📏 Milwaukee Instruments MA871-BOX Digital Brix Sugar Refractometer with Protective Padded Case for General Measurements Review

Great product, does what it is supposed to do and in initial comparison to other methods Brix was very accurate. Just follow the cleaning instructions. The hard-shell case is also a great purchase, made for the device and has protected it from damage on the street and concrete floor several times.

I use this product for our maple sugar process. There are other models on the market and some of them seem to be labeled and sold for Maple Sugaring in a way that blows them up. This device does the job, is temperature compensated and works as advertised. I've used it for measuring juice and syrup all season long and find it well done and useful.

Our team of scientists have struggled to get results in the field with this device we trust. At room temperature with a sample at exactly the same temperature, with an instrument calibrated to the same temperature, with distilled water at the same temperature, the results are more accurate.

This is a decent Brix meter for sugar solutions (drinks, syrups, etc.). This device is designed and calibrated for sugar (presumably sucrose). This doesn't mean it will work with beer and other liquids you might want to measure in Brix. All the people complaining that it's not as accurate as their brewing hygrometers are right - it's not meant for brewing. It was developed to measure sugar dissolved in a solution.

I was looking for a better option than a traditional refractometer for my brew. I found this device and decided to give it a try. At first I was incredibly impressed. It's incredibly accurate and easy to use. Or so I thought. Over time, the device became increasingly inaccurate. To use the device now, I would have to believe that the physics in my house stopped working. He reads the same before cooking and after cooking. That can't be, physicists are real boys. I keep my device clean by storing

This is a decent instrument for measuring Brix in sugar solutions (drinks, syrups etc). This device is designed and calibrated for sugar (presumably sucrose). This doesn't mean it will work with beer and other liquids you might want to measure in Brix. All the people complaining that it's not as accurate as their brewing hygrometers are right - it's not meant for brewing. It was developed to measure sugar dissolved in a solution.

After using this product for several months, we have determined that this product is not accurate. We calibrate it with distilled water each time before use and it doesn't seem to make a difference. We did a comparison of three different hydrometers versus the MA871 box and all hydrometers gave very similar readings, but the MA871 consistently gave much lower readings. (IE 1.070 on hydrometer versus 12.37 Brix = 1.050). We took both hot and cold readings, and the hot readings were even further…

I have used this to check the wort density in the last 5 batches of beer. I got conflicting results - for example I pressed the read button, waited a few seconds and pressed it again, and the two readings often differed by 0.5 degrees. I emailed the company and got a quick response. The email indicated that the problem was likely caused by debris stuck to the lens. The letter was illiterate and seemed hastily written, so I will not publish it here. Below I have listed the procedure I am…