April 15, 2007 - 9:33am
Best type of kitchen scales.
I bought an electronic scale yesterday at BB&B, it doesn't work at all. It was a $50 Salter and now I have an hours drive to return it. Ugh. Anyone have any recomendations? Would I be better off getting an old fashioned non-electronic one? So many recipes call for your flour by weight that it seems like a must have. Thanks.
Share
Many people on varous forums are satisfied with the Salter, so you may have just gotten a bad one.
The MyWeigh iSeries is about the same price though, and many have also reported that it works very well. I am quite happy with my i5000. You do have to mail order it though.
sPh
I just bought a Salter and am very happy with it. I bought the $40 model with the round glass top. Question, and I know this is obvious but, did you put batteries in?. I know some of them come with batteries and some don't mine did not so I had to by one. Another suggestion might be, if your scale sat on the shelf with the batteries in it they might be dead.
when I bought my Salter, the batteries were in it but they had a little keeper-paper sort of thing between them to keep them deactivated til it was sold, and my first reaction was the #*@ thing doesn't work! Mine is model 1004, $50, it's only accurate to an 1/8 of an ounce or 2 grams which seems like it ought to be good enough but still wish it was more precise- didn't think it would matter when I chose it. Otherwise it's easy to use, clean and store, and pretty to look at, too.
This one uses a 9 volt battery and the battery is good because when you push the on button there is some response (888 then rotating bars) on the dial but then it just shuts off.
I would still try another battery - you don't know how long that unit has been sitting in a warehouse, and it doesn't take much power to get modern electronics to do a minimal boot yet still not be able to run.
sPh
I had a Salter that I gave to a friend when I got my MyWeigh kd-7000. The Salter was ok, but didn't measure as small as the MyWeigh. I prefer the MyWeigh, not just for that, but because it has a shield that covers the buttons and the platform that removes for cleaning and...
Nancy
My Salter is the flat version with the stainless finish (also comes in white plastic). Costs about $70 and it's size is easy to store..but I use it everytime I bake bread or pastry, and some cooking so it is always on the counter.
Salter has a good rep..perhaps you could just tie the return to another trip. Get a version that goes down to single grams and decimal ounces. Mine only goes to 1/4 ounce. I'd like to weigh salt and yeast for precision, so I do it with grams but wish it could go to 0.1 ounces.
SDbaker
I have the non-electronic Salter scale shown here:
http://www.cutleryandmore.com/details.asp?SKU=3698
It's fine for my needs, but it doesn't tare easily like the electronic ones do (it has a dial which you can turn to zero the weight, but it's awkward to use). And when a recipe calls for 643 grams of flour or 9 grams of something, well, that's essentially impossible to measure exactly with this scale. Still, for the type of baking I do, it's worked very well.
Sue
I ordered a simular one off of Amazon for less then half the price I paid for the other. I just hate to think that I forked over that much money for something that I may have lots of trouble with. I hope this one will meet all of my needs.
I had to return my salter several times....sorry to say. It worked for a few months, then suddently had an error message. I sent it back and they mailed me two more with the same problem (right out of the box!) before I got one that worked. It was really strange! But this one has worked fine ever since, for more than a year.
And I mean no disrespect to those of you who’ve had good luck with yours. But I bought this Salter model which I CANNOT recommend:
http://www.amazon.com/Salter-1004-11-Pound-Stainless-Steel-Digital/dp/B0000YWUW2/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/002-4015125-2544067?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1176680367&sr=1-3
It lasted only 2 months. It was just all over the place whether on grams or ounces and basically unusable. On top of that I had to deal directly with the Salter company. I told them I would rather not have a replacement because if a $50 unit failed in only 2 months I was not anxious to try again. However I was given no choice. So I waited, and waited, and called and left messages and they never sent it and would not call me back. Finally, I BEGGED the company I purchased from to help me, which they did, and I got a store credit. But that showed me, not only was my Salter scale inferior but the company’s customer service was no better.
I then ordered the one Cooks Illustrated has called the best since 2000, the Soehlne 65055, which has also gone down in price from its original $90 to $27 plus they fixed the problems they had with earlier models making it easy to switch between ounces and grams. I bought it from iKitchens who gave me great service. If you notice it is much more sensitive going to .05 ounces where most only go to .1 ounce:http://www.ekitchengadgets.com/somodikiscsi.html
In the meantime, since originally iKitchens told me the above was backordered I thought, heck, I want to make sure I have a backup no matter what so I purchased this Escali and I love the thing. It feels cheaper because it is lightweight and plastic but it is super accurate and only $25:
http://www.amazon.com/Escali-Primo-Digital-Multifunctional-Chrome/dp/B0007GAWRS/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-4015125-2544067?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1176680367&sr=1-1
Then…(hehe)…because I wanted to be able to weigh yeast and small amounts of salt I purchased this little Escali pocket scale and I love it. It measures to 0.0001 ounce or 0.01 gram. It comes with a little 50g weight so I can check all my scales.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002KTB0I/002-4015125-2544067
I learned a lot.
