Happy birthday to Mr. and Mrs. BFL!!!
Finally! I know how old you are. I get it now all the ice cream around for your Paramode experiments. When the dentures are in the shop... you can still get a little protein. Heh heh heh.
Great post, Mex! You've probably given that same sermon, in one form or another, several dozen times. Sure seems a fair gesture to give you that sticky. And hopefully clean it up from posts like this one.
My $.02 on the glass float hydrometers: I tested 3 them on brand new batteries, i.e. with reasonable expectations of where the SG should be. They all displayed the same results which were also right at said expectations. They also have given me expected results after a known draw over a known time has been applied.
I can get them at Bi-Mart here in the NW for about $3.89. Maybe 5 bucks at O'Reilley's. In some circles they are known as KendallP's Aussie hydrometers.
Lacking a built-in thermometer, I simply take some readings with my infrared unit. SG readings are taken immediately, so I'm very comfortable with the accuracy. Then I use a chart for compensation.
The trick is to keep the inner tube mostly dry so the top of the float doesn't stick to the sides.
IMHO, the plastic ball and the floaty arrow-types are complete junk
