Milwaukee Digital Salinity Refractometer

[Calireefer92]

Hey everyone just bought the Milwaukee refractometer and it comes with the calibration solution and the solution is 1.025 but it is reading at 1.023 any ideas why? Need help

 

[NowGlazeIT]

Hey everyone just bought the Milwaukee refractometer and it comes with the calibration solution and the solution is 1.025 but it is reading at 1.023 any ideas why? Need help

I think you need to zero it. Using distilled or Ro/di calibrate the refractometer to zero

 

[Calireefer92]

I think you need to zero it. Using distilled or Ro/di calibrate the refractometer to zero

I tried that using ro/di and the solution they gave me to zero it out and then I tried the 1.025 solution and it reads 1.023

 

[NowGlazeIT]

Ohhh okay that’s not good. Are you 100% sure the ro/di used contained zero tds

 

[Calireefer92]

Ohhh okay that’s not good. Are you 100% sure the ro/di used contained zero tds

Yes I make my own ro/di and it reads zero. And I just got the Milwaukee in last night and just tried it out today. So I used the solution they gave me and tried my ro/di and it’s still off

 

[Mr.Z]

Yes I make my own ro/di and it reads zero. And I just got the Milwaukee in last night and just tried it out today. So I used the solution they gave me and tried my ro/di and it’s still off

I just got one this past weekend and am having the same issue (reading 1.024 instead of 1.025) even after calibrating. I’ve reached out to customer service at Milwaukee, but have gotten no response yet. Will update if I hear anything.

 

[Crabby48]

Yes I make my own ro/di and it reads zero. And I just got the Milwaukee in last night and just tried it out today. So I used the solution they gave me and tried my ro/di and it’s still off

I think the accuracy is .002. Did you try to test your tank water with it? Is it read the same as your last tester?

 

[Calireefer92]

I think the accuracy is .002. Did you try to test your tank water with it? Is it read the same as your last tester?

my tank read 1.024 and when I used my ice cap salinity pen it read 1.025 and I used the ice cap pen on the solution that the Milwaukee and it read 1.022

 

[Calireefer92]

I just got one this past weekend and am having the same issue (reading 1.024 instead of 1.025) even after calibrating. I’ve reached out to customer service at Milwaukee, but have gotten no response yet. Will update if I hear anything.

Let me know if you hear anything

 

[NowGlazeIT]

I’m getting mine tomorrow so i will also chime in with my experience. I wonder if the calibration fluid is off

 

[Mr.Z]

I’m getting mine tomorrow so i will also chime in with my experience. I wonder if the calibration fluid is off

I’m thinking / hoping it’s just the fluid because the reading has been consistently wrong by the same amount.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

Okay so I used both calibrating solutions on a new MA887. The device read 1.026 using the 1.025 calibration fluid provided by milwaukee.

 

[Saltyreef]

Mine also runs 1.024 on the validation solution. But its within its error accuracy as stated above.
I just compensate and run my tank at 1.026 to 1.027.
Sucks but atleast its consistant.
Thats why some people like the conductivity meters to read their salinity.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

Did you get one of these info cards? It says to use distilled water only?

 

[Malifry97]

Did you get one of these info cards? It says to use distilled water only?

Interesting...

 

[UWC]

When you are zeroing or testing, cup your hand over the sensor so that it is in total darkness. This helps us get super consistent results :)

 

[Crabby48]

Mine also runs 1.024 on the validation solution. But its within its error accuracy as stated above.
I just compensate and run my tank at 1.026 to 1.027.
Sucks but atleast its consistant.
Thats why some people like the conductivity meters to read their salinity.

My apex and Hanna salinity/temp I believe are both conductivity and are within .0005 of each other. 3 other Hanna’s read the same also.
Milwaukee and 1 other handheld refractometers read within .002 of each other but .002 higher then apex and Hanna.

what I noticed is conductivity is a great way to measure but the industry like salt manufactures must not use conductivity because when I do it won’t match salt manufactures parameters.When I use refractometers it will match.

 

[Saltyreef]

My apex and Hanna salinity/temp I believe are both conductivity and are within .0005 of each other. 3 other Hanna’s read the same also.
Milwaukee and 1 other handheld refractometers read within .002 of each other but .002 higher then apex and Hanna.

what I noticed is conductivity is a great way to measure but the industry like salt manufactures must not use conductivity because when I do it won’t match salt manufactures parameters.When I use refractometers it will match.

Very interesting observation!

 

[Mr.Z]

Finally received a response. Will give this a try.

“You may just need to be sure your lens is clean --- Clean the base lens with Windex using a heavy Windex soaked Q-Tip or cotton ball – Then flush the Windex out of the pan by using the pipette we provide with “Steam Distilled Water” & do 2 or 3 loads of the pan and extract the distilled water using the pipette [ you MUST use “Steam Distilled Water” ] and then -- load the pan ½ way with “steam distilled water” ( you can’t use RO or DI water for this unit ) and press “zero” by doing this you are sure no residual refraction material is on the lens– if the error message continues then put in fresh battery and try calibration again and if all this fails then contact us.”

 

[Opus]

I wonder if the unit was changed in the last few years. My unit is probably 5+ years old and I don't remember getting any solutions with it. I also thought I remember it stating you could use distilled or RO water to calibrate it. I've always used RO/DI and it reads my calibration solution correctly and it and my hanna read the same.

I wonder if they say no RO now because to many people were using RO water with a high tds that was effecting the calibration.