Are the refractometers on eBay worth their money?

[ramgeva]

Hi All
I'm a new brewer and I decided to go for the refractometer than hydrometer.
I read here that it is important to have a good one (Accuracy), I saw the ones the morebeer company and also I looked for on eBay and found some of a company called Grandindex: http://www.grand-index.com/ (probably from China) and they cost only 15$, anyone have experience with this? Any suggestions ?
Tahnks

 

[Gitmoe]

I got mine off Ebay a long time ago and it's been accurate and reliable. It wasn't from that seller though. Think I paid $25 shipped. The one I got has Gravity and Brix which is really nice.

 

[RM-MN]

If you haven't started brewing all grain, go for the hydrometer. The refractometer will tell you the OG or the gravity of the runnings from all grain but you need the hydrometer to tell you the final gravity of your beer to determine if your beer is done. Refractometers are not accurate when alcohol is present.

 

[vNmd]

I got one off of eBay, definitely from china. It works great. Took a couple weeks to get here, but glad I got it. I have only hydrometers to compare it to for accuracy, so I can't vouch for how accurate they are but mine agrees with the hydrometers I have.

 

[thatjonguy]

The ones on eBay are almost if not exactly the same as the ones the home brew supplys sell for $50. Of cpurse if you buy one from a lab supply company it may be different.

Love my $17 eBay purchase!

 

[sch21c]

Got mine from eBay about a year ago. Less than $25 with shipping. Brix & specific gravity with automatic temp correction.

Get some distilled water and calibrate. Mine was off by a few SG points when received. But then again, you should make sure your hydrometers are calibrated correctly with distilled water as well.

Definitely worth it.

 

[ramgeva]

Great 10x a lot it was a big help.

Regarding the reading with alcohol I understand morebeer supply an easy calc to correct it.

Sch21c do you have a link or brand name for the one you bought I didn't found one with autocorrections for this price.
10x

 

[Beernik]

Just make sure it's not a salt water aquarium one.

 

[NadoHawk]

So if I purchase a cheap one, I can easily adjust it my comparing it to distilled aqueous solution?

What about with high gravities? I heard that some of the cheap ones don't do well with an OG of 1.084 or greater.

 

[HillWilly]

Check out Amazon. I picked mine up for $20 with free shipping (with my prime account).

 

[ramgeva]

So if I purchase a cheap one, I can easily adjust it my comparing it to distilled aqueous solution?

What about with high gravities? I heard that some of the cheap ones don't do well with an OG of 1.084 or greater.

Yes I also have seeing it, as I understand in that case you should only look at the brix scale and use a calculation to get the OG.
Regarding calibration I think you can use distilled water as I saw many wrote about this, and as the above wrote the cheap ones work well (I guess with initial calibration).
According to what I learned here I will go get me one (-:
Thanks all

 

[Math0]

I bought one for 23$ on ebay and it works perfectly. Everytime I use it I tried putting some water on it before so its more accurate

 

[jroot]

No need to buy distilled water....make your own. Put 1/4" tap water in a cup (mines Pyrex) and place a small saucer over it and microwave for a minute. The distilled water will condense on the underside of the saucer and provide enough drops to place directly on your refractometer for calibration....only takes a couple minutes to do. I do this every time I use my refractometer.

 

[ramgeva]

No need to buy distilled water....make your own. Put 1/4" tap water in a cup (mines Pyrex) and place a small saucer over it and microwave for a minute. The distilled water will condense on the underside of the saucer and provide enough drops to place directly on your refractometer for calibration....only takes a couple minutes to do. I do this every time I use my refractometer.

Really, nice man!! Just saved me a couple of dollars (-:
Did you ever compared it to a lab distilled water?