SDbaker
I agree with Zolablue, the Escali scales are good. The less expensive but very functional $25 model uses AA batteries, which I really appreciate. It's a pain in the neck to have to go searching for special batteries. I have the $65 model that does volume conversions. I really don't use that function, but the big tray, long wait time before it turns off, and 9V standard alkaline battery all were attractive features. They seem to respond more continuously without any sticking compared to a Salter I have, although I used the Salter happily for a long time. Once I got the Escali from KA (I saw them on Amazon also), I've stayed with it.
Has anyone tried the Jennings CJ-4000? An associate uses one and swears by it for her nutritionist work as it works from 0.02oz / 0.5g.
I currently have a Salter Jug scale, which measure's in fractions only but suits my needs fine for now. I can foresee having a need for a scale with a greater capacity too as this covers up to 11 pounds.
I've had a Soehnle for sometime. Love it. The sticker on the back has "SW 40515", and it came from iKitchen. It's brushed stainless steel and very compact. Like most better electronic scales it measures in both the Imperial and metric systems and is battery operated. It's a very reliable workhorse. I highly recommend it.
Cliff. Johnston
"May the best you've ever seen,
Be the worst you'll ever see;"
from A Scots Toast by Allan Ramsay
Hi I feel silly asking this question but thought perhaps a lot of internet search time could be saved by asking.
I have VERY little storage space and i am setting all tools in place to be a 'permanent home' so i will have easy access for regular bread/pizza. Anyway I would like to store my salter scale (standing) in the plate ridge of my wall hung cupboard.......rather than flat as it should be. Otherwise I need to find a new spot b/c I wont be able to see it, and I hate to say out of sight and I never find things!
Do you think this will throw off the weighing? Do you think it will mess with the digital numbers? I'd just like to be able to see it so I'd love to store it that way.
thanks in advance, hope someone reads this
~ gardenchef
My Salter just went belly-up a month or so ago after 4 or more years of light duty. I replaced it with an OXO at BB&B (I like the pull away control panel so I could weigh oversized things and still see the display. It also reads in 1 gm increments, which isn't bad). Anyway, I no longer have the Salter instructions, but my OXO manual is very explicit that the scale should never be stored on its side, or with anything heavy sitting on top of it, as that could seriously affect the scale's accuracy.
I would imagine that, since most of these small electronic scales work using the same technology, it would probably not be advisable to store yours on its side.
Better safe than sorry - it'd be hard to tell that it's out of calibration without using known test weights each time....
-
You haven't scratched the tare weights of all your mixing bowls on their bottoms? What's wrong with you? I really have done that (well, all my stainless bowls). That's a good enough reference weight for me, but the purpose is mostly I forget to tare the scale, or I can't take what's in the bowl out ot tare it.
That said, I can't think of any reason why storing a digital strain gauge scale on its side would damage it. Storing it with the strain gauge compressed, sure, not good. Storing it sideways doesn't put any stresses on the gauge, and if the thing can't be turned sideways because something is going to fall out, it's a piece of junk. (and likely wouldn't survive shipping to the consumer!)
Lisak,
My flat, stainless steel Salter gave up the ghost some months ago. It was almost ten years old, so it didn't owe me anything. However, I was never that pleased with it: dull digital display (not backlit) difficult to read in bright light, not accurate at smaller gram/ounc weights, buttons filled up with flour, etc. I replaced it with a quite good MyWeigh KD8000 from www.fgpizza.com: large backlit display, all the usual features (ounces/pounds and ounces, grams/kilos and grams, tare). Clear plastic guard over the buttons. Capacity: 15 lbs. Accurate at small gram and ounce weights. Thirty year warranty. The additional feature of the 8000 as compared to the 7000 model is well worth it: the scale will read baker's percentages!! The instructions on how to do that are clear and simple. The price is $44.99, plus shipping. The students who come here for our workshops just love it, because it takes the mystery (and the math) out of percentage calculations.
I'm not representing fgpizza by the way. The owner, Frankie Giovanni, has assembled some interesting other stuff, too, so maybe check it out. I've always found his shipping charges quite reasonable.
CJ