The success of a drilling operation in an oil well emerges from the unrelenting scientific research for solutions and improvements to the various stages of this process. The correct formulations of drilling fluids and their rheological measurements are essential to this scenario. This study aims to investigate the functionality of a rotational viscometer 35A and the methodology used to characterize the fluids’ rheology through the comparison with a rotational rheometer. Hence, different fluids, such as polymeric solutions and drilling fluids, were analyzed to propose new standards and improve the equipment operation, generally used by the oil companies. The results show that API equations are responsible for the inaccurate determination of these fluids rheological parameters. Besides, a theoretical study of the relationship between pressure and flow rate in a tube and annular flow was performed. It was observed that the choice of viscosity function is extremely important to determine the correct pump size. Also, a roughed geometry was designed and developed for the viscometer to avoid wall slip at low shear rates. The gel strength, an important parameter to analyze restart of flows in oil wells, was analyzed and presented expressively divergent results from those obtained with a rheometer. The additional gel strength showed interesting results that indicate its use. Finally, the improvements and proposed methodology were found to be promising, although in some cases, it is not worth the cost-benefit analysis. The use of this present study s recommendations guarantees the accuracy of drilling fluids rheology and, consequently, a good performance of some of its functions, avoiding the occurrence of serious operational, environmental and financial problems.