufactuers and resellers that may rebrand it and of course my employer... and lets not forget depending on which company that customer may have called to place the service call they were being charged anywhere from 150 to $285 an hour for me to be there since we were "VIP" dealers for a large printer company and sometimes we were obligated to be contracted out do do the servicecalls for the customers who believed they were dealing directly with the manufactuer (wrong since the equipment was rebranded) for service (Wrong again ) of course we couldnt tell them that we were really a dealer and they could call our own service number and have been charged half the rate...
Anyway I would hear quite often in conversation while repairing equipment about how a company has started outsourcing some of thier product line to take advantage of a well known name by modifying a generic pump or or just repackaging and selling generic chinese designed stuff since the profits were much better and they didnt have to deal with manufacturing costs some even closed up local manufacturing completely or were bought by a larger competitor who did so and they (the engineers) are kept around for quality control, occational design changes and such... after a while you see the common trends. Like 5 out of say 7 of the local steel companies I deal with all buy and resell the same chinese steel often because their margins are higher. (I may be exaggerating a bit to make my point because I only asked a few where they get it.)
I also repair electronics like flat screen tvs as a hobby and for extra money... I know how in this industry they will often sell the same tv from one of the 4 or 5 manufacturers that make components, repackaged and sold at all different pricepoints to unsuspecting victims that believe you always get what you pay for and shop by brand names they remember as being popular regardless of whether those brands even exist anymore besides on paper only to be leased by whomever want to use them to peddle a cheap chinese tv... heres an ironic thing... if you look inside most vizio tvs your see they are made of LG components and are the same as the cheaper model LG counterparts but if you open a higher end LG set youll find mostly samsung conponents) Ive made some Frankenstein tvs by swapping motherboardboards from one set to another since this or even just the firmware along with the case and remote is often the difference between a $300 tv and a $600 tv especially now in the throw away led garbage tv environment we are in now. I used to be a tech instructor for a printer company that would sell the same printers sold as 4 different brand names with different prices and dealer support, Ive worked on hp printers that were made by epson xeroxs made by fuji or kip, kodaks made by hp or screen and seen when companies like hp and xerox decided the money they put into marketing is more important than having anything to do with actually designing or making the products they are selling...
The reason for my rant was to point out that Based upon my experiences, It just as often all about perception these days. Things like marketing tactics, secretly owning multiple competing brand names and price setting has become more important to quality and you have different generations of thinking some now outdated... and a whole market segment designed to take advantage of those peoples outdated perceptions that you get what you pay for and it its got a certain brand name on the box its better than another product based on that and the higher price. Even when that just as often completely untrue.... It would be more true to say you dont always get what you pay for but you never get what you dont... and the catch to that is you have to know what your buying really costs to manufacture..
Want an example? anybody want to buy an edenpure heater? its $400-600 compared to all those cheaper knockoffs for $120 at the bargain store and ive seen all those commercials bragging about them so it must be better right?... Nope. your just paying for the commercials to help hype them up..
In this case I bought a couple $12 ph meters that I really believe work just as well for my needs as any other comparable cheaper meter like the hanna meters and such that sell for 6-10times as much for the same tech.. Even if the hanna is made to hold up better and it might be, Ive seen many people complain of issues and frustrations with the probes and eventually ditch them for something else. So if Im having perfectly good performance out of my $12 meters why would I change them? I dont need higher resolution and no one has shown any proof whatsover that a person could detect any difference in a beer with a mash ph of 5.4 vs 5.35. again its all been speculation and assumptions until someone proves it.
And am I really only that lucky twice over? Sorry but I believe there is some heavy bias in this thread and ill admit I responded with the same only based upon MY ACTUAL experience with the meters in question. Not an amazon review.