Inconsistencies between hydrometers

I broke my hydrometer (2nd one this month!) between the time I racked my beer and when I bottled it. After racking the sg=1.014. Before bottling it was 1.018 (with the new hydrometer). Obviously at least one of them is inaccurate. More than likely they both are.

I always thought they seemed like pretty imprecise tools. Do we just live with the inaccuracies and go by relative change in sg? Is there a way to calibrate these things? I guess I could use a refractometer, but I've heard they're not really any good on fermented beer anyway.

You can CHECK your hydrometer by floating it in the water you are using to brew. It should read 1.000 you can't Adjust it, But At least you'll know how far off it is.

I have checked a couple of them in plain water and they're usually pretty close to 1.000. Just not sure how accurate they are at different sgs. And I've never measured the sg of a wort with more than one at a time. May be time to do that.

I'd say the relative dirrerence will take care of most inaccuracies...

Mine is off by .002, but it's always the same .002 so it's very accurate, just poorly calibrated> As long as you know the error you're good to go.

You have at least one too many hydrometers. One will break soon, solving your problem.