We think scales are an essential kitchen item but how do you pick the best kitchen scales for you and your family?
Well, we decided to dig deep into a huge pile of different scales to see if we could answer that question for you and we’ve come up with the perfect shortlist.
We think you’re going to love our kitchen scale recommendations. These products are superb!
Best Overall | Etekcity Food Digital Kitchen Weight Scale
Our favorite digital scale comes in a range of materials, we like stainless steel but there are plenty of options, and it’s extremely cost-effective which our judges thought was important in a piece of kitchen equipment like this.
It’s got a nice stylish sleek look to it and all the functions work very week. You can’t weigh less than 3 grams on it but we’ve never needed to – we’re cooks not pharmacists.
If you don’t already have a digital scale at home, the best digital kitchen scale is the Etekcity Food Digital Kitchen Weight Scale.
OXO Good Grips Stainless Steel Food Scale
The pull out display sounds like one of those things you’ll never need, until you have it. Then you realize it’s quite awesome to be able to read the display easily from almost any angle.
No more squinting through shadows to find out how much stuff is on the scales.
The 11lb maximum capacity is generous and we found that the whole thing hand washes very easily indeed.
The OXO Good Grips Stainless Steel Digital Food Scale is an excellent digital kitchen scale.
Ozeri ZK14-S Pronto Digital Multifunction Kitchen and Food Scale
Don’t let the classic look fool you, this is an ultra-precision modern digital food scale which can tackle gradations down to 0.05 Ounces (which is, conveniently, 1 gram increments in the metric system).
It’s got an excellent tare feature as you’d expect for a model that looks like this.
It’s also economic on the batteries and only needs 2 x AAA batteries to run.
It switches off automatically after a couple of minutes use to conserve power too.
The Ozeri ZK14-S Pronto Digital Multifunction Kitchen and Food Scale is also extremely cheap.
What You Need To Know About Kitchen Scales Before You Buy The Best Scale For You
Digital food scales add a huge amount of flexibility to your range in the kitchen.
Baking demands an accurate pair of scales (except for those pretty awful ‘mug recipes’ on YouTube).
If you want to keep an eye on your calorie intake – you have to have some scales around.
Heck, even if you just love a great cup of coffee – it’s better when you’ve got scales to measure out the same perfect dose of coffee each and every time.
There are four features that are particularly important when buying scales:
- The maximum capacity. Most scales should weigh up to about 10 lbs. or 5 Kg. If you’re cooking anything in great quantities than that – you’re probably in an industrial kitchen. The only exception might be a turkey, but they generally come with a weight label when you buy them anyway.
- Ease of use. Nobody wants to be slaving over a hot stove and then to have to spend 30 minutes reading a manual to measure out some flour for their cakes. The controls should make sense to you at a glance. Ideally, you should be able to switch from metric to imperial and back again.
- Tare functionality. This is a facility to set the scale weight to zero even when you something on top of the scale. So, you put your mixing bowl on top and hit tare. Then you can add 2 ounces of butter without worrying if you’re going overboard and without dirtying a second plate to weigh it out on.
- Ease to clean. We hate cleaning. There’s no need for an object like scales to be hard to clean. Look at all the edges, etc. and make sure they wipe easily.
Then you have three key forms of scales:
- Digital scales. The most popular because they’re accurate and they look great featuring the screen reader. Battery life tends to be very good, but you may need some batteries on hand for emergencies.
- Balance scales. These were popular when Noah was loading animals on to the ark. Today, they make no real sense except as a decoration for your kitchen.
- Mechanical scales. These are great but they lack in one area – they suck at weighing small quantities. The spring in the scale just can’t be sensitive enough and still work under large loads.
Final Thoughts on Best Digital Scales
You need a pair of scales in every kitchen. Fortunately, you can find the best food scales for your home very easily.
We hope our buying guide points you in the right direction.
Remember, there’s no need to spend a fortune to get a quality product.
Searching for more kitchen tools for your home? Don’t miss our guide to 50+ Kitchen Gadgets for 2020.
Thank You for a chance to win a great scale
I would love to win.
I had one years ago l don’t know where it went, but l can sure use one now…
I started cooking more because of My Foster children and I need. A this scale