Refractometer issues

[Courty]

Hi,
I bought a cheap refractometer on eBay....yes, always a gamble, based it on research from people saying they were just as good as more expensive ones and they looked the same as the ones sold by mainstream supplier at £30-40, I paid £14.
The instructions say the top half should be bile and the bottom white, mine is the other way round. Has anyone had this, will it work just as well when I try to calibrate it?
The instructions say use distilled water and set at zero, however the scale doesn’t have zero % it is the honey scale of 12-27% water Brix 58-90.
I plan to use olive oil as I don’t have medicinal spirits as suggested elsewhere.
Has anyone overcome this blue and white difference?
I take full responsibility for risking a gamble on a cheap item.

Courty

 

[joelsoo]

Go to your local beekeeping club, take a sample of honey. I think your beekeeping club will have a decent refractometer that is accurate (not ebay one).

Take a reading of your sample of honey from the beekeeping club's refractometer, then put same sample on yours. Calibrate yours to the same reading as the club's refractometer.

Job done. Properly calibrated.

I tried olive oil, turned out not always what it say it should be...

Sent from my CLT-L09 using Tapatalk

 

[Courty]

Great advice, thank you
Courty

 

[Buzzlodge]

Hi,

The instructions say the top half should be bile and the bottom white, mine is the other way round. Has anyone had this, will it work just as well when I try to calibrate it?
The instructions say use distilled water and set at zero, however the scale doesn’t have zero % it is the honey scale of 12-27% water Brix 58-90.


Courty

There are two refractometers that you see on ebay and from the outside they look identical. The diference being that one is for fruit juice/alcohol etc and the other is for honey.
The former can be calibrated with distilled water, the latter with virgin olive oil. The scale on your refractometer seems correct for honey so i guess you have the wrong set of instructions.

 

[Angry_Mob]

Just checked mine, it's blue when nothing is underneath the lens, when honey is put in the white line comes up to show the correct content.

As mentioned above olive oil, but use extra virgin and use the adjuster to set the brix to 71.5 percent.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

IIRC I have the same one and had the same confusion (wrong instructions suggesting H2O). I invested in a small bottle of glycerin and that worked. Olive oil as well I guess but glycerin seemed more definite (Have to watch the hydroscopicness though).