HM Digital Refractometer - Your thoughts?

Hey folks,

Anyone in here had any experience with the HM Digital RCM 1000 refractometer?

We’ve been loaned one to try out, and I’m having very mixed results with it regarding consistency and also how it reads in comparison with the VST refractometer.

  • It seems to be very inconsistent in terms of reading the same sample within the space of 30 seconds, if I turn off the device, turn it back on and read the sample it can be vastly different, whereas the VST and Atago seem to hold near enough the same reading over a fair few minutes.

  • In general, possibly due to the lack of a filter, it’s readings are always much higher than the VST. That being said, the Atago doesn’t use a filter and I find that to be pretty darn close to the VST.
    I trust the VST, and as nice as it is to be told your espresso appears to be extracting at the best of its capabilities, my sensorial experience doesn’t match up with the HM readings.

I know Socratic coffee are in the middle of testing this device out, but I’m keen to hear other peoples experiences.