What Refractomer ?

[HM Honey]

Probably a daft question but what Refractometer do you use to check honey? Can you just use the type that you get for checking Marine Fish tank water or do you need a special Honey one?

 

[Moggs]

It needs to show the scale appropriate to the moisture content of honey. A marine fish tank model works in a totally different range and wouldn't cope with honey.

 

[Pete D]

Probably a daft question but what Refractometer do you use to check honey? Can you just use the type that you get for checking Marine Fish tank water or do you need a special Honey one?

£15 off e bay, from China, has a %age water scale, delivered in about 10 days.

 

[enrico]

As Peter d but when it comes the instructions are a bit odd so DONT fiddle with the adjusting screws at all. It is set for honey. Simply run a bit of olive oil onto it, take the reading and keep a small bottle of the same oil to one side. In future you can test that the reading is correct by using the same oil, it should give the same reading as when you bought it!

 

[Cazza]

£15 off e bay, from China, has a %age water scale, delivered in about 10 days.

I bought a cheap one from China and lived to regret it. I now have a British one which is reliable (Bellingham and Stanley E Line.)
Cazza

 

[enrico]

Just out of interest what was wrong with the Chinese one cazza?

 

[Ben90]

Just out of interest what was wrong with the Chinese one cazza?

Also how much did it cost?

 

[Moggs]

As with any precision instrument, the calibration should be periodically checked. It must of course be checked against a known value. That known value may be a calibration block or some material that is stable. I have seen, so many times, instruments written off as rubbish, after they have been dropped , left out in the direct sun, not allowed to stabilise, etc. If you buy a refractometer be prepared to treat it as a highly sensitive piece of optical equipment. By the way, the adjustment screw is there for a purpose, its calibration will drift in time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Cazza]

Just out of interest what was wrong with the Chinese one cazza?

It just didn't work, ever....no matter what I tried.
Cazza

 

[SireeDubs]

This is really useful, as I'm considering whether I need one. Only two colonies and just 2/3 supers to extract with a component of OSR (I'm pretty sure). Just not sure I need one.

Have done a shake test, quite firmly, and in a full frame, I got 3-4 small spots of honey out of the uncapped cells. I'm thinking this is OSR and I'll extract anyway. Does this sound right? My other half will be thankful if it's one piece of equipment I don't need to buy....

 

[alanf]

...Can you just use the type that you get for checking Marine Fish tank water or do you need a special Honey one?

Lab instruments can measure wider ranges but the size and convenience of the pocket versions is only possible because they are built for specific purposes. Each has the appropriate prisms and scales to measure a limited range of a specific substance in water. So the marine fish tank ones measure a low percentage of salt in water. Automotive ones measure a percentage of ethylene glycol. Brewing and honey ones both measure sugars in water but honey is around 10-30% water and brewing/winemaking is 70-100% water.

 

[oliver90owner]

I used one of mine t'other day. It read 4.2%.
So I added a bag of sugar for each 4.5l in the container.

That one will def not do honey but is good for mead musts. For that one it is also very easy to check the calibration - I just make up a known sugar solution.

The honey refractometer is a bit more difficult. Single point calibration is easy enough with an oil standard, but one can also check with an internal standard by diluting any honey by known amounts and checking/setting the new readings. It is then possible to work back to the original honey sample with a bit of (mathematical) iteration. A messy, wasteful of honey (unless it is going into mead, anyway) and time consuming process.

That method is for one with no standard and of unknown or altered setting. Once done you then check the reading with an oil standard which is retained for future use. Alternatively you need to buy in a calibration standard. Personally, I would rather like the challenge of doing it myself,

Mine cost me $68US delivered in 2004. Exchange rate was good at the time - around $2 to the £. Thorne were charging £74 plus postage, at the time so I was pleased to get mine at that price, at the time. Not sure it was worth it, even now. But it was a new toy at the time.

RAB

 

[alanf]

It just didn't work, ever....no matter what I tried.
Cazza

Could be damage in transit. A hard knock can misalign the internals while it looks fine from the outside. Just from comments here and feedback on auction sites, the great majority arrive safely. A seller with a reputation to protect would replace one that was unusable.

 

[HM Honey]

My new shiny refractometer arrived today....

Any suggestions as to what I can use to calibrate it (they didnt send any callibration fluid)

 

[Dazzabee]

Which one did you go for in the end HM?

 

[oliver90owner]

You cannot calibrate it unless a) you buy in a designated calibration fluid (normally an oil), b) make up a suitable standard yourself, c) find another 'pure' oil of known refractive index or d) do as I indicated in my post.

I would respectfully suggest you follow suggestion a). Calibration fluid would likely have upped the price by a considerable sum, including getting caught for customs charges and duty collection fees, thus probably more than doubling the cost. You got exactly what you paid for.

 

[HM Honey]

You cannot calibrate it unless a) you buy in a designated calibration fluid (normally an oil), b) make up a suitable standard yourself, c) find another 'pure' oil of known refractive index or d) do as I indicated in my post.

I would respectfully suggest you follow suggestion a). Calibration fluid would likely have upped the price by a considerable sum, including getting caught for customs charges and duty collection fees, thus probably more than doubling the cost. You got exactly what you paid for.

RAB, you don't do ANYTHING respectfully....

I've actually researched it today and apparently, little old distilled water can be used (calibration is set to 0 when using distilled water, apparently)

 

[oliver90owner]

Sometimes I just give up helping.

Just do it and you tell us how you get on. I await your report back as to your success - or rather not.

I will now tell you, disrespectfully if you wish, you are talking a load of tosh. Get your apparently little old distilled water and play with it as long as you like, cos it will take a long time.

Either that or you have just bought the wrong version. CU!

 

[Moggett]

I dusted off my refractometer today and opened the oil package I had ordered a few years ago to check calibration - and it was empty! Too late now to send a snot mail to supplier in Hong Kong!

Ordered another specifically for my refractometer - Under 6USD but 5% less with voucher code ALL005.

http://www.gainexpress.com/products...esign-or-traditional-honey-brix-refractometer

Out of interest I tested some cheap supermarket honey and it was bang on 18%.

 

[oliver90owner]

Indicated 18%, or was 18%? There lies the dilema. If the calibration is out by just 0.1% it could be 17.9% or 18.1%! If it is out by1% ........ WOW. I suggest you check the calibration with some ' little old distilled water' as researched just today by the OP (see post #17). Apparently will work a treat ........ apparently....... let us know how you get on ... apparently, of course.