Is this hydrometer......wrong?

[giuzep89]

What you're seeing in the picture is a reading taken with tap water. Does the reading look off to you? My impression is that the long line that should be indicating 1.000 is too low compared to the surface of the water. But then again, I don't trust how I'm looking at this, and I'd rather defer judgement to you. Opinions?

 

[mashdar]

That's a very confusing hydrometer marking.

But yes, it appears to be out of calibration. I guess the line under 1.000 is the 1.000 line, but those are some odd color coding and line choices.

edit: reading is typically at the bottom of the meniscus, or ~0.999 in this case. So you can add 0.001 to all readings and be pretty accurate.

 

[Rish]

What you're seeing in the picture is a reading taken with tap water. Does the reading look off to you? My impression is that the long line that should be indicating 1.000 is too low compared to the surface of the water. But then again, I don't trust how I'm looking at this, and I'd rather defer judgement to you. Opinions?

View attachment 884715

Use distilled water instead of tap and make sure it is a the proper calibration temperature. You should be able to find it on the hydrometer. Likely 68* F.

 

[lumpher]

The way I read it is it's 1.003. It's messed up when experienced brewers read it differently...

 

[worlddivides]

The way I read it is it's 1.003. It's messed up when experienced brewers read it differently...

Right. For me, it'd be 1.003 too.

The placing of the 1.000 is odd, but it seems clear to me that the yellow section is meant to indicate 1.000 to 1.010. But it's so bizarre how the numbers are located. For example, I would normally think that the place where the 10 is is 1.010, but it's not. It's the line ABOVE 10 that's 1.010, and the dash where the 10 is would be 1.012. Otherwise, it'd mean that the start of the dark section would be 1.008.

Yeah, very bizarre design. If the dashes really are located at the point of the number indicated, then the colors (white, yellow, black, etc.) almost seem intended to throw the person measuring the SG off.

 

[mashdar]

The thing that has me thinking it's the line below is spacing to 0.990. Dashes work, too, now that I look. But either way, that makes the background color really bizarre.

In conclusion, I'm at 1.001 now, lol