How often should you replace your scale?

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brittni127
brittni127 Posts: 38
in Health and Weight Loss
This past week our digital scale has gone crazy. It is about 2 years old and my husband first noticed and told me his weight was fluctuating 3-4lbs within 5 minutes (not moving it, just turning it on and off). I thought he just wan't liking the number he was seeing and didn't really understand what he was talking about. Today I got on the scale for my week 1 weigh in and the scale showed my start weight! I about passed out... I got off, got back on and it showed 3lbs lighter, got off got back on and it showed 2 lbs under my start weight. I thought it was a battery issue so I changed the batteries and the same thing is still happening. Think it is time for a new scale? It is about 2 years old and I'm not sure how often it is expected to change the scales?

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  • gbuso
    gbuso Posts: 1 Member
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    Any answers?
  • lx1x
    lx1x Posts: 38,326 Member
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    Yeah I'd replace it.. 3-5 lbs are big jump
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,940 Member
    edited April 2021
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    What type of flooring is your scale located on?

    Have you lifted the scale and checked out the little feet that make contact with the floor to make sure that they're clean and that nothing is caught behind/inside there?
  • MsCzar
    MsCzar Posts: 1,045 Member
    edited April 2021
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    Do you store your scale on its side? When I first brought home my digital scale, I stored it on its side and the first week's readings were wildly inaccurate. I could step on and off and on slightly different places and get a new reading each time. Am I correct in thinking that digital scales work by some sort of fluid displacement? If so, storing on end or something wonky in the fluid itself could throw things off.

    Good suggestion about making sure the contact with the floor is even and solid. One of the rubber feet from my kitchen scale came loose and it took me a moment to figure out why there were fluctuations.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,561 Member
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    This is a ghost thread. We don't know what's wrong with the poster in the second post who dug out this ancient thread again. But scales do have batteries that generally can be replaced.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,940 Member
    edited April 2021
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    Most scales use the strain sensor variety

    https://www.omega.ca/en/resources/load-cells
  • MsCzar
    MsCzar Posts: 1,045 Member
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    yirara wrote: »
    This is a ghost thread. We don't know what's wrong with the poster in the second post who dug out this ancient thread again. But scales do have batteries that generally can be replaced.

    Could just be the result of a topic search of the OP's current inquiry. Nothing wrong with that. Before posting, I often search a topic to see if the issue has been adequately answered before. I'd much rather see a resurrected ghost thread than the 1023rd 'Should I Eat Back Exercise Calories?'
  • cbihatt
    cbihatt Posts: 319 Member
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    It could be interference from something else. My food scale goes crazy when my microwave is running. Otherwise it is fine. I don’t know the reason, nor do
    I care. I just accept it and don’t use them both at the same time.
  • Theoldguy1
    Theoldguy1 Posts: 2,478 Member
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    We have a digital scale that is at least 10 years old, works fine. Correlates well with the scale at the gym.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,561 Member
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    cbihatt wrote: »
    It could be interference from something else. My food scale goes crazy when my microwave is running. Otherwise it is fine. I don’t know the reason, nor do
    I care. I just accept it and don’t use them both at the same time.

    Oh yes! This! My food scale also goes crazy when my phone is placed on the same worktop and less than 1m away. Not that my worktop is that big at the moment.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Despite being actively used I've had scale batteries corrode terribly and despite gravity corrosion work it's way up to circuit board, it kept working despite that going on - until it didn't.
    2nd and 3rd set of batteries did same thing over chunk of time (though shorter than batteries should have lasted), decided it was either cold floor or design defect in scale.
    In my case still consistent, but I could see that issue causing difficulty.

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