Stupid restaurant Ph indicator question

[Moff]

Whilst I know that restaurant Ph indicators are used to indicate whether or not a sodium hypochlorite is much too basic to be safely used on dishes or near food prep areas, does anyone happen to know offhand if these indicator strips will indicate an acidic condition?
I'm not lazy, I'm impatient. I work at a food-service counter one day a week for an associate so he  can bowl on a league, and my day is way off..........

[mr_pyrex]

Actually they are specifically designed for the purpose of checking whether the level of chlorine in the solution is high enough to santize the dishes or whether more is needed.  They aren't measuring the Ph level as such, just the level of sanitizing power.  And most of the time the chlorine level they are checking is in a basic solution (H20 & Sodium Hypochlorite), therefore I would imagine that they would not be suitable for the purpose you inquired about.  However it is entirely possible that if they were put into an acidic condition that they might respond in a way that could be correlated to the pH of the sample solution.  But seeing as how there are some many easily accessible and proven methods to check the pH of a sample, why risk it?  If it is worth checking, it is worth doing right.  Right??  ;-)  Get some Ph test strips from a supplier or at the very least...some phenol red (available at any local pool supplier, dirt cheap).  You'll be much happier :-)  Pyrex out of indicators

[Moff]

...Mr_pyex. On further reflection, unless someone else has exhaustively correlated the color changes against established Ph inidcators, their only merit lies within telling one whether or not a given sodium hypochlorite solution is suitable to sanitize  dishes and food preparation areas....thus a total blind alley from the start.

Damn. As it will be winter in this corner of the world, only indoor pools will need maintainence........but.....  there's some kinda kid's discovery store in a mall that's not to far from here...they should have proper Ph indicator strips.

[SQUIDIPPY]

Pardon, but S/D can fill you in with a little bit of info.

The health department uses plain old Litmus paper. They use it to test food and other items.
If you wish to aquire some, simply go to your local health dept. and tell them you're a resturant manager or, whatever, and they will be more than happy to sell you some. S/D doesn't remember the exact price, but it's something like $3.00 for 500 strips.