I have three Tilt hydrometers (two first generation, and one second generation) that are great for monitoring my beers. Two of them have dead or dying batteries and I've seen a bit of liquid ingress into them. I decided to give them all a good clean inside and out.
I started by removing the end caps. The first generation has two end caps, and the second generation has one. I removed the Tilt from the case and gave the case a good clean with isopropyl alcohol. I installed new Energizer CR123A batteries in all the Tilts. I removed the o-rings from the caps, cleaned them with alcohol and applied keg lube to them. After reseating the o-rings, I re-inserted the Tilt into the case, pushed it down so it sat next to the bottom, and screwed on the end caps hand tight (too tight and the o-ring will deform).
My red first-generation tilt had some other brand of battery with a different weight so I decided to recalibrate all of them. I have switched from using the Tilt app to @Thorrak's TiltBridge app running on a TTGO T-Display ESP32 running a version that has my new calibration code for the TiltBridge platform. I calibrated against my Milwaukee MA871 refractometer, as that's the most accurate and easiest to use tool I have for measuring gravity.
I left 5 liters of tap water sat out overnight so that it would warm up to room temperature and enabled temperature correction in the TiltBridge app.
I chose my calibration solutions to range from 1.000 to 1.083 by using an initial 250g/1l water 20 Brix solution and diluting it in the following steps:
Checking with my refractometer, my solutions were within 0.1 Brix of the target. I then recorded the Tilt readings for each solution and entered the refractometer reading and the Tilt reading into the Calibration tab on TiltBridge.
Here's the readings of the three tilts in tap water compared to my refractometer before calibration:
After updating and applying the calibration in TiltBridge, my orange (2nd gen) and green (1st gen) tilts are within a gravity point of the correct reading. The red tilt still seems a bit off, but that was the one that had the most liquid inside so it may be kaput.
I started by removing the end caps. The first generation has two end caps, and the second generation has one. I removed the Tilt from the case and gave the case a good clean with isopropyl alcohol. I installed new Energizer CR123A batteries in all the Tilts. I removed the o-rings from the caps, cleaned them with alcohol and applied keg lube to them. After reseating the o-rings, I re-inserted the Tilt into the case, pushed it down so it sat next to the bottom, and screwed on the end caps hand tight (too tight and the o-ring will deform).
My red first-generation tilt had some other brand of battery with a different weight so I decided to recalibrate all of them. I have switched from using the Tilt app to @Thorrak's TiltBridge app running on a TTGO T-Display ESP32 running a version that has my new calibration code for the TiltBridge platform. I calibrated against my Milwaukee MA871 refractometer, as that's the most accurate and easiest to use tool I have for measuring gravity.
I left 5 liters of tap water sat out overnight so that it would warm up to room temperature and enabled temperature correction in the TiltBridge app.
I chose my calibration solutions to range from 1.000 to 1.083 by using an initial 250g/1l water 20 Brix solution and diluting it in the following steps:
| Sugar | Water | Brix | SG |
| 250 g | 1000 ml | 20 | 1.083 |
| 1000 ml of 20 Brix solution | Add 250 ml to get 1250 ml | 16 | 1.0654 |
| 1000 ml of 16 Brix solution | Add 455 ml to get 1455 ml | 11 | 1.0442 |
| 1000 ml of 11 Brix solution | Add 833 ml to get 1833 ml | 6 | 1.0237 |
| 500 ml of 6 Brix solution | Add 654 ml to get 1154 ml | 2.6 | 1.0101 |
| 0g | 1000 ml | 0 | 1.0000 |
Checking with my refractometer, my solutions were within 0.1 Brix of the target. I then recorded the Tilt readings for each solution and entered the refractometer reading and the Tilt reading into the Calibration tab on TiltBridge.
Here's the readings of the three tilts in tap water compared to my refractometer before calibration:
After updating and applying the calibration in TiltBridge, my orange (2nd gen) and green (1st gen) tilts are within a gravity point of the correct reading. The red tilt still seems a bit off, but that was the one that had the most liquid inside so it may be kaput.
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