Brix 0-80%

This is a quality refractometer that works well. Great value.

I should have purchased this years ago! Its easy to use and my maple syrup was correct.

I now have three of these: a 0-30, which I use to judge when to move concentrating maple sap to the finisher, a 55-95, which I use to roughly judge near-finished syrup and also honey, and now a 0-80, just because. The first two are easier to read due to the narrower range (bigger numbers on the recticle), but the 0-80 is quite usable in bright light (all three have an adjustable focus on the eyepiece for vision correction). I have a big 7” calibratable Leader Evaporator maple syrup thermometer that is highly accurate for syrup sugar concentration (219 degrees F = 67.5% sugar +/-0.25% once calibrated to adjust for barometric pressure) and I find both the 55-95 and the 0-80 to be pretty accurate (+/-1-2%?). Not quite enough for production, but great to figure out when I need to pay attention. They are robust little buggers though I’ve never dropped one. I’m sure the $250+ models are much more accurate. But for my uses and at this price point, these are great. I just wish they weren’t made in China!

Seems accurate but looking in the eye piece takes practice. I found that you need to look through the bottom half of eye piece to view the reading otherwise the readings are all over the place and blurry. Even when looking through the bottom half of the eye piece the readings aren't 100% sharp are readable. The measurements are consistent from reading to reading which does give me some confidence. I did test on a 30% sugar standard (home made) and it did read 30 brix. Overall, you get what you pay for but it does seem to work well enough for my back yard maple syrup production.

Seems fairly well made and it works great. Very easy to use!

Very easy method for gauging when maple syrup is concentrated enough. It only requires a few drops of sap or partially boiled sap to get an accurate reading. Will read as low as 0% Brix which is distilled water. Maple syrup is ready at about 60 to 65% Brix. The sap before any boiling down measured about 1.5% Brix. Since you get the full range you can check at any stage to see how much more boiling away is needed. For example, if it reads 30% Brix you need to boil until it is twice as concentrated and half the volume. When taking samples of hot boiling sap with the eye dropper you do have to wait about a minute for it to cool down before measuring, but it did not seem to affect the reading accuracy much if the liquid wasn't exactly at room temperature. To avoid getting air bubbles in the thin area between the glass plates it seemed to be helpful to lay the top plate down slowly and to apply the right amount of liquid. If air bubbles do get in, it seemed easiest to just start over by wiping clean and applying new drops of liquid. It is easy to clean between readings. I wiped surfaces with a damp tissue followed by a dry tissue to dry. Highly recommended for small-scale maple syrup making.

This is the second refractometer I have purchased from this company. It is as good as the first one - calibration is spot on and this will be very useful in evaluating the sugar content of maple sap at all stages of the process of making syrup. Can't beat the price and performance.

Works great. Very impressed with the accuracy. We used this and a separate hydrometer and both had the same readings.

Very handy and easy to use device! I use it to measure brix for maple syrup and my honey. It’s very accurate, easy to use and easy to read. It’s a good quality, feels good and sturdy.

Very accurate, easy to use. A few drops and you get a readout right away. This replaced my bobber - 100% better and faster. highly recommend. Solid construction. The only flaw is that the plastic pippette melts over 100 Celcius; you might want to use a glass pippette or just a simple stainless steel skewer.

Seems to work well and accuracy seems to be spot on. Simple to use

I make maple syrup and have been doing so for 10 years, just as a hobby. But last year I bought this as I was in a friendly competition with a friend of mine. Using this I was able to refine my technique and I produced some real quality maple syrup. All I did was turn on YouTube and watched a couple of videos on how to use it and it was pretty simple. But the results last year from using this was 100% better. I wish I would have had this 10 years ago! Highly recommended…..even for the folks who just do it as a hobby.

Finally! Consistent quality for my backyard maple syrup production. Previously I was just eyeballing it based on colour and viscosity, with very mixed results. This little gizmo is a game changer. Easy to use and seems to give clear consistent results. Highly recommended.