Originally posted by pgseye
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I shanghaied a friends medical laser refractometer (probably $200K worth, as that seems normal cost for most of his gear) for a long weekend a couple of years ago. We ran a mountain of espresso tests (and still ran out of time). No idea what cheaper ones are like in terms of accuracy. FYI, this one had one gotcha - if the particles were coarsely shaped (done deliberately by the owner as a demo) turning it around (or just shaking it up and down) and firing the laser in at different angles varied the readings markedly. Before we got serious, we proved that espresso readings were OK, however plungers weren't always consistent. BTW, we also used his 0.001g scales for the dosing (one single ground makes a difference to the reading!) which was a PITA to do, but actually helped a lot in terms of shot measurements & consistency.
I agree with Samuel's post - if you do not know what you are tasting for, it would probably just confuse the hell out of you. Which one of the dozen or so variables are you working on? It is really more of a lab test instrument - to the point that I suspect most of the CS / cafe* ones spend 99% of their time in a drawer somewhere.
Even after you know what you are doing with espresso I doubt it would rate much higher than curiosity after one session. I would suggest you find a cafe with one* and see if they will let you play with it (on site if necessary) rather than investing in one. It is unlikely to be heavily used.
TampIt

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