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Milwaukee MA871 Digital Sugar Refractometer with Automatic Temp Compensation, Yellow LED, 0 to 85 percent Brix, +/- 0.2 percent Accuracy, 0.1 percent Resolution is suitable for a wide range of professional applications.
Manufacturer Contact Information
Milwaukee Instruments, Inc. 2950 Business Park Drive, Rocky Mount, NC 27804 United States Call Us: +1 252 443 3630 from 8 AM to 5 PM Eastern
Melissa
Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2025
Worked great! I bought with the hopes of making maple syrup easier after my old hydrometer failed me on my last batch. The MOST important thing I can say is read the instructions before you use it! I was trying to figure it out and was having issues but those issues were user error! If testing a sample that is not room temperature you most wait till the sample heats the sensor area up to get a proper reading which the instructions say.
Customer
Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2024
I use this refractomer to measure the brix of a rye mash, which is too thick to measure by hydrometer. Seems to do the job just fine. At any rate, the rye is good.
Customer
Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2024
As a legal moonshiner, this instrument is an absolute requirement for maximizing alcohol potential when mashing!!
Bubba P.
Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2024
It seems accurate, and it's lasting.We use it everyday at our lab and it's keeping up well.
bakes
Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2022
The product information claims that this is "ideal" for beer brewing but I would argue it is at best of limited use and at worst totally useless. If you are planning to buy this product for your beer brewing you will not be happy with it.If I could return this unit and get back my money on this purchase I would but unfortunately I was too slow in realizing the issue.I was really looking forward to using the brix meter for my beer brewing. The ease of use and increase in efficiency would greatly simplify brew and bottling days. However, after a few months of missing my expected gravity readings and agonizing about what I was doing wrong on the brewing process, I started questioning the accuracy of the readings. I compared to a reading using a glass hydrometer and realized my brix meter was way off and reading about 3 brix higher than what the manual reading showed (the hydrometer reading was bang on my expected gravity). I did read some product reviews later about the accuracy at lower brix (below 20) being inaccurate which I wish I would have seen earlier.There is another unit made by this brand that measures brix from 0 to 50 whereas this one measures from 0 to 85. Perhaps the other unit is more accurate? I have no idea but I'm not interested in buying another unit to test out if this is true.Overall I would say that I am very disappointed with this product because this it is pretty expensive and it did not meet my expectations. It should be clear in the description of the product that certain ranges are more accurate than others if this is the case.I would definitely not recommend this product for beer brewing use.
Clerc Marc
Reviewed in France on December 8, 2022
Conforme à la description
Cwalker
Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2022
Sent product back to Amazon. It looked like a nice piece of equipment but it was much larger than I had hoped for. I needed to be able to carry it with me while working and this item should stay on your table top.
Ken
Reviewed in Mexico on November 19, 2021
Varía mucho si se realizan varias lecturas de una misma muestra
A J Hansen-MacGillivray
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 21, 2021
Great product for quickly testing sugar at the vineyard. Very quick to set up and super easy to use!
Customer
Reviewed in Canada on June 20, 2020
I bought 3 of these for the sauce and beverage business I work for to replace the hand held manual refractometers. The human error/variation has been eliminated, and we're able to dial in the product without the "Drift" we see in product consistency from batch to batch. Inexpensive enough to justify for a home business and a rugged enough for strategic placement within a factory environment to reduce wasted trips to a larger version. Not as convenient as a small hand held Atago refractometer, but far less likely to be lost or broken. Challenge testing (using all 3 at once) consistently provides identical readings on samples with a Brix of near zero and up to 77 (the max is rated to 85.0). I feel the trade-off is worth it and will buy again if we ever need another. Highly recommend and am very pleased with the product.
Judy
Reviewed in Canada on November 27, 2020
MUCH better than a traditional refractometer. i use it for CNC cutting fluid. the traditional method of measuring the brix is difficult to read. This nit is working excellent.
Bubbles
Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2017
My Hanna digital refractometer failed after light use for 3 years. The Milwaukee Instruments digital refractometer is an identical unit, same accuracy and specifications, same configuration, shape, etc. but in a different color. Moreover, both units are manufactured in Europe, I would suggest by the same manufacture who only changes the outer case for each company. The Milwaukee Instruments versions is way less expensive. I use the device for my home brewing hobby and am tremendously pleased. I have compared both OG and FG to hydrometer measurements and have found no difference. Also, I find the digital refractometer well worth the investment as compared to standard refractometers - no more looking through a small eyepiece, no need for calculations to correct for temperature, etc.
M. Coffing
Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2014
I purchased this to use for processing birch syrup. The instructions were brief but easily understandable to a new user. The 9 volt battery, which came with it, was a bit difficult to install. The space for the battery was just large enough to allow room for the battery. It did fit, however, the battery wire was pinched a bit and I was concerned with damaging it. No damage resulted, however, and the unit worked as it should. I had to spread the terminal connector a bit to get it to connect to the battery. My first attempt to make birch syrup was a resounding success and I could not have done it without a good refractomoter such as this. I also used it to measure the sugar content of our beer and wine. I suggest purchasing additional pippets. Two came with the unit but you will likely need more. Packaging could have been better.
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