January 31, 2009 - 2:18pm
kitchen scale
I am new here and see that many of the recipes are posted in grams. I have the old spring type scale that goes to five pounds but it is losing its accuracy. What brand of digital kitchen scales do people recommend that will measure in grams?
Thank you.
Share
Not sure you need to worry about brand names too much.
For about $25 or so you should be able to find an electronic scale that will be just the ticket. Look for something that will measure in either ounces or grams at the push of a button, and be sure that it stays turned on until you turn it off, or if it does have an auto shutoff, that it stays turned on for a good while. A couple of minutes anyway. You want a "tare" function too, so you can zero it out whenever you want to, even if there's something on the scale.
There are some high-dollar units with all kinds of gee-whiz functions on them, but I've never wished I had one.
You want a scale that will weigh in ounces, grams, and pounds. The Escali ($25 at Amazon) is a popular and very capable model. It does all three, has the tare function, and will shut itself off to conserve the batteries (AA).
I have had excellent service from my MyWeigh scale (I have the i5000 - and I think I made the right choice with the 5000g (11 lbs more or less) capacity). If you want to shop on-line, or just see what is available, the Old Will Knott Scale Company has a huge selection.
Based on some research I did two years ago, which itself drew on older material, in the home/kitchen market there are essentially three manufacturers of load cells used in digital scales: one each in China, Japan, and Germany. Probably 90% of the kitchen scales on the market use cells from the one manufacturer in China. So the question is what performance and quality specifications did the scale designer set for the cells, and then what quality electronics and software features did they connect to that cell. MyWeigh seems to get the balance of features and ease-of-use right, and they certainly use good-quality parts (as based on my "testing" by dropping on a tile floor!).
sPh
I have the $25 Escali and have been very pleased with it. It's sleek, comes in cool colors, and works like a champ.
...I've stated before that I have the red Escali and it works great.
Just used it on a 4 pound 10 ounce loaf today.
Things I like about it for the small size, and price, are the 3 measurment types, ounces, ounces with pounds or grams. Just keep pressing the button.
Only problem I have with it is you can't use large stainless bowls because you can't read the output but to overcome that I always measure with glass bowls on it.
That's another nice feature it has, just press the power button when you change bowls to zero it back quickly, as I do with a shot glass that I measure things like Kosher salt in, then swapping back to the other ingredients. Quick and easy.
One more nice thing, the auto power-off is quick but not too quick.
Salute,
Mark
Thank you everyone. I will check these out.
I have a My Weigh 8000 and I'm loving it. I went ahead and bought this one because of the reputation My Weigh has all over the web not only for their product but for their customer service as well. I'm a known appliance killer so it was important to get something that will stand up to me. :)
The 8000 weighs in grams, ounces, pounds and ounces and kg. It has the tare feature, you can adjust the time it stays on for before doing an auto shut off (including being able to turn this feature completely off.) It also has a hold button so when you're weighing something you can press hold and remove the item from the scale. Once it's off the weight remains on the screen. Oh, and it has baker's percentage. I am just learning how to use baker's percentages so I figured it would be good to have to help me with the learning curve. :) I'm slowly getting it figured out. I have Peter Reinhart's Crust and Crumb so I'm using some of those recipes (which include the percentages) and my scale makes it very easy to use. The 8000 also goes up to 17 pounds. This was one reason I got it because I do several loaves of wholemeal bread at a time for my family's sandwich bread. I didn't want the scale to top out too early and have to seperate into batches.
Happy Shopping!
I bought a My Weigh 7000 in May. With no provocation, the weighing platform detached from the machine. If you don't keep your sales receipt and warranty card there is a $35 fee to return the scale for repair. This is more than the scale cost.
Otherwise it is a very good scale - it tares easily, doesn't turn off automatically and has a swiveling, back lit readout so you can put large bowls of dough on the scale and still read the weight. It weighs in ounces, pounds, grams & kilograms up to 5Kg.... But save that paperwork!