$21.99 Refractometer for Battery, Anti-freeze, and DEF
Check out this $21.99 refractometer on Amazon. Lotta bang for the buck. Received it yesterday. Seems reasonably well-made and appears to work as advertised.
Forum Discussion
LIKE2BUILD wrote:The_real_wild1 wrote:
Makes sure you clean it with water after using it. Especially with def.
Exactly. DEF will leave crystalline deposits so flushing with water is a must after measuring a sample.
Get DISTILLED water from a store. You can usually get it for 99 cents/gallon. Do not use Deionized (DI) water because it is highly polarized from the ion exchange process and can attack some metals. Distilled water has been boiled to remove salts and metal ions and the steam condensed over chilled coils. It is a much better water to use for flushing devices like this refractometer, topping off batteries, or diluting full strength engine coolant.
KJ
I agree that DI water can be corrosive. But read the label on your distilled water jug. Is it really distilled, or is it processed through reverse osmosis? At least around here all the distilled water I see in the store is actually RO water. But it works the same...
We always have a jug of distilled (RO) water in the house because it doesn't cause the iron to scale up. When I need a shot for a battery top off I just head to the laundry room. And when I've bought some for a coolant change the leftovers go in the house to use in the iron too.
