My Sharper Image scale that I have had for many years has finally died.
It was a good scale but I have the following complaints:
1. It would turn off too soon and lose the measurement. If is going to turn off it should remember the measurement.
2. Display was hard to see.
3. It did respond very quickly to button presses and while slowly adding flour.
I have looked at a lot of scales on Amazon such as OXO, Myweigh and Escali and they all seem to suffer in some area.
The one thing they seem to do not do well is measuring small amounts, like when adding 10g salt.
I don't need a 10 lb scale as the most I measure when making bread is 510g.
Thanks for any sugestions.
Unfortunately, no general purpose kitchen scale will be very good for measuring amounts <10 g because they generally only have 1 g resolution. If you want to weigh salt, yeast, baking powder etc. then you need a scale that will display tenths of a gram. But those scales generally have 0.5-1.0 kg capacity, so will be limiting as your only scale.
If you really dislike volume measurements (like me), it's worth owning two scales. I currently have Escali scales. They work fine, but I don't particularly love them. Tanita is a reliable brand, if you can get it.
Yes, you really do need two scales. And the little ones are cheap.
I have an American Weigh Scale SC-2 kg Pocket Scale that I like. It can weigh up to 2 kg and has a readability of 0.1 g. The pan is a little small, but for smaller amounts and vessels it works great.
It does shut off after a bit and does not remember the last reading. For that feature, you might have to get a scale that is not battery operated. If you find one that is reasonably priced, please post here as I might be interested in purchasing one.
Thanks for the feedback.
The problem is I am an Engineer and expect everything to work perfectly and never break.
It seems all these scales no matter the price are made in China and it is a crap shoot.
I didn't think of Tanita but I found this one that looks good. It looks kind of old school but I am fine with that:
https://www.amazon.com/Tanita-KD320WH33-Kitchen-Scales-Increments/dp/B005SNMJ0I/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
That does look good.
Here is the same one but with Stainless Steel cover and it can ship now.
Pretty sure I am going with it.
https://www.amazon.com/TANITA-Tonita-digital-cooking-KD-321/dp/B002WBTFDI/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
If I was living in US I’d look into LW Measurements’ Tree MRW scales
http://lwmeasurements.com/product/mrw-3-mid-resolution-washdown/
A lot of them seem to be driven by the same chip with the same timeout build in.
I recently got a larger digital scale (I already have a small one). I was not impressed by the ones easily available. Mostly the g-oz-thimbles etc. adjuster is just another button that can be easily pushed by accident, which can led to errors. Then there is the timeout issue. Plus most being too flat to allow you to weigh something wide and still see the display. I would like a memory so you can tare a few things and then swap between tares for example. A built-in calculator so you can do some quick sums would be nice, and probably most of the hardware to do that is already in most machines.
Ah well, grumble over.
A lot of years ago when I was doing a lot of photography and I had a home darkroom, I purchased an Ohaus Triple Beam Balance It has capacity to weigh up to 2.5 kg which is way beyond my modest needs as a home cook. It has no batteries and no parts to break, but it is manual and you have to move the weight to get the read out.. I have used it for measuring flour and other ingredients for years and it always works. I've found that the inexpensive food storage containers make good weigh containers as they come in all different sizes. This will be the last balance that I ever need to buy (LOL).
I received the Tanita KD-321 and tried it out this morning to make a loaf.
It came in a hard plastic case which was shattered but the scale itself is ok.
This seems to be a common complaint in the reviews, I don't really need the case.
So far I really like it. The display is easy to read and it responds quickly unlike my old scale.
It is very sensitive and does respond to adding one gram at a time. It was very easy to slowly add 10g of salt.
It seems accurate from what I can tell. I put a few pennys on it and the weight was spot on. The surface is flat and smooth and easy to clean.
Highly recommend this scale.