Life of Clinitest tablets

[jwalker1140]

Hi all,

Could someone comment about the useful life of the Clinitest tablets that come 36 or 100 per bottle versus the individually wrapped tablets that you can get from MoreWine and Northern Brewer?

Buying by the bottle is cheaper per tablet, but I'll only be testing about two batches of wine from fresh grapes per year. I'm sure they degrade over time, but is it by enough or will it happen quickly enough to where I should buy them individually?

Thanks,
Jason

 

[PCharles]

Hi all,

Could someone comment about the useful life of the Clinitest tablets that come 36 or 100 per bottle versus the individually wrapped tablets that you can get from MoreWine and Northern Brewer?

Buying by the bottle is cheaper per tablet, but I'll only be testing about two batches of wine from fresh grapes per year. I'm sure they degrade over time, but is it by enough or will it happen quickly enough to where I should buy them individually?

Thanks,
Jason

Hi Jason, I work in a hospital lab and feel I can offer a descent answer to your question. The Clinitest is used to test for sugar. It's usually used to to test urine for sugar. In a lab we would do a quality control test to verify performance. Make up a weak sugar solution for your positive control and use plain water for your negative control. If the tables perform as expected, use them to test unknowns with.

Hope this helps.

Paul

 

[jwalker1140]

Paul, thanks for the info. It does makes sense. However, I was hoping someone here had already done that and could share their practical experience, thereby saving me the time/expense of buying the bottle, waiting for it to pass its expiration date and then comparing the results against 'fresh' tablets.

I did read in another forum that the tablets have an indefinite life, so I'm inclined to go with the bottle as an initial purchase. I'll surely have some left beyond the expiration date (whatever that may be), and at that time I may buy an individually-wrapped tablet to compare, again, unless someone already has.

Thanks again!
Jason