Auracle PRO electronic gold tester, detailed information, pros and cons, hints and tips

Last updated: March 16, 2026

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OVERVIEW
PRO: Summary
PRO: detail
PRO: - pros
PRO: - cons
PRO: recommendations
COMPARISONS CHART

OVERVIEW

An electronic tester is an absolute 'must' for testing the 90% of items that will be 9ct to 18ct yellow gold. However, they are not very accurate when testing high carat (20ct to 24ct), not at all accurate when testing white gold, can give misleading results on platinum and Palladium, and cannot tester for silver - for all of these, the professional will still use acids. NEW FOR SPRING 2026! - a special tester to test all the precious metals that electronic testers can't cope with: Q3 for use with electronic gold testers.

PRO: Summary

This is the top model of the Auracle brand: the PRO (professional) gold tester. For the professional dealing with several thousand pounds-worth of gold per day this is not expensive - and this model has the most features.

As a scrap dealer you won't be so interested in whether an item of jewellery is a bit over or under 14ct, you will be more interested in the overall percentage of gold so that you can check the 'melt' (though see the limitations in accuracy below!). There's also a handy 'battery meter' that keeps track of how much power remains so that, with heavy use, you're not taken by surprise by a "Low Batt" warning.

Two modes, standard and enhanced.

Standard mode shows the nearest 'standard' carat: 8K or 10K (because it's American), 14K, 18K, 22K or 24K. Also displays a bar graph showing how close it is to the standard carat.*
Enhanced mode shows the proportion of gold (though in percentage rather than parts per thousand), not rounded to the nearest standard carat (9, 14, 18, 22ct) - though see "Accuracy on the percentage readings" below.

* The PRO model is for the professional: you will understand carat, percentage of gold in the alloy / parts per thousand. If this confuses you, please go for the simpler Analyser model instead, it's much simpler.

PRO: detail

Size 145 X 105 X 30mm (5.75 X 4 X 1.25 inches)
No acids involved, the probe contains a harmless salt solution.
Tests gold from 8ct to 24ct (the scale is marked "K" instead of "ct" because it's American)
Pen-probe provides up to 5000 tests.
Simply touch pen probe to the item, result is shown in 2 or 3 seconds, very fast
Easy one-touch calibration with a sample of 18ct - not included
Works on battery or mains, mains adaptor (power supply included)
As with every tester (whether you spend £100.00 or £12,000.00) it only tests the surface. This means you must file the surface with a fine needle-file (supplied with each tester) in a place where it won't show, to remove any surface plating and to make sure it is 100% clean.
Guarantee: 1 year

It has two modes.
Standard Mode shows you the results to the nearest commonly-used carat in jewellery, with a 'graph' showing if it's slightly more or slightly less than expected.
Enhanced Mode also shows you the purity (gold content) but in percentage e.g. 37.5 for 9ct, 75.0% for 18ct etc.

PRO: - pros

Instructions and results on one large LCD display
One-touch calibration, no need to turn a knob (unlike the KEE tester)
Super-fast results and no waiting between tests, you can even place several items on the test-plate at once and test them one after the other.
Only requires one calibration sample, not two, as with the KEE tester.
Battery indicator show percentage (and it's easy to change the battery)
The pen-probe has a finer tip than the older (e.g. Kee) pen-probes, easier to test small items, and the pen-probe lasts longer and costs less.

PRO: - cons

It's American, the "standard" carats (though they say K for 'Karat') start at 8ct not 9ct, so the tester will show you 8ct, 10ct, 14ct, 18ct or 22ct. A reading of 8ct or 10ct means your item is 9ct.
The percentage (in ADVANCED mode) isn't very accurate, especially for high carat, see "Accuracy on the percentage readings" below.
Low-carat items (9ct to 14ct) should give the correct result first time. For high-carat items you must follow the instructions meticulously: file the item thoroughly before testing (just being 'clean' isn't good enough); dab the tip of the pen-probe on tissue if it's dripping excess fluid to remove any contamination; check the reading against your calibration sample and if it's not correct, calibrate, test again; take 2 or 3 readings each time to see if they similar - if not, start again...dab, calibrate etc. This makes testing high-carat items quite fiddly.

ACCURACY ON THE PERCENTAGE READINGS

We picked a random sample of ten PRO testers from our stock and tested 9ct, 14ct, 18ct and 22ct a few times on each tester, a total of 500 tests. The display gives you a reading to the nearest 0.1%. But this is not the accuracy. Over the 500 tests and this is what we found:

on 9ct the readings varied from 36% to 39% (should be 37.5%)
on 14ct the readings varied from 56% and 59% (should be 58.5%)
on 18ct the readings varied from 72% and 82% (should be 75.0%)
on 22ct the readings varied from 79% and 95% (should be 91.6%)

Any product bought unseen may be returned within 14 days if you don't like it. However, if you don't think the accuracy is good enough (or if you don't understand any of this!) then do not buy a PRO - go for the simpler model (ANALYSER) instead, it is more accurate for reading the four standard carats (though it doesn't give a reading in percentage).

PRO: recommendations

If you are a professional jeweller you will understand "Carat" and will know that (when using it on standard mode) the tester reads "8ct" or "10ct", the item must be 9ct; you will understand (when using it on enhanced mode) "percentage" and "parts per thousand" and how they convert to the standard carats used in jewellery. TIP: if you don't understand this, please keep it simple, buy the Analyzer instead.

The PRO is slow and fiddly to use when testing 18ct+.

COMPARISONS CHART

	Testing range	Display	power	LowBatt indicator	Cal**	Probe life (max)	CE Approved
Auracle ANALYZER	8ct – 24ct	LED (carat) LCD (prompts)	Battery Mains	Yes (“low batt”)	18ct	6000 tests	Yes
Auracle PRO	8ct – 24ct	LCD (various modes)	Battery Mains	Yes (percentage)	18ct	6000 tests	Yes
KEE*	8ct – 24ct	Analogue meter	Battery	No	18ct 22ct	3000 tests	No

* Now discontinued.

** To keep these testers working accurately you need to calibrate them against a known sample.

FURTHER INFORMATION

The other model is he Auracle ANALYZER. There is also a page of for specifications – go here to buy one. Not ready to buy? See a page of extended information for the ANALYZER including evaluation and reviews. Still not sure? See our comparisons page (includes the KEE tester).