Beer Forum

Has anyone bought one of the cheap refractometers off ebay? They are available for about £20.00 ($40.00) including post from hongkong.
I need a refractometer and was thinking about getting one but I don't want one of these cheap ones if they are not accurate or will be broken easily.

i bought a cheap one off ebay for about $25, it was new and it seems pretty sturdy, but as far as accuracy I have no idea if the readings I get from it are true

Yeah... I bought one and it worked fine... Make sure it has the correct Brix scale... Some are not designed for beer and wine.

I have one. Put some friggin tap water on there and calibrate it. Works great.

Push E.

I got one for $25 bucks, nice plastic case and a little screw driver to use for calibration included. ATC model. Works great.

Thanks all.

I'll get one.

I have one also. I think I paid $60 for mine. ATC. My only complaint is that the ring that holds the piece that suishes the Wort into the glass keeps falling off. I gotta get a drop of Super Glue to fix that bugger.


As far as readings go, for the first few Batches, my readings between my Hydrometer and refractor were way off. So now, I keep my refractor at room temp. I then cool my wort in my Hydrometer flask, and I take a Hydrometer reading when the Wort in the flask is at about 60 degrees, and I then take a refractor reading also. My readings between the two are exaclty the same. If not, they are decimals apart and I go with the refractor reading. So, yeah. All in all, I think it was a good purchase.

Sheen wrote:I got one for $25 bucks, nice plastic case and a little screw driver to use for calibration included. ATC model. Works great.

Got mine for just about that price, ATC model. It works very well and seems real damn similar to the ones you'll pay twice as much for elsewhere.