Antifreeze Refractometer ℃ 4-in-1

I had the old Prestone squeeze bulb device that seems to have served me well for the last 30 or 35 years. However, on my last coolant exchange on on3 of my vehicles, it was telling me the freeze protection was only down to 20 below....even though I had mixed the concentrated antifreeze with 50% distilled water...which should protect down to about 34 below. I checked, double checked, and checked a couple of my other vehicles and it again said about 20 below. I started looking for other options, and this product popped up. Reviews looked good, and there are several others available through other companies,....but most read in Celsius, and this one reads in Fahrenheit....which is what I'm familiar with. It works great and showed me I was protected down to 34 below....which seems right given my 50/50 mix. Easy enough to use, but you do have to wipe it down when done. Comes with a nice padded case to store it in. I'm very happy!

Works great! Priced right

This is my first refractometer, so was a little aprehensive about using one at first. There was no need. SUPER easy to use, and this particular one seems great. Comes in a little plastic case with foam lining to keep it safe and secure. Includes a tiny screwdriver for adjusting the calibration. It can be focused to perfect clarity, even if you wear glasses (I myself wear progressive bifocals). One note on that "clarity" piece. If you look through it without any liquid on the glass, you'll probably need to point it at a very bright light to see the measuring scales. Do not fret. As soon as you put a few drops of applicable liquid on the glass and close the little plastic cover over it, the view will be bright and clear in ambient lighting. After getting everything into focus, the first thing to do is calibrate the unit. Place a few drops of distilled water on the glass and close the plastic cover. The water should completely cover the glass, with no gaps. Wipe off any overflow from around the edges. Look through the lens to see the line where the white meets the blue. That should be at 32 F (the freezing point of water). If it is not (mine was about 1 degree off), then you need to calibrate it. Pull the rubber cap off of the adjustment port on the top side of the device. Grab the little screwdriver, slot it into the screw head, and while looking through the lens at the scale, slowly turn the screwdriver one way or the other, until the line is exactly on 32 degrees. It is now calibrated and ready to use. Great little tool that is super easy to use!

I’m not a mechanic so no access to expensive test equipment, but wanted to COMPARE this test device to the old school method which use the floating balls. I had to order a new hydrometer ( old style) to do the comparison, old one broke. I NEED to know the freeze level, as I am storing a car in the mountains of Colorado. Once calibrated ( easy) I feel the refractometer is more accurate than the old hydrometer method. Highly recommend.

This tool is excellent fir the price. The eye piece is exactly as pictured, case is good, comes with tiny screwdriver (not sure why) and sample dropper. The unit is all plastic. I prefer my brix to have aluminum housing and scratch resistant glass samples surface, however those easily exceed $200. This tool is a great buy, i would buy again

Well, I was tired of trying to be cheap and use a bulb/float type of antifreeze tester. I had the old unit for a long time and I was not sure if it would give me an accurate reading any longer. So, I decided to pay just a couple of bucks more for this fractometer. There are many on the market, but I tried the Amazon pick. :-) This one is pretty much an industry standard model probabaly made by the same manufacturer and renamed. That's fine with me. But this one has the temerature index in fahremheit! So that was kind of neat to me. It comes with a little screw driver, in case you have to set the base line! (Mine was perfect and calibrated out of the box.) It comes with a little pipett to take your sample with. And of course you get the very nice fractometer. And last but not least it comes in a pretty nice plastic carrying case that has foam protectores and a short set of instruction on how to use it. This unit came to my home very quickly; Infact one day early!! :-) I don't have anything negative to say at this point. My friends like me checking their antifreeze and giving them an accurate freeze level. I feel, besides not changing your oil, the next killer of the modern automotive engine is not making sure your antifreeze gets changed and that it has the proper mixture, then accurately tested with this unit. It feels good to use this unit compared to the old cheap floating style of tester because you can actually see the freeze point without guessing from a floating piece of plastic that may be broken down from time. I am not a professional mechanic, but I am learned very well in automotive technology. So, that is my opinion that may not weigh well with an engineer or other scientist or some erudites. But as an average Joe, I think you will enjoy having this unit in your arsonal of tools. =KL=

Glad I tried this Refractometer and discovered my decades old floating balls tester reads over 25 degrees off/low, so I was adding concentrated antifreeze, going above a 60/40 mix. New distilled water showed calibration was accurate out of the box. This tester is easy to use, and new 50/50 premixed ethylene type antifreeze stating -34F protection out of the jug also reads accurate on this.

I am a 35 year retired auto technician, this is not an accurate instrument. It is nothing more than a childs toy. Cannot read the scale and cannot even make out the Propylene or ethylene. There are NO adjustments that actually work.