Milwaukee Digital Refractometer

robbrouse · Jan 10, 2014

What model should I be looking for. I see 2 or 3 of them.

maidia · Jan 10, 2014

I asked most of people using this one

Milwaukee MA887 Digital Salinity Refractometer with Automatic Temperature Compensation, Yellow LED, 0 to 50 PSU, +/-2 PSU Accuracy, 1 PSU Resolution: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

robbrouse · Jan 10, 2014

Thank you.. I want to get one and wanted to make sure I did drop $100 on the wrong one..

ReefKeeper09 · Jan 10, 2014

I use the MA887 myself. It works beautifully!

DrewBrees713 · Jan 12, 2014

Ma887 myself. Though I had to return the first one because the numbers jumped all over the place. The one I have now works flawlessly.

The Flying Turkey · Mar 12, 2014

ReefKeeper09 said:
I use the MA887 myself. It works beautifully!

I just got one. Can you use RO/DI water to calibrate or do you use distilled water?

Zacco · Mar 12, 2014

You should be using 2 buffer solutions to calibrate. PH 7.01 and PH 10.1 Milwaukee sells both. " two point calibration" . During a two - point calibration, the microprocessor based ph meter determines the real slope and offset error for the actual ph electrode.

Zacco · Mar 12, 2014

Sorry guys. Disregard my last post. Thats for a digital ph tester.

Zacco · Mar 12, 2014

I need to read the threads more carefully. My bad. But you still should be using a 1.025 calibration solution to dial in your meter.

robbrouse · Mar 13, 2014

It states in the manual that you can use RO/CI or distilled water and it tells you to calibrate before every use. You do not need a solution.

The Flying Turkey · Mar 13, 2014

robbrouse said:
It states in the manual that you can use RO/CI or distilled water and it tells you to calibrate before every use. You do not need a solution.

Perfect. I've got tons of RO/DI water!

7hogwarts · Mar 13, 2014

I have one too. Love It.

Zacco · Mar 13, 2014

Calibration fluid is tightly controlled and consistent by design. Not so with RO RO/DI. It is whatever the filter puts out and can be varied. When calibrating anything you want to use a solution which is as close to what you are measuring as possible. Think about it. Your targeting 1.025 and your dialing your meter in at 0.00 with RO or DI at unknown variables .

Gonefishing · Mar 13, 2014

I called the company when i receive mine, the guy i talked to recommend distilled water

The Flying Turkey · Mar 13, 2014

Zacco said:
Calibration fluid is tightly controlled and consistent by design. Not so with RO RO/DI. It is whatever the filter puts out and can be varied. When calibrating anything you want to use a solution which is as close to what you are measuring as possible. Think about it. Your targeting 1.025 and your dialing your meter in at 0.00 with RO or DI at unknown variables .

Do you own a Milwaukee MA887? Nowhere in the instruction book does it say to use calibration fluid. In fact, when you push the calibration button, it calibrates to 0.0 not 1.025.

So using calibration fluid (which is 1.025) to zero the instrument would really screw you up.

Zacco · Mar 15, 2014

How do you know that your RO RO/DI water is 0.0?

The Flying Turkey · Mar 16, 2014

Zacco said:
How do you know that your RO RO/DI water is 0.0?

0.0 salt? I'm pretty sure.

Zacco · Mar 16, 2014

Are you sure your RO RO/DI has no trace salt content in it? How many stage is the RO/DI unit? How exhausted are the membranes? What is the TDS reading? When you calibrate using o as your base, you are way too far away from your testing scale for all kinds of anomalies. This is why I kinda don't understand why electronic refractometers (Milwaukee) dont have an option to calibrate to anything but 1.000, or ro/di. There is no way to calibrate it to 1.025. Does'nt make much sense to me. If a refractometer has a deviation or margin of error of 1% per .001, that means that if you calibrate it to 1.000 with DI Water, that reading 1.025 might be as much as 25% off. Granted, this is a highly exaggerated situation for the purposes of explanation. That's why I only use a "Dial" in meter. I can take a know calibration solution of 1.025 and know my meter is dead on.