RHINO Honey Refractometer DR301

[James M. Wagner]

Is anyone familiar with this refractometer? Recommendations (yay/nay)?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Honey-0-90-Brix-38-5-Water-33-48Be-Digital-Refractometer-with-ATC/142649182166

Thanks.

-james

[Skeggley]

At $163 it?s very expensive so it?s a nay from me.
My refractometer cost less than $25 and serves my purpose.
But I?m just a hobbyist and do quick checks after harvest for piece of mind. Perhaps if a commercial or a bulk purchaser the price may be justified. (And written off.)

[BeeMaster2]

James,
My wife bought me a Palm Abbe digital refactometer.


Your unit looks like it works similar to this one.
I really like the Palm Abbe. You just put a little honey over the center dot and push a button and it gives you the percentage. 
Jim Altmiller

[James M. Wagner]

Thanks. It's $149, shipping included. The Great State of Tennessee will pay for half of it. Most refractometers only go down to 12%. I like that this one goes down to 5%, or so it seems. I wonder if it is as accurate as they claim and I wonder about the quality.

[BeeMaster2]

James,
12% is lower than honey can go as far as I know.
I have had 16% honey and it is really thick. I can?t imagine what 12 percent would bee like.
Jim Altmiller

[James M. Wagner]

I have some that I believe to be less than 12%. Took a sample to a friend's house and used their analog eyepiece-type refractometer. It measured 12. Later, I got a "loaner" ASAGO digital unit. It measured 12%, again. When I was a small kid, we'd go to Gatlinburg for a day every year to see the indians and the bears. (That was a few years ago and was our "vacation".) I used to like standing out in front of the candy shop watching the taffy pulling machine. This honey is not that thick, but very close. I inadvertently left it in a bucket with a double strainer (400 and 200 micron, IIRC) in a very small utility room/closet with a dehumidifier for about a year. When I first got to it, I believe it could have been pulled through that taffy machine.

[BeeMaster2]

Sounds like you could make Salt water taffy l honey. 😀 That sounds real interesting. You could sell that at a real premium price.
I wonder if you can make it on a large he scale by slowly dripping it from bucket to bucket?

Jim Altmiller

[Skeggley]

I remember when eyepiece refractometers cost a small fortune, back in my machining days we used them for checking coolant levels in water and more recently glycol levels in chilled water systems. They were heavy and well made. Too expensive for the tradie to own so usually the company had 1 to share. Now I have 2, one Brix for honey and one for salt for my AP set up, both were less than $25 Aus and feel cheap but are easy to calibrate and accurate when calibrated. Both are ranged within my needs and only used a couple of times a year. Definitely handy units for a hobbyist such as myself.
Pre beekeeping I remember cleaning out my mothers house and finding a sealed tin of Tasmanian leatherwood honey sitting at the back in the pantry and it was old. It had crystallised rock hard. I chipped some out and it was a dark clear glass like chip. It was a beautiful old tin I thought about keeping but it went in the bin because I thought the honey had gone off. Wishing I had kept it now and think that if I could replicate it?s boiled sweet hardness there?d be a market for it.