Scales

I think I have this one, but I can swear I paid less than 20 dollars for it at the local outlet mall.

No, I don't think you really need all those functions. You need to be able to tare, which they all do. Being able to toggle from imperial to metric weights is great. A fairly high degree of precision is nice, though I find I still do my small measurements by the teaspoon rather than the 1/8 of an ounce. And you need a capacity that is high enough for the size batches you bake: I picked one that topped out at 11 pounds rather than a cheaper one that tops out at a lower weight (in this case, 4 pounds). To be truthful though, I'm not sure I've ever made a batch of dough that was larger that 3 or 3 1/2 pounds, so it may not have been necessary to spend the extra money.

I currently own the My Weigh i2500 and love it. I got the AC adapter for it as well so I never have to worry about putting batteries in it. It's very accurate, which was a requirement for me, as I like to just weigh the salt most times. I will say that I could use the larger model, the My Weigh i5000 as sometimes I make batches that go above the 5.5 lbs. It's pricey, but I finally decided, after "wearing out" two other scales, that this was the cheaper route. I had a small scale for weighing salt/soda/yeast before and a larger for weighing the flour and such. The i2500 does both for me.

I use an escali scale, the "escali aqua".

http://escali.com Just search in the kitchet part and it is the second page of scales. 

It is goes to the 100th place does grams, ounces (in decimal and fraction) 

It also has a function for adjusting to different types of liquids when weighing (as some dense liquids weigh slightly more) I don't ever use this function I feel it is close enough. 

This is a scale we used in my baking/cake decorating classes at BYU-Idaho, i really enjoyed it so I asked for my brithday. I have yet to find problems. It is metal/plastic and the weighing plate is removable. takes 1 D-battery.

its about $60 but you will find it cheaper on amazon or wherever. 

I think it is called the Escali Primo - goes for about $25.  V3ry easy to keep clean, comes in all kinds of colors, very accurate, tare, oz, lb/oz and grams, and uses, if I remember right ither AA or AAA batteries instead of special batteries.   I love it.   It does everything I need it to do, is small enough to easily put away, sturdy and accurate.  What more could you want.

This is the one I have - the chrome one:

http://www.amazon.com/Escali-Primo-Digital-Multifunctional-Chrome/dp/B0007GAWRS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1277397598&sr=8-1

I use an escali. Love it.

I think I paid about $45 for it.

It has a removable plastic tray or dish, the face is tilted upward for easy reading. I especially like the tare feature that allows me to place a bowl on the scale and then to add ingredients. It does ounces, lbs. and ounces, grams, and kilograms and grams. Well worth the price, IMHO. 

good luck

@ aivlys,

You have my everlasting friendly envy, that set of scales is such a treasure for your family legacy.  Not to mention that it will work even if all batteries on earth simultaneously disappear. 

If I ever see such a set in a "junk shop", it will join my elderly butter form and canning funnel, except that it will be used while the other items are just cared for and displayed.

Many spectacular loaves to you!

I am a great fan  of Taylor scales and thermometers, they are quit inexpensice for the quality you are getting

Knud

My 2000g "Tanita" scale is really good, but you need at least a 3kg (or about 7lb) maximum if you ever want to make a double quantity, say, two pounds or so of dough...remember that the TARE will zero out the weight of your bowl, too. The limit is fixed.

It's easy to reach the limit of your scale when using glass bowls. One of my 2-3 quart (?) bowls weighs about 850g empty, the other one is 1050g! That's over two pounds of 'wasted' mass!  If you 'tare' the scale, the weight of the bowl still affects the 2 kilo measurement limit! Be warned!

Cheers,

copyu

I think everyone agrees that a good scale is pretty much essential for baking.  I am legally blind and have baked at home, in culinary school and professionally and used the OXO Good Grips Food Scale with Pull-Out Display and found it very satisfactory - in fact I own two of them.  The batteries - 4 AAA have not been an issue - used the scale for 1.5 years prior to replacing and just because I wanted to be on the safe side.  The pull-out display is what sold me along with the backlite display - black on light blue which provides a very nice and high contrast.  I had a friend modify the pull-out display - comes with a four or five inch cord - to actually replace the stock cord with cord that is more like 4 feet long.  I use the scale platform on the floor to measure out honey from a 50 gallon barrel while I can kneel comfortably holding the digital display in one hand and control the dispenser lever in an accurate fashion with my other hand - this was a REAL trick prior to extending the cable. 

I don't own OXO stock or anything but I really have found this to be the only scale on the market that really meets my special needs and you can purchase it for about $40.00 when you get one of those 20% off coupons from Bed bath and beyond - just a little more on amazon. 

Ben