LaMotteColorQ Pro 7 Liquid Pool Water Test Kit Calcium Hardness 2 Reagent - 30 mL

This one has the shortest shelf life of all the ColorQ reagents, only 6 months according to LaMotte and it DOES give false readings when it is past expiration. I ordered mine from eSeasonGear and it arrived with 5 months and 20 days remaining, about as fresh as you can get anywhere.

I have the LaMotte test kit and was having issues with some of the tests not showing any changes and readings lower than expected. At first I thought that the reader was failing but after doing a little research, I found out that the reagents may be expiring. I had the kit for over 5 years with no issues so I never even thought that the chemicals may be failing but when I looked at the containers, sure enough, they had expiration dates on them and some had expired. After replacing the expired reagents, everything looked good so I thought that I was good to go for a few more years. This year when I was opening the pool, I saw that the hardness was low and expected that was due to rain water being iused to refill the pool during the off season. After adding more calcium to the pool, the test showed little change. I thought that the hardness reagents may be expiring but when I looked them up here on Amazon, I saw that I had just bought these in May of last year so that obviously couldn't be the issue so I added more. Today I checked the hardness again and it was even lower than the last check so I checked the bottles and sure enough, both have expired, the CH1 on 1/23 and the CH2 on 10/22 amd they were both bought on 5/22. What a complete rippoff. At the price that they are selling them for, you should really expect to get more than one season out of them. I try and learn from my mistakes and post them here so that hopefully you can learn from them too without having to make them yourself. If you order these chemicals, check the expiration date on the bottle as soon as you get it and unless you have at least 2 years left, send it right back. I will not make the same mistake twice.

The test chemicals had a great expiration date. Very important to have an expiration date beyond expect use time.

I have bought this item twice already and each time it expired within 3 months of receiving it. In this time of high prices and inflation, this is ridiculous. To have this happen once is possibly understandable, a fluke or a mistake. Twice, screams of pour quality controls and bad business practices.

On the plus side, the product arrived the day after I ordered it, as promised. On the negative side, the product only usable until January 2024, by which time I may have only used 1/2 of it. I have found that the use-by dates on these chemical reagents are relevant to their performance, and with the price having gone up substantially in the past couple of years a shorter usage period only serves to increase the cost of the reagent. I would be much more satisfied if I were able to obtain reagents that I could use all of; in my case, this would mean use-by dates at least 8 months beyond when I purchase the reagent.

The product works as designed. What I appreciate about the seller is they sent me fresh product. The bottle was fresh with the full 6mo shelf life remaining.

The product was shipped quickly but expires in just 3 months. ask for expiration date before you buy .

LaMottes CH2 only has a 6-month shelf life and mine came with 5 months remaining. I just wish LaMotte Ch2 had a longer shelf life. Value for the money is rated bad because of that.