Refractometer $35 shipped

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chefmike

chefmike

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This sale on Ebay was just pointed out to me in another thread:

Originally Posted by z987k View Post
eh, i just bought a refractometer .... $22 for a refractometer. Yeah.
QUOTE]

Where at?
Brix Refractometer ATC 0-32% Fruit Wine + 50 Pipettes - eBay (item 380097098583 end time Feb-13-09 18:12:51 PST)


It looks like a decent company, good seller rating. They say they stand behind the product. I thought I would let folks know...

Thanks z987k! :mug:
 
I thought about that, but I bought mine from midwest for like 50. Why? Well, American company with the product in America. Didnt want to wait for customs
 
I just ordered one as well... I'm fairly familiar with ISO 9001, however it doesn't mean THAT much and a lot of companies just include that. Anyhow, I'll let you guys know how it works out. For 35 shipped, you can't beat it.
 
Just ordered mine. Awesome deal. I used Dude's at the last CVBD on my long-boil barleywine, and it was indispensable. Could have used it last weekend when I was low on my gravity on that dubbel by 5 points. Could have added more sugar...oh well. No more!
 
This guy is going to run out of refractometers to sell! Mine was shipped yesterday. From the looks of this thread and another, they have sold a LOT of these because of HBT. Just like Evan! said, no more missing on gravity. I don't mind using a hydro for checking fermentation in a bucket but it sucks while you are doing your mash and boil. Hopefully mine will be here tomorrow in time for me to brew my Yellow Snow IPA clone. I've got a batch of DDeadguy ready to throw in secondary and I'm going to put the Yellow Snow on top of that yeast cake. BTW, the pacman yeast worked great at 52 degrees.
 
Yeah, I've never been a hydro user because it's such a pain in the arse to use it, and it's very difficult to read correctly. That'll change now.
 
Mine got shipped this morning. I emailed the seller, and got a prompt response from her. I had the wrong address on my PayPal account, and shew fixed it and made sure it got sent to my new address. Not only are these things amazingly cheap, but they have good customer service too.
 
LHBS sells the same one for $130. This one is the same price as three broken glass hydrometers. Can't beat that. I hope I have mine tomorrow!!!
 
Mine came today. I ordered it Thursday. I tested it on a maibock that I have fermenting and used the conversion calculator on Morebeer.com. It works great, seems to be of high quality, and I would recommend it. I can see how this will be so much better than a hydrometer for AG brewing. The calculator on morebeer provided ABW/ABV also if you had the original gravity in brix. I didn't but I had the OG in specific gravity from my hydrometer and converted it to brix. Very easy to use, very easy to clean, and if you do all grain brewing I think this is an indispensible tool!
 
for people that don't know, basically OG = brix * 4. That's the simplest way to do it in your head.

So 10 brix = 1.040 and Brix roughly equals Plato

And some good reading on SG,plato,brix:
http://www.brewingtechniques.com/library/backissues/issue1.3/manning.html said:
Measuring extract using the Plato scale: A hydrometer that is calibrated in degrees Plato (degrees P) is properly called a saccharometer, because it directly measures the percent sugar as sucrose by weight in solution. Degrees Plato do not vary with temperature, because the weight of the water and of the extract contained in the water do not vary. The statement that a wort is 10 degrees P, therefore, needs no accompanying reference temperature. When measuring extract using the Plato scale, however, the wort must be at the reference temperature. Otherwise, a correction must be applied because the saccharometer is still comparing a weight to a displaced volume. Adjustments are made in the same way as for instruments that measure specific gravity.

When extreme accuracy is desired, a polynomial curve fit to the table values can be derived using linear regression techniques. I obtained the following third-degree fit using a table that charts specific gravity @ 60 degrees F (15.5 degrees C) against the percentage (w/w) (measured in degrees Plato) found in Hough, et al. (2):

degrees P=-676.67 + 1286.4 SG -
800.47SG2 + 190.74 SG3
Click to expand...
 
I just got mine today. Aside from the crappy blue box to store it in, it looks pretty nice. I'll test it out ASAP.
 
got mine today as well. Seems very sturdy, good build quality. Took a final gravity reading and with correction, is spot on to the hydrometer.

Did a google on the model number as well and it turns out the RHB-32ATC is made by Westover scientific. Here's a pdf from their website: http://www.refracts.com/pdf/RHBbrix.pdf

Although my refractometer does have AmScope labeled on the side, and they make microscopes....
 
I tested mine out over the weekend. It worked great. I checked the calibration with RO water rrather than distilled since I didn't have any and it was fine. I got some distilled water today at the grocery store and checked it again. I got the same reading as before which was spot on. I'm going to brew tomorrow so I'll let you guys know how it went. I'm washing my pacman yeast from the DDeadguy clone I just racked tonight and need to make my starter before I brew tomorrow otherwise I'd probably do it tonight.
 
Well, I used it this past weekend while brewing my buddies Hobgoblin clone (courtesy of Orfy). I'm not impressed at all. For one, these aren't really ATC Refractometers. If you have read your little manual included, you'll see that you must wait for the reading to completely cool before taking a measurement. We still had to temp. adjust for temperature in order to get close to a good reading. We cleaned and retested twice before giving up and getting out the hydrometer. I have contacted the company that sells these as well as the vendor on Ebay. All they asked was why I thought it wasn't ATC. They obviously don't seem to know what they are selling and don't seem to have any faith in the fact that I may be able to cross-calibrate the refractometer with a hydrometer... I'm returning mine...
 
