Refractometer- looking to buy one

[ChristopherMichael]

I'm looking at buying a refractometer and was wondering if anybody owns one. Could you post a small review of which one you have and what brix range you usually work in. Chefrubber sells them anywhere from $135 to $400 and before I spend that kind of money I was hoping to here from people that own one and what they think.

[tim]

Chris,

I have no experience using a refractometer. Northern Brewer, a reliable wine making supplier sells one for $60.

Northern Brewer Brix Refractometer

Tim

[Kerry Beal]

Mine doesn't have any identifying marks on it. I got the hospital lab to order it in for me from their supply catalogue. It goes from 48 to 84 Brix.

I see lots of similar ones on E-bay - look for the ones for honey.

I use it for pates de fruit and for the sugar syrup for panning jelly beans.

[stscam]

EBay often has good deals on refractometers. I bought one for less than $100 that runs the scale from 0-80 Brix. I mainly use this to measure sugar in fruit pulp and puree. I also have a more expensive one I bought through Previn in Philadelphia. It's made by Atago and has a range from 58-90 Brix. This we use for our pate de fruit.

When using a refractometer be very careful how you clean the surface of the glass receptor. It can easily be scratched, and then it won't give accurate readings. You also should calibrate them from time to time. Because the EBay unit goes down to 0 Brix, you can use distilled water to set the zero point. The Atago requires a special solution that is surprisingly expensive.

I swear by these things for accuracy in confectionery work. Good luck.

Steve Smith

[mrose]

Mine doesn't have any identifying marks on it.  I got the hospital lab to order it in for me from their supply catalogue.  It goes from 48 to 84 Brix.

I see lots of similar ones on E-bay  - look for the ones for honey.

I use it for pates de fruit and for the sugar syrup for panning jelly beans.

←

Which end of the range is most important to be able to capture?

[Kerry Beal]

Mine doesn't have any identifying marks on it.  I got the hospital lab to order it in for me from their supply catalogue.  It goes from 48 to 84 Brix.

I see lots of similar ones on E-bay  - look for the ones for honey.

I use it for pates de fruit and for the sugar syrup for panning jelly beans.

←

Which end of the range is most important to be able to capture?

←

I'd say the high end for the pates de fruit.

[John DePaula]

Mine doesn't have any identifying marks on it.  I got the hospital lab to order it in for me from their supply catalogue.  It goes from 48 to 84 Brix.

I see lots of similar ones on E-bay  - look for the ones for honey.

I use it for pates de fruit and for the sugar syrup for panning jelly beans.

←

Which end of the range is most important to be able to capture?

←

I'd say the high end for the pates de fruit.

←

Yep, you're looking for about 75 brix for pates de fruits.

[ChristopherMichael]

Thanks everyone. I do have one more question. When you use one of those meters with the viewer, is it hard to read what the brix is? Does it give you a number or color? Chefrubber has an automatic one that gives you a digital readout. Is it worth the extra cash for the digital readout or is it very easy to use the one with the viewer? I want something that is very easy to use, because I don't want anyone making mistakes and costing me money if they read the reading wrong.

[John DePaula]

Thanks everyone. I do have one more question. When you use one of those meters with the viewer, is it hard to read what the brix is? Does it give you a number or color? Chefrubber has an automatic one that gives you a digital readout. Is it worth the extra cash for the digital readout or is it very easy to use the one with the viewer? I want something that is very easy to use, because I don't want anyone making mistakes and costing me money if they read the reading wrong.

←

Chef Rubber Refractometers

That's pretty cool, having a digital readout. Not sure it's worth the extra bucks.

I have a Sper Scientific that I bought from jbprince. It's a nice piece of equipment but I do have to fiddle with the light a bit to get a good reading. Mine allows you to flip it so that you can read high and low brix ranges.

[Kerry Beal]

It's a bit hard to read with certain colours, but using a bright light and twisting it to focus you can usually read the brix.

[Nathan Kurz]

I recently bought a Misco Palm Abbe from Coolant Consultants. It's a digital model that goes from 0-56 Brix, and costs a little less than $300. I've been using it for adapting sorbet and ice cream recipes to the Pacojet.

Generally, it's been great. It's dead simple to use, and seems quite accurate (or at least consistent). There have been a couple times when when I've maxed out the scale trying to measure very thick syrups, but it's been fine for all finished products.

The only potential weakness (other than cost) has been temperature stability. While it does do automatic temperature compensation, if you are starting with a frozen substance you often have to wait 60-90 seconds for it to melt completely.

I don't have much experience with the manual meters, but my impression is that if you need something that can be read by an employee with minimal training, digital is the way to go.

[ChristopherMichael]

I want to thank everyone for participating in the thread. I think I'm going to go with the digital readout, which will probably save me some headaches in the long run.