Weighing the Options
Kitchen scales are definitely a type. I think of them, and I think either of diets or of perfectionists who need their challah to look perfect and weigh every ball for equal weight before rolling each strand. But there are other legitimate uses for kitchen scales, like if your potato kugel recipe calls for two-and-a-half pounds of potatoes but potatoes come in five-pound bags. With a kitchen scale, that’s easy. If you’re like me and you use your regular scale to weigh yourself, then weigh yourself again holding the bag of potatoes and calculate the difference, a kitchen scale can save you from subjecting yourself to the trauma of weighing yourself multiple times. And so, I tested the top-selling ones on Amazon. I even threw in a mechanical one for you Luddites.
Testing, Testing
1. I broke down a large package of ground beef into one-pound servings. After guesstimating, I weighed each bag to even out the distribution.
2. I looked to see how easy the scale was to set up and register changes of small increments. I used the tare feature.
3. I weighed out balls of challah dough to make them equal. (I will never do that again; please forgive my imperfect challos.)
4. I put it in my cabinet to see its footprint.
Ozeri
Price: $10.00
Notes: Does everything it should, but it has an overall cheap feel to it. For that price, though, I can’t complain.
Stars: 4
Bagail
Price: $19.79
Notes: It has a wire to recharge, so yay for no battery. But it has a low weight limit, and the grooves in the mat make it difficult to clean.
Stars: 4
Etekcity
Price: $15.99
Notes: Takes up more space because it has a bowl, but the bowl is a plus — I think.
Stars: 4.5
Amazon
Price: $12.59
Notes: Needs tevilah, so that can be tricky. Nice display.
Stars: 4.2
Ultrean
Price: $7.99
Notes: Light, sleek, thin, cheap, and weighs accurately — what more can you want?
Stars: 5
Taylor
Price: $18.83
Notes: Pain across the board. But my kids love playing with it. That’s how it earned its single star.
Stars: 1
Overall Winner: Ultrean
It’s literally perfection. Inexpensive, easy to use, nice-looking, nice display, measures different units, and doesn’t take up any space. It’s a shame I don’t need a scale that often.
Tip: Not a tip per se, but just in case you never used a scale before and don’t have patience to read instructions, here’s one you’ll want to know: Tare is the function that resets the scale to zero so your container is not calculated in the weight. Just turn your scale on and place your container on it. Press the tare button (usually the power button), and you’re good to go.
