The Fresh Loaf

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KD8000 scale - recommendation

bshuval's picture
bshuval

KD8000 scale - recommendation

Hi all, 

I recently decided to upgrade my scale, and bought a KD8000 scale by MyWeigh. I want to heartily recommend it! 

The features I like about it: 

  • It uses 3-AA batteries, which are easy to find (other scales use button batteries, which are harder to find). 
  • It has a large, backlit, display.
  • The display is at an angle from the tray, so it is always visible, even with a large bowl or plate on the tray.
  • Auto-shutoff can be turned off! I can't tell you how many times I had previous scales turn off in the middle of a recipe. 
  • A large, 8 kg capacity. Never again will I worry about placing too much weight on the scale (yesterday, I made a triple batch of an 85% hydration bread. The bread dough weighed about 4 kg, and the mixer bowl another 1.5 kg. I could never have measured the ingredients in my previous scales (that capped at 5 kg). 
  • It came accurate right out of the box. I used a set of weights to test it, and it did very well. 

Things to improve: 

  • The scale did not register a 1 gram weight. It was accurate enough to weigh it (I added it to a 2 gram weight, and the scale did say 3 grams), but when it was the only thing on the scale, it said 0.

I should note that the scale is very large. Much larger than previous scales I had owned. It is not a small, flat, surface, but a rather large, tall, thing. It's not a looker, by any means, but it is meant to be a tool, not a kitchen decoration. I have wide, tall, kitchen drawers (90 cm wide, 25 cm tall), so I keep it in one of my drawers with other kitchen items. 

greyoldchief's picture
greyoldchief

I have used my weigh scales for years and have been satisfied with them all.

drogon's picture
drogon

I've had mine for nearly 3 years now.

What I don't like about it is that they're too light - it sometimes skids over the worktop. The feet underneath are a hard plastic. It's not big deal, but sometimes annoying.

Also, check and clean the battery lid/compartment. It can get flour, etc inside. (Although that might depend on how often you use it! I use it to make upwards of 200 loaves a week here - it's worked hard!)

I never did use the bakers percentage feature - despite that being one of the things I wanted it for when I got it...

And yes, the 2g minimum weight thing - its not uncommon in scales to have a minimum register weight. My 0.1g scales have a minimum of 0.2g - it's 0.1g after that.

-Gordon

fupjack's picture
fupjack

The angle of the buttons means pressing them pushes back on the scale, not down, so I get that skidding if I put it down on a floury surface.  Which, generally speaking, is always.

Other than that, yes, very nice for the price.

gerhard's picture
gerhard

Unless you are dealing in drugs 1 gram is not significant.

Just my 2¢

Gerhard

drogon's picture
drogon

you're right - it's not significant, however there are people here with 0.01g scales and 0.1g ones, as well as the nice KD8000's with 1g resolution...

I make a lot of overnight yeasted breads and in my experimentation I came up with a quantity of yeast that was < 1g. That's when I got my 0.1g scales. However since them, I rarely use them as I'm almost always making more than one loaf, so e.g. 6 small loaves would need 6 x 0.8g = 4.8g. That's dried yeast, double for fresh and since I'm almost always using fresh yeast now, then that's about 10g so that's what I measure to. Even for smaller quantities I tend to round to the nearest gram. Overnight temperature has far more effect on the dough than half a gram of yeast does!

-Gordon

suave's picture
suave

The last recipe I did listed 65 g of flour, 40 g of milk, and 70 mg of yeast for the preferment.  So, being able to measure in .01 g range is clearly not entirely useless ability for some of us.