"The unit is 100% plastic. That means (1) the photo is deceiving because it appears like it's either steel or aluminum, and (2) nothing hot on the surface. It looks cheap right out of the box. But does it work? Yes and no. The term "tare" means to zero out the weight. If you put a measuring cup on your unit it will have a weight. By pushing the tare button the weight will be displayed as zero even with the measuring cup on it. There is a function button that allows you to switch between grams, pounds, and milliliters (ml). Really, milliliters? That's a liquid measurement for volume! It's not a weight as in mass! How does one measure volume on a scale such as this one? Completely useless for anything other than water (water has the density of 1 gram per 1 ml at room temperature, which means if you pour 50 ml of water into a cup it should weigh 50 grams). One cup of water at room temperature is 236.6 ml. I poured water into an empty measuring cup until it read 237 ml at one cup, which is what it should be. White granulated sugar weighs 96 grams per 1/2 cup. How to tell if your unit is working correctly (approximately). Turn on your unit. Select grams (g) for the units. Put an empty measuring cup on your unit. Tare out the weight of the measuring cup. Pour in granulated sugar into the empty measuring cup until you reach 96 g (96 grams). Is that 1/2 cup? Is it close? You can try it with water - same procedure. Pour in water into the empty measuring cup until the unit reads 237 grams. If it's one cup then your unit is working properly. Hint: if you use light weights for baking bread, such as adding only a few grams of yeast, then use the same procedure. Tare out the weight of an empty container and add the yeast. Another method would be to just add the number of grams to the weight of the empty container. Pour in the yeast until you reach that number. Pros: Seems to be accurate enough. Inexpensive Cons: Cheap plastic. Don't drop it or it'll likely break. On a side note, I had a more expensive metal digital kitchen scale 11 years ago. I used it to measure everything I consumed. And I calorie counted as well as kept a log of exercise I did at the gym. I dropped 80 lbs in 6 months. Diet and exercise, amazing how that works. I'm 6'2" and dropped from about 290 lbs to 212 lbs with 12% body fat. My waist line dropped from 48" to 35". Was it a pain to measure everything? You bet. I kept my daily calories at 2000 or less. I didn't starve myself ever. But I watched and counted everything. And I forced myself to go to the gym whether I wanted to or not. After one month I had to force myself to not go to the gym and take a day off. I hope that works for you too. It's a good reason to buy a digital kitchen scale in the first place."
Ozeri Pronto Digital Multifunction Kitchen and Food Scale, Elegant Black (Compare Deals fro $12.47)
"I bought this scale in July to replace the EatSmart digital scale that died -- or maybe I should say I killed, since I spilled water on it. So this is a comparison review of both scales. I had two EatSmart scales, so I was able to compare them side by side. Accuracy: Both showed exactly the same weight to the gram, so I'm guessing they are each very, very accurate. Appearance: A matter of taste, but to my eye the EatSmart tear drop shape is nicer looking. It's also slightly cleaner looking. I notice that Ozeri has a different model that looks exactly like the the EatSmart model now at a slightly higher price point. Price: This scale was 15 dollars when I bought it. Way cheaper than the 25 dollars I paid for the EatSmart. Function: Both function well. As I said above, I killed my EatSmart by spilling (a lot of) water on it. Seems like it shouldn't be quite that fragile, but it may just be the nature of the beast, so I'm not downrating it for that, but it's something to note. The EatSmart display is slightly larger and may be a tad easier to read. The Ozeri has a couple of functions that the EatSmart does not: ml (which reads exactly the same as grams, so I don't think that's especially helpful) and lb/oz, which I think is helpful. The lb/oz would display 20 oz as 1lb 4oz instead of 1.25 pounds. Both have automatic turn-off functions to preserve battery. The Ozeri turns off sooner than the EatSmart--sometimes a little too soon for me, but it's not a big deal. Durability: While the Ozeri looks cheaper, I think it's actually slightly better designed. The function keys (Tare and Unit) are sealed and when you press them they always work. The function keys on the EatSmart are not sealed and they are designed in a way that when you press them sometimes you have to press them a couple of times to get them to function. Bottom line: Both the Ozeri and the EatSmart work great. I think the Ozeri may be slightly more durable (but big caveat here because I've only had it for four months and haven't spilled anything on it--I had my EatSmart for 1.5 years). To my eye the EatSmart is a nicer design. The Ozeri is way cheaper and has slightly more functionality."