Anthony_Lopez said:
For one, these aren't really ATC Refractometers. If you have read your little manual included, you'll see that you must wait for the reading to completely cool before taking a measurement. We still had to temp. adjust for temperature in order to get close to a good reading. We cleaned and retested twice before giving up and getting out the hydrometer.
Click to expand...

Did you calibrate the refractometer before using it?

And you still have to let the sample sit on the lens for a while before reading... the sample, being small, adjusts to the temperature of refractometer. The ATC compensates for a range of change that is suitable to a small drop sitting on a refractometer for 30 seconds.

Perhaps the manual included with the unit is not great. Is yours inscribed with the model number?
 
chefmike said:
Did you calibrate the refractometer before using it?

And you still have to let the sample sit on the lens for a while before reading... the sample, being small, adjusts to the temperature of refractometer. The ATC compensates for a range of change that is suitable to a small drop sitting on a refractometer for 30 seconds.

Perhaps the manual included with the unit is not great. Is yours inscribed with the model number?
Click to expand...

We checked calibration twice with distilled water within the correct range. The samples were within the correct range as well, and the readings still changed as it cooled even further.
 
The ATC only compensates between 10-30C. Outside that you will have to wait for it to cool.

I use mine during the sparge to check the gravity of the runoff and hit my target gravity. I have to wait a couple of minutes though for the 2 drops of ~150F runoff to come down below 86F.
 
Ya i understand how the ATC works... the issue is that the readings continued to change within the temp. range that the ATC supposedly works...
 
My RHWN-25 from Gainexpress on eBay works quite well. It took some getting used to, and getting rid of that MoreBeer spreadsheet that didn't work for my equipment and process at all, but now I get pretty consistently good results that are within a point or two of my hydrometer readings. The ATC also hasn't given me any problems. The biggest issue is getting a clean sample that is well-mixed, free of air bubbles and particulates. I usually take three readings per pipette sample to make sure I am getting consistent readings.
I also like the easy calibration adjustment with this model, which they call one of their "new design" ones.

By the way, my average wort correction factor thus far (across three batches - Apfelwein, Dark Strong and Witbier) is 1.0076. Many calculators out there assume higher values in the range of 1.03 to 1.07.
 
Thanks for all the great info...I am looking forward to using it, hopefully I will not have the trouble Anthony Lopez is having. It should be interesting anyhow!

Any other folks having success or problems with this model or others?
 
chefmike said:
Thanks for all the great info...I am looking forward to using it, hopefully I will not have the trouble Anthony Lopez is having. It should be interesting anyhow!

Any other folks having success or problems with this model or others?
Click to expand...
Mine works great and I haven't had any issues with the ATC. I haven't used it to check OG yet. I've just been checking a batch that is almost ready to keg now. I didn't have any bad readings that I know of and I have checked my gravity for the last three days with no change in the reading. It's cold crashing now and I have a keg all sanitized and ready to GO!
 
Well, I seem to be having similar problems with mine. I was never able to get a good original gravity reading with it today. I took a sample of my runoff, and freaked for a second thinking I was drawing 1.008 wort after only 5 gallons of sparging, but took another cooler reading and it was completely different. I took another reading which I let cool a while before putting it on, and got another different reading. Before the boil started, my pre-boil gravity was WAY off what my hydrometer read no matter how long I waited. The refrac actually ended up reading almost exactly the same pre and post boil. It's easy to use, and read correctly post boil and on my other fermenting brew, but pointless if I can't rely on the reading and have to double check every time.
 
Are you making sure the sample covers the whole lens and that it has no bubbles in it? Theoretically speaking, if there aren't any bubbles and the lens is completely covered then you should get an identical reading on multiple samples if they all come from the same source. It's not like there are any moving parts or anything in it. Even if the reading is off, you should get the same bad reading over and over and not a different reading each time. Not to be rude but it seems more like user error in that case. Who knows though? I guess anything is possible when you buy something on Ebay because a bunch of strangers on the internet recommended it. :)
 
RayInUT said:
Are you making sure the sample covers the whole lens and that it has no bubbles in it? Theoretically speaking, if there aren't any bubbles and the lens is completely covered then you should get an identical reading on multiple samples if they all come from the same source. It's not like there are any moving parts or anything in it. Even if the reading is off, you should get the same bad reading over and over and not a different reading each time. Not to be rude but it seems more like user error in that case. Who knows though? I guess anything is possible when you buy something on Ebay because a bunch of strangers on the internet recommended it. :)
Click to expand...

you're right though. What he described is the exact same thing as dropping your hydrometer in the same sample and getting a different reading every time. It doesn't happen unless a precondition for the hydrometer working is not met.

I'll probably brew tomorrow and I'll test the refractometer against my hydrometer in every step.
 
I have one of the ebay $35 refractometers, and as far as I can tell the thing is spot on. I check calibration with distilled every time, and take at least two readings. Make sure the prism is well covered, and preferably free of bubbles. Set a timer for thirty seconds (don't wing it), before checking hot wort, so that the temps can equalize. Also, make sure to clean the prism each time you use it with distilled, or you'll get an inaccurate reading the next time around from residual sugars on the glass.

If you're getting readings all over the place, and you've checked calibration and are following the above guidelines, then your unit is defective. Send her back.
 

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