The Grow Room is Bluelab Certified.

A few weeks ago, Cindy from Bluelab spent the day at both of our stores and gave us our Bluelab Certification. We love Bluelab and stand behind their products so it's great to be able to be even more helpful to you guys. Basically, what this means for you is:

- If you purchase a Bluelab meter and have trouble using it, we are fully trained and can help you with any problem or question you might have (which we would do before anyway...but now we just know even more about the products).

- If, for some strange reason, your Bluelab product starts malfunctioning (which is admittedly rare because they make the best meters), we are trained the same way their factory technicians have been so we can trouble-shoot it for you. If we can't get it to work and it is within the warranty period, we give you a new one. That's it. No more waiting for us to send it back to the distributor and then waiting to get an answer on whether or not you will be receiving credit. If we can't fix it, you get a new one.

- We also have access to their serial # database so even if you don't have your original receipt, we can check to see when your Bluelab product was manufactured and if it is still within the warranty period.

Products We Love: Bluelab pH and ppm pens

Since we first started carrying their products over ten years ago, we've known Bluelab to be the "Cadillac" of metering brands. They are top quality and easy to use so we recommend them whenever we can. Most serious growers know about their Truncheon, the EC/PPM/CF measuring stick that has a five year warranty and never needs calibration (and also conveniently doubles as a nutrient solution stirrer). A few years back they released the pH Truncheon, which, due to probe-issues, was quickly taken off of the market. Since then they've come out with their Combo Meter, a handheld meter that measures ppm/EC/CF, pH and water temperature (and the Guardian, a continuous-monitoring meter that measures the same things), but we've had SO MANY requests for them to make a stand-alone pH pen to use in conjunction with the Truncheon. We've also gotten requests for a stand-alone ppm pen by those growers who are either on a budget and don't want to buy a Truncheon or who are trying to get a more precise reading (the Truncheon measures in increments of 100 ppm).

About 3 months ago we received our first shipment of Bluelab's independent pH and ppm pens. So far the response has been excellent, absolutely no complaints from the people who have bought them and we personally like them a lot. We've had no returns yet which is a really good sign, especially since other brands' (cough-Oakton-cough) pH pens have been coming back more often than ever. Both pens feature (from the Bluelab website):

• Measures conductivity/pH (respectively) and temperature
• Selectable units for conductivity (on the ppm pen) and temperature (˚C & ˚F)
• Backlit LCD display
• Calibration optional (ppm pen)
• Successful calibration indicator
• Hold function
• Low battery warning
• Fully waterproof
• Auto off function
• Automatic temperature compensation

Also, last month at the Long Beach Maximum Yield trade show we caught up with Chris from Bluelab and just last week we had a visit from Cindy...some big Bluelab / The Grow Room news is on the horizon. Check back here some time in the middle of January for the announcement! We still have some Bluelab lanyards that we took back with us from the show (good for hanging your meters in your rooms or for wearing them while working so your hands are free...or just for your keys!) so if you want one just ask. They're free!