I'm interested in buying a food scale. What should I look for as I shop for one?
-Jennifer
Great question! I really can NOT live without my food scale. I’ve had many in the past but the one that I use everyday was a gift I received about 5 years ago from my mother-in-law (she always get’s the cool stuff).
She got me a Salter 3001 5-Pound Elite Digital Kitchen Scale
. It’s sleek, small, digital, fast and easy to use, all things that I want in my kitchen scale. It weighs in ounces or grams and you can switch between the two while measuring. You can also “zero out” while measuring so there is no math involved when weighing and adding multiple ingredients. And most importantly it looks good on my counter, because, honesty I never put it away. :~)
I hope that helps. You have my recommendation. Doesn’t anyone use another brand they like?
Update: The EatSmart Precision Pro Digital Kitchen Scale
is similar to the one I describe above.
roni
not really but if mine breaks I'd like to give another a try! This will be the first on my list. 🙂
Paige
You're welcome! Are you in the market for a new one?
roni
Thanks so much!!
Paige
I have this one: Oxo Good Grips Food Scale with Pull-Out Display
Exactly the same, just with a bit bigger footprint and a 11 pound instead of 5 pound capacity.
roni
Paige -
Is it this one?
OXO Good Grips 1157100 5-Pound Food Scale with Pull-Out Display
Paige
I've been going through your old podcasts and saw a link to this post in the comments of one of them. I have to speak up for my scale because I LOVE it. I used to have a Salter one, but after a year or so it went crazy. No matter how fresh the batteries were, it the weight would go all over the place while weighing something: 450 grams, -300 grams, etc. To replace it, I turned to Oxo, which I swear I could be a rep for since so many of their products have solved little kitchen problems with their great design.
So I got the Oxo Good Grips Food Scale with Pull-Out Display. The things that I love about it are:
1. To begin, the regular stuff: grams or ounces, switch between while measuring, zeros out, etc.
2. Backlight - I didn't think I would use this but I have several times.
3. Smooth buttons - easy to clean.
4. The weighing plate comes off, so it's easy to clean too.
5. It remembers the weight of something for 45 minutes or something? So if you're weighing something but the scale turns off (as most do automatically after a few minutes of inactivity), you can just press the power button, and rather than coming back on at "0", it comes back on at whatever the weight of the item is. I used to compulsively press on the bowl or whatever was on my scale, to keep the scale active to make sure it didn't turn off. No more!
6. On/Off button. This isn't why I bought it by any means, but it is nice when I'm just weighing one thing really quickly, and I don't have to drain the battery life waiting for it to turn off automatically.
7. High capacity - it will hold 11 pounds, which is really great when I make a big pot of soup, for example. I make a lot of food ahead, and I hate portioning it out, then ending up with a half serving at the end, and trying to take a little from each Tupperware container to make them even. Instead, I've weighed all of my pots, dishes, mixing bowls, etc. and taped the weights (in grams, so much easier) to the inside of my cupboard door. Then I make a bunch of food in one of the pots, put the pot full of food on the scale, subtract the pot's weight, and divide by the number of portions. I couldn't do this if it didn't hold so much weight. It also has a little bar that fills up as you use up the scale's weight, which might happen if you're measuring a bunch of things, and zeroing the scale out between each addition. It shows when you're approaching the "error zone" where the scale won't weigh.
8. The reason I bought it! The part that has the display and buttons attaches to the rest magnetically. When it's all put together it just looks like a normal scale. But you can pull the two apart and a little cord comes out to connect the display to the base. You can pull the display from the base maybe 8 inches? 12? Either way, far enough that you can easily weigh anything. With my old scale, weighing a plate or a big pot was really difficult, because the big size of it covered the display. I had to crouch down and use a flashlight to try to see what the weight was. This feature totally solves that problem.
OK, done. I totally sound like a sales pitch! But, now that I've written all that out, I think I'll copy/paste to an Amazon review of the thing.
Michele
I have a Digital Chef Mate I bought at Target. It was 29.99. I LOVE it! It also weighs in grams and ounces (although I don't know if you can switch between the two - never tried that). It also has the zero out feature. It's on my counter all the time. I use it constantly!
Joanne
I have this one and love it! It has all the features I need (grams vs ounces, tare, 11 pound capacity) and is very reasonably priced. It's always on my counter.
Escali Primo Digital Multifunctional Scale
karen
Thanks for info on food scales.
I have been on WW for 1 year 30 lbs lighter yea
often thought I should get a scales to get down to the nitty gritty and losse my other 20 lbs.
I love new recipes and love to cook. Love to eat too. 🙂
love your web site........:)
I just love life...........
karen
Briana
Check how it measures the amount before you buy it. The first scale I purchased measured using fractions instead of decimals. It was really annoying.
Now I have the EatSmart Scale that I won from weightwatchen.com 🙂 I love it! I love that I don't really have to look up the pts value for meats, cause I hate doing that. I can just throw it on the scale, and it will tell me cal, fat and fiber. Also, anything fresh, like fruit, veggies, etc since the pts are usually 1 pt for medium sized fruit. I am a bad judge of that.
Jennifer
Thank you so much for answering my question!
Greenlitebites is awesome!
Jami
Mine is the Salter Aquatronic Scale for $59.99 and I got it at Linens N Things.
Salter Aquatronic Glass Kitchen Scale
I love it, as it measures ounces, grams, fluid ounces and mL and it also has the zero out feature. It's stainless steel and glass and looks great on my counter, just like Roni, I don't put it away. Although I should. I had to replace it when some of my Longaberger pottery came crashing out of the kitchen cabinet and landed on top of it. Wasn't pretty.
Spoodles
Target has a variety of food scales in their generic housewares brand (although I can't find my particular one on the website). It is similar to yours (except you can't switch between grams and ounces while measuring). At $30, it's a pretty sweet deal and I use it religiously.