Shopping for best food scale

fraklein
fraklein Posts: 62 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I'm tired of guessing how much food I'm eating, so I would like to buy a food scale. I don't have much money, but I do want accuracy. Any suggestions? Thanks for your support!

Replies

  • KickassAmazon76
    KickassAmazon76 Posts: 4,678 Member
    I got mine for like... 12 from Walmart and it does the trick.... As long as I use it. Lol
  • Marcus_Eating_Donuts
    Marcus_Eating_Donuts Posts: 22 Member
    Amazon has decent digital scales for $14. I like the tare feature that lets me set the scale to zero with an empty plate on it then I can weigh the food. I have even done this in steps so that I weigh the chicken, tare the scale, add and weigh the rice, microwave, log, and enjoy.
  • Chef_Barbell
    Chef_Barbell Posts: 6,644 Member
    I got mine at Costco for like $14
  • Jennliftsandspins
    Jennliftsandspins Posts: 151 Member
    I’ve had a Starfrit for probably 15 years. It still works great. Look for a tare function and a units function.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    This Ozeri comes in different colors and at $9.97 red was the cheapest when I bought it. Another poster here said the batteries last a really long time. I also have an expensive XOX but it eats batteries and is not good with just a few grams. I've had the Ozeri for about a week and like it.

    https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NX47YP4/
  • Dogmom1978
    Dogmom1978 Posts: 1,580 Member
    If you are in the US, get a food scale from somewhere with a return policy. Set it to grams. Put a nickle on the scale. It should weigh exactly 5 grams.

    Also useful to check the batteries as they tend to become less accurate when the batteries run low. 😊
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,994 Member
    Check what type of battery they use. Some types of batteries are more expensive than others.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    ive had several, most off amazon. some more $ than others, but none over $30. they've all been decent.

    features I love:

    tare
    ability to switch between grams/ounces
    easy to clean/waterproof
    a display that pulls out so if you have a large plate or bowl on it, you can still read it. (I only had this on one or two but LOVED it. my current one does not have that feature)
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,598 Member
    Agree with the above, but wanted to add a couple feature recommendations:

    1. Displaying negative weights. (Hugely important for me: Put peanut butter jar on scale, tare, take out blob of peanut butter, read negative value because it's the amount I took out. Big time-saver, for many foods in containers, blocks of cheese, etc.)
    2. Weighing at least the weight of your largest frequently-used pot, when it's full. This is useful for recipes, so you can set the serving size to the number of grams in a whole dish, then easily log portions of various sizes as you use it up. I don't worry about the super-giant stockpot I only use occasionally, just the routine ones.)

    You can get around the pull-out display (which is indeed a nice feature): Put a stable, lightweight bowl on the scale, the thing you want to weigh on top of it, to create a "riser" so you can read the display).
  • goal06082021
    goal06082021 Posts: 2,130 Member
    I have an Escali that I got on Amazon. The platform is very stable, it measures in grams, will show negative values, and takes like four minutes to time out. It runs on two AA batteries.
  • fraklein
    fraklein Posts: 62 Member
    Thank you for all your suggestions! So many things that wouldn't occur to me.
  • Onedaywriter
    Onedaywriter Posts: 326 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    This Ozeri comes in different colors and at $9.97 red was the cheapest when I bought it. Another poster here said the batteries last a really long time. I also have an expensive XOX but it eats batteries and is not good with just a few grams. I've had the Ozeri for about a week and like it.

    https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NX47YP4/

    I have this one too for about nine months. I like it so much I bought it as a gift for someone else. It does negative, tare weight and goes to 11+lbs (5kg). I don’t recall ever changing the batteries but maybe I did.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,598 Member
    Oh, BTW, don't remember anyone mentioning this, by I think it's a nice-to-have (though not essential) feature: Battery type.

    Personally, I prefer a scale that takes AA or AAA batteries, because I pretty much always keep a pack around. I had a scale that required some particular one of the many little flat watch-type batteries, and when it needed new batteries I was usually SOL until I went shopping.

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