Excellent scale, even for double the money. The tare feature works like most others, but the three real goodies are:
... the FOUR MINUTE before auto-cutoff. Not like the Taylor scale I had that cut off after one minute of nonuse. It was always cutting off on me before I was finished with it.
... and NO DEFAULT SCALE It's the same as when you last turned it off (if you were using grams, the next time you turn it on it's still in grams, OR ounces at OFF then it's ounces at ON). Tap the button to change g/oz on the fly.
... AND it holds A FULL ELEVEN pounds (5kg). I put a bag of flour on it, set tare, and scoop out until it reads xx-ounces (virtually impossible with a 6# scale).
Yeah, I was a chef for many years and more interested in utility over aesthetics in my equipment. I buy flour in 5# or 10# bags now instead of 50# or 100#. I used to have to have several scales -- one for portions and and one for weighing things like yeast and salt, and bigger ones for things like flour and meats. Now 11# is sufficient and this is still accurate enough for yeast and salt.
... Okay, so it's plastic instead of yuppie glass and chrome. It's accurate and well designed -- not heavy, temperamental, or hard to clean. It just works.
... Oh, and it doesn't use strange batteries (regular old AA batteries so you don't go into conniptions when you need replacements)
I was looking for a reasonably priced scale and I don't believe you should have to spend $50 to get a decent scale. Based on some good reviews here I chose this one and am very happy with it. If it was lost or stolen I would buy another one without hesitation. I would have given this scale 5 stars rather than 4 if it weren't for a serious omission of a "feature" in the documentation that can cause large accuracy problems when dealing with the tare feature. It's not a problem with the scale as long as you are aware of it, it's a problem with the documentation. This problem could explain why some other reviews stated this scale is inaccurate.
The problem is that when this scale is zeroed it goes into an auto-zero mode where small changes (1g or so) in weight cause the scale to continuously re-tare and stay at zero. I discovered this when I put a dish of almonds on the scale and hit tare. I removed almonds 1 at a time and the display always returned to zero. I had removed 15 and it still read zero. I put the 15 back in all at once and it read 15g!. Almonds conveniently weigh between .8 and 1.3 grams.
If you zero out a bowl and try to add a few grams of salt by slowly pouring it in or weigh out some small garlic cloves, you could end up with significantly more than you think you have, depending on how you pour or add. Pouring continuously and quickly instead of dribs and drabs works better.
There are several ways to work-around this "feature":
1. Make your first addition or subtraction to the zeroed scale large enough to get it to register, add quickly (not slowly as the directions state). With the almonds, if I first took out 2 or 3 at one time, the display went to non-zero and then went down by an avg. of 1g for each almond removed after that (sometimes 0 sometimes 2) and the total weight remained correct.
2. You can also put 2 nickels on the scale after tare then subtract 10g from the weight (2 nickels weigh 10g).
3. You can also just press down on the scale with your finger until you're sure you added or subtracted more than 2g or so.
The only other con about this scale is that it might display a reading that seems stable, but 1-2 seconds later it re-adjusts to the correct value, don't be in a rush. If you put an object on it and press tare it may go to zero then 1 second later it has some value displayed, just press tare again and it will zero. Never assume it is zeroed unless you wait 1-2 seconds for the display to stabilize.
I'll try to give you some info here that I didn't find in the 400 or so other reviews:
I've verified the accuracy with calibration weights from 2g to 200g and the scale is accurate and repeatable within +/-1 gram ( a digital display of *any*device can't be more accurate than +/- 1 unit)
The scale has 3 weight modes, grams, ounces and pounds & ounces. Resolution for pounds/ounce mode is .1oz, for ounce mode it displays to .01oz but the resolution is usually .04oz (sometimes it increments .02oz, it depends what weight you are at).
This scale works fine near a running microwave, my old Salter would go crazy within 5ft of a running microwave.
I don't know what people are saying about how small it is, I think it's big, but just the right size. It's 6" W x 8.5"L x 1.6"H. Any smaller would make it hard to use with large bowls and any larger is unnecessary.
It would be nice if the display faced forward or at a slight angle for large objects. If you measure a lot of bulky objects this could become a problem for you. For medium size objects like large bowls or boxes just put something like an empty box or container on the scale first and tare it, this will effectively elevate the platform. The display will be easier to see when bulky objects are placed on the elevated platform.
I love the 4 minute auto off, most scales are 1 minute and that is too short when using the tare feature.
One issue is that if you power it on with more than 120g or so on it, it gives a cryptic (undocumented) error of "0ut2", if you remove the object it then zeros out without having to power cycle it.
I'm a geek so I measured the current consumption of the scale, 3.5ma when on and negligible (2ua) when off. The scale still turns on even with batteries as low as 2.6v (maybe even lower). What this means is that you should get around 800 hours of "on" time before needing to replace the batteries. For the casual user this could be 5 years when used for 30 minutes a day!
My old crappy (discontinued) Salter burned through 2 expensive 2032 lithium cells every few months with very light use (and you couldn't turn it off, you had to let it time out!). I would never buy a scale that uses expensive lithium cells again.
I like that this scale can be turned off (hold the on/tare button for several seconds), although with this kind of battery life, I don't bother. - Weighing Scale - Accurate - Kitchen Gadgets - Escali'
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