recommend me a hydrometer

[andystone]

Any suggestions to an easy read accurate hydrometer?

Thanks

 

[ManseMasher]

http://www.geterbrewed.com/hydrometer-en/

Stevenson-Robinson are pretty good and cheap. You will need a trial jar or some such obviously. 5% discount if you use geterbrewed!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I got mine from Wilko so no postage.

Hydrometer - http://www.wilko.com/homebrew-acces...o-hydrometer-loose-wine-and-beer/invt/0022575

Plastic jar - http://www.wilko.com/homebrew-accessories+equipment/wilko-plastic-jar/invt/0022576

 

[MyQul]

I always wonder about those hydrometers with the bit of paper inside the glass. Will it slip at all and give a false reading. They seem to be the only ones on the market. Mines a plastic coopers one with the markings etched onto it which came with my coopers starter kit.

Overall though, I really rate wilko's HB stuff. It's dirt cheap, does the job and seems to last as well as any other HB kit on the market. eg. I can't rate my cheapo £10 capper highly enough. I originally bought it as a stop gap to buying a more expensive one but its seems to be going and going without fault (as I expected it to)

 

[airymary]

Just to go back to the 'easy to read' bit of the original post, I don't find the beer/wine hydrometers linked above qualify. The .970 to 1.150 scale used to accommodate the higher wine gravities puts the lines very close together. When you're trying to determine the FG, a drop of one point is significant. The trial jar will have plenty of bubbles at the top, making small differences between readings very tricky to determine.

There's hydrometers with shorter scales, but these tend to be from lab equipment suppliers, with prices to match. Work out about the same as a refractometer, which is going to be my next equipment 'upgrade'.
Cheers,

Chris

 

[Spud]

Stevenson-Robinson are pretty good and cheap.

The Steve-Rob ones I really rate, good quality, good price, readily available, easy reading. What's not to like?

The only other way to go is look at a refractometer, slightly pricier (around £20 on eBay) but only need a couple of drops to take a reading, once you set it up.

 

[Slid]

I always wonder about those hydrometers with the bit of paper inside the glass. Will it slip at all and give a false reading. They seem to be the only ones on the market. Mines a plastic coopers one with the markings etched onto it which came with my coopers starter kit.

Overall though, I really rate wilko's HB stuff. It's dirt cheap, does the job and seems to last as well as any other HB kit on the market. eg. I can't rate my cheapo £10 capper highly enough. I originally bought it as a stop gap to buying a more expensive one but its seems to be going and going without fault (as I expected it to)

You can find out whether the paper has slipped by testing it with water at 20C - this will have an SG of 1.000. If it says otherwise, you know exactly how much the correction is (to the false reading).

Physicists call this process the "calibration" of a scientific instrument, in this case, how far the paper has slipped.

 

[MyQul]

I think what I'm getting at is does the paper slip often? And how long after you've bought it does the paper begin to show signs of 'slippage'

My current coopers hydrometer is 2 points out so have to correct ("calibrate") for that.