"I ordered my own a couple of months ago and I love that I can set it for lbs or kg, oz or grams, however I need to measure for a given recipe. A girlfriend of mine was telling me that she had her popovers come out too heavy because she'd measured her flour by volume (in spite of our favorite food scientist/cooking show host telling us to always measure flour by weight!) and it was unsifted. When I teased her about that and reminded her to weigh, she said she didn't have a scale. So I ordered her this one as a surprise gift. I know I love mine and use it constantly, and I was sure she would feel the same. I was right! She loves hers too and agrees that it's the ease of use, variety of outputs (oz/lbs; g/kg), and compactness of the unit that makes it so useful. The scale is much lighter than ones I've had in the past, but it's very good quality and quite intuitive to use. The pressure plate on my last one came unglued and fell off each time I moved the scale around the kitchen. That's simply not going to happen with this one. The construction is much more solid, for all the unit's lightness. The clean black and chrome design went perfectly in my kitchen and my friend's as well (there is also one that is all chrome) and the AAA batteries were included (which is always nice). It's very easy to access/swap out the batteries, and the unit is compact so it doesn't take up a lot of valuable real estate on my kitchen counter. What's not to love? It may feel light, but it's definitely good quality. I would definitely recommend this product to a friend (strongly enough that I would give it as a gift, as you can can see! <g>)"
"I was torn on whether to give this 3 or 4 stars. I think given the fact that I use it every single day and that I have come to rely on it, the scale warrants a rating of 4 stars. I, however, have some issues with the scale which I detail below in order of importance to me: 1. Usually I feel this scale is spot on, however, occasionally, the scale with jump back in forth between two numbers that are .03 of an ounce off. It happens with all sorts of food, I'm just not sure what the problem is -- sometimes it just can't make up its mind. This is a little annoying to me as I like to be as precise as possible, but it may not annoy you. 2. As many reviewers have noted, the display is small and thoughtlessly placed relative to the scale platform, so yes, your view is obstructed when using bigger dishes. I honestly thought I would not be vexed by this, but I have to admit it does get rather annoying to have to keep bending down to get a view of the readout. 3. Not sure if this is just my scale or not, but ever since day 1 the plastic coating that goes over the black portion of the scale seems to be bubbling and is very worn at the on/tare button. This is more of a cosmetic issue, but it still is a little bothersome. Despite these issues I have to give the product 4 stars. It has helped me tremendously while recording my meals, I haven't had to replace the batteries since I purchased it several months ago, it does automatically go off but in an appropriate amount of time (I've never had it go off on me while I was cooking), it has several different units of measurement, and the tare option works great. Overall for the money I spent on this, I am confident I purchased the best scale at this price point."
"A few weeks ago I started a new "healthy eating/exercise" plan to get back into shape. I joined Weight Watchers to assist in this process. One afternoon, in making a sandwich with sliced deli meat (not prepackaged), I quickly realized I had no clue what 3 ounces of meat would be. That afternoon I purchased this digital kitchen scale. I have been using this daily for nearly a week and it has been perfect for my needs. The functions are very simple and streamlined. I love the tare feature. Just put the plate/cup/bowl on the scale, push tare (it reduces that weight) and then put your food in the container and your set. Navigating between the different weight systems (i.e. ounces, cups, pounds), is very easy and this can be done while the food is on the scale. I found I do not just use this for meat, but it has come in handy for measuring all types of foods. Yesterday, I was going to eat a portion (1 ounce) of Baked Lays potato chips, only the chips that were left in the bag were bits and pieces. There was no way I could accurately count 15 chips. Used the scale and was able to measure 1 ounce to know the amount I was consuming was exactly one portion. Excessive? Maybe, but when you are trying to lose weight, it is important to make sure the portion sizes are accurate. I highly recommend this scale for the price. I cannot speak of the long-term quality of this scale as I have only been using it a week. Should something happen and this scale flunk out of me, I will update this review."
"This is a really nice kitchen scale for the money. Is is very useful and I highly recommend it. It was among the least expensive on amazon when I bought it, yet has stood up to frequent use for over a year now. It seems to be quite accurate and staying calibrated. The only problem I have with it is that it is not sealed well, so you need to be pretty careful to keep it clean and dry. I see this as a legitimate trade off considering the low price. Liquids spilled on it easily flow inside which can be a problem, but when this happened to me it dried out quickly and did not malfunction. If you are very messy you might look for a waterproof scale though. Why you should have a kitchen scale: 1) Nutrition Ask any nutritionist, if you want to know exactly how much food (and calories and nutrients) you are eating you need to measure it by weight not volume (in cups) or just guessing. Weighting food is much more accurate and accuracy is very important in nutrition. Did you know that, all other factors staying the same, eating in just 100 calories extra per day will lead to a gain of 10 lbs over the course of a year! The opposite is true as well, eating 100 calories less per day will equal a 10 lb weight loss in a year! It is very easy to vary by 100 or more calories per day if you are not accurately measuring your food intake. If you are trying to take in more or a certian nutrient (ex. protein or calcium) weighting your food is also the best way to be sure you are getting exactly what you need. 2) Cooking I highly recommend using a kitchen scale for cooking and nutrition as it allows you to improve the accuracy of your cooking. By measuring ingredients by weight (mass) not volume or "eye" you will have much better reproducibility in your recipies. Did you know that the same amount of different ingredients will have different weights? 1 c.flour is 7 oz while 1 c. water is 8 oz. By weighing your ingredients you are sure I use this scale in the all the time. It is incredibly useful in the kitchen. It improves accuracy and"
"I wouldn't give this two stars if it didn't deserve it. There were two major problems: 1. The description is inaccurate. It says it can do "precise graduations of 0.05 oz. (1 gram)". That is not the case. When in the "gram" setting, it only changes every 2 grams. In fact I was really hoping that it would change every gram, because I intended on using this for small measurements. 2. I tested out the accuracy of this using salt. I put a bowl on the center of the scale, used the "Tare" function to reset to zero, and tried measuring 4 grams of salt. It is slow to respond, so sometimes I would stop it at 4 grams, and then a second later it would jump to 6 grams. Also, after I got it to 4 grams, I took the salt out, let the scale sit for a second, and put it back in. This time it was 2 grams, even though it was the exact same amount of salt. I have done small measurements like this repeatedly and have gotten similar results again and again. I do not trust this scale to give accurate results, even to the nearest 2 grams. It gets two stars off for false advertising, and one star off for the scale's inaccuracy."
Ozeri Pronto Digital Multifunction Kitchen and Food Scale, Elegant Black (Compare Deals fro $12.47)
