The castings defects are affected by the melting volume change rate of material. The change rate has an important effect on running safety of the high temperature thermal storage chamber, too. But the characteristics of existing measuring installations are complex structure, troublesome operation and low precision. In order to measure the melting volume change rate of material accurately and conveniently, a self-designed measuring instrument, self-heating probe instrument, and measuring method are described. Temperature in heating cavity is controlled by PID temperature controller; melting volume change rate υ and molten density are calculated based on the melt volume which is measured by the instrument. Positive and negative υ represent expansion and shrinkage of the sample volume after melting, respectively. Taking eutectic LiF+CaF2 for example, its melting volume change rate and melting density at 1 123 K are -20.6% and 2 651 kg/m-3 measured by this instrument, which is only 0.71% smaller than literature value. Density and melting volume change rate of industry pure aluminum at 973 K and analysis pure NaCl at 1 123 K are detected by the instrument too. The measure results are agreed with report values. Measuring error sources are analyzed and several improving measures are proposed. In theory, the measuring errors of the change rate and molten density which are measured by the self-designed instrument is nearly 1/20-1/50 of that measured by the refitted mandril thermal expansion instrument. The self-designed instrument and method have the advantages of simple structure, being easy to operate, extensive applicability for material, relatively high accuracy, and most importantly, temperature and sample vapor pressure have little effect on the measurement accuracy. The presented instrument and method solve the problems of complicated structure and procedures, and large measuring errors for the samples with high vapor pressure by existing installations. The castings defects are affected by the melting volume change rate of material. The change rate has an important effect on running safety of the high temperature thermal storage chamber, too. But the characteristics of existing measuring installations are complex structure, troublesome operation and low precision . In order to measure the melting volume change rate of material accurately and conveniently, a self-designed measuring instrument, self-heating probe instrument, and measuring method are described. Temperature in heating cavity is controlled by PID temperature controller; melting volume change rate υ and molten density are calculated based on the melt. positive and negative ν represent expansion and shrinkage of the sample volume after melting, respectively. Taking eutectic LiF + CaF2 for example, its melting volume change rate and melting density at 1 123 K are -20.6% and 2 651 kg / m -3 measured by this instrument, which is only 0.71% smaller than literature value. Density and melting volume change rate of industry pure aluminum at 973 K and analysis pure NaCl at 1 123 K are detected by the instrument too. The measure results are agreed with report values. Measures are proposed. In theory, the measuring errors of the change rate and molten density which are measured by the self-designed instrument is nearly 1 / 20-1 / 50 of that measured by the refitted mandril thermal expansion instrument. The self-designed instrument and method have the advantages of simple structure, being easy to operate, extensive applicability for material, relatively high accuracy, and most importantly, temperature and sample vapor pressure have little effect on the measurement accuracy. The presented instrument and method solve the problems of complicated structure and procedures, and large measuring errors for the samples with high vapor pressure by existing installations.