Refractometer reading and temperature

[Davelin]

In this exceptionally warm weather we are currently enjoying my honey is runnier than it would normally be.

Will this affect the reading on a refractometer, my guess is that as the refractometer is calibrated at 20C and with it being nearer 30 at the moment the reading would indicate a higher than actual water content as the honey is thinner and would have a lower refractive index?

Don't know, which is why I ask, anyone got a definitive answer?

 

[alldigging]

Can you cool some honey down and test it again?

 

[Davelin]

Good plan, have just popped a jar in the fridge.

Will report back on results later!

 

[Bosleeu]

In this exceptionally warm weather we are currently enjoying my honey is runnier than it would normally be.

Will this affect the reading on a refractometer, my guess is that as the refractometer is calibrated at 20C and with it being nearer 30 at the moment the reading would indicate a higher than actual water content as the honey is thinner and would have a lower refractive index?

Don't know, which is why I ask, anyone got a definitive answer?

We use refractometers at work, often on samples that have been in the fridge. As I understand it they basically measure the strength of a solution ie the sugar content of the honey. The reading should to my reasoning not be temperature dependent provided the honey does not start to crystallise.

Thus I doubt between 20 and 30 degrees there will be a significant difference. Happy to be proved wrong though that's just a bit of reasoning rather than fact on my part.

 

[oliver90owner]

Most refractometers have auto temperature compensation (ATC) these days.

Viscosity has nothing to do with it, only temperature - and the difference is hardly worth worrying about in the greater scheme of things. These are hand-held jobbies, not laboratory instruments.

RAB

 

[Bosleeu]

Thanks.

Ours are nothing fancy, looks the same as honey ones. We check how concentrated urine is, mainly to give us an idea if the kidneys are working well.

 

[Davelin]

Right, tested after 4 hrs in the fridge, exactly the same reading.
Thanks for the replies

 

[enrico]

Right, tested after 4 hrs in the fridge, exactly the same reading.
Thanks for the replies

What the honey or your kidneys!
E

 

[Davelin]

What the honey or your kidneys!
E

Hmmm... Could certainly do with sitting in the fridge!!

 

[oliver90owner]

Right, tested after 4 hrs in the fridge, exactly the same reading.

It would be. By the time your couple of drops on the refractometer had been squashed to a thin film, that honey would be as close to ambient temperature as to make no odds. It would at least need the refractometer to be left in the fridge and re-read at the lower temperature.

Is your instrument not an ATC version? Most are. Only costs a couple quid extra to buy the ATC model.