Help! Too many scales with lousy reviews

[Maakbow]

MY EXPERIENCE.:
I also was looking for a reasonably accurate scale for espresso shot weighing and bean weighing that wasn't acaia price range.

Over the last 3-4 years I tried many in the $25-$50 NZD range. From Amazon or Ali express. Even some with timers for espresso. But they were either inaccurate, too large for my espresso machine or stopped working.

The only one that came close was a USB rechargeable tiny jewellery scale, but it stopped charging and wouldn't work with rechargeable batteries and imo it's wasteful to keep feeding non rechargable batteries into things.

So eventually I thought I would go to coffee brands. By this time normcore came out with its first scale. It was a bit large but generally it was reliable, rechargable, and accurate enough.

Then getting the gs3 I needed something smaller to sit on the machine so I spent a bit of money and got the time more black mirror nano. It cost 140 NZD but is well worth it. It Wakes up on movement, battery lasts over 6 months between charges (2 shots per day), has a few modes and isn't ugly. I wished I'd never wasted many cheaper purchases but maybe the market just caught up with demand? The base of the nano is aluminium and the top is plastic

I use two scales, one for my beans/grinder and one for the shot.

Then I got a cheapish (40NZD) one on Ali express called "SearchPean Tiny2s". It is excellent. It operates nearly exactly like the time more but it's a bit smaller and the charge only lasts a couple of months which is still good. Both base and top are plastic. Reasonably fast and accurate.

Now normcore have their new small scales which are like the searchpean tiny 2 s but the top section is aluminium and the base plastic. These are beautiful and feel reasonable quality. They have wake on touch, have auto tare, auto time, I'm using for espresso only. They may have a flow rate mode but don't quote me on this. They have a manual mode. So far really great value for money. Probably the best you will get for espresso and for cheap.

 

[froze]

Personally I don't think these scales are off as much as you think or as much as people claim, if you calibrate it before using it they should be fine to within a gram, I think most of the problems is user error. Sure some may not last as long, my cheap one I had lasted about 8 years, so I bought another cheap $20 scale from Amazon. A weak battery will cause problems, so you do have to be conscious of that.

I tested the last one and the new one with something that I know how many grams it weighed, and both weighed it exactly the same to within a couple of 10ths of a gram from each other, so they can't be too far off that you would notice any coffee flavor differences. If you want to be exact then you need to buy a very expensive one, but why if all you're doing is weighing coffee? I would understand if you were doing scientific measurements you would need the most accurate one you could find, but not for coffee.

 

[shadow745]

Personally I don't think these scales are off as much as you think or as much as people claim, if you calibrate it before using it they should be fine to within a gram, I think most of the problems is user error. Sure some may not last as long, my cheap one I had lasted about 8 years, so I bought another cheap $20 scale from Amazon. A weak battery will cause problems, so you do have to be conscious of that.

I tested the last one and the new one with something that I know how many grams it weighed, and both weighed it exactly the same to within a couple of 10ths of a gram from each other, so they can't be too far off that you would notice any coffee flavor differences. If you want to be exact then you need to buy a very expensive one, but why if all you're doing is weighing coffee? I would understand if you were doing scientific measurements you would need the most accurate one you could find, but not for coffee.

Main issue I've had with several quality sets of scales was repeatability as in weighing the same thing several times in a row and have them be off a few tenths to half a gram. Might not make any actual difference with most coffee uses, but it definitely can with espresso dosing. Grew tired of a few sets using AAA batts, some having battery packs built in as when the battery takes a dump some aren't replaceable. Decided to stop messing with the short lived toys and bought a fantastic scale from Ohaus. Has lots of adjustability, powered by an AC adapter as well as AA backup when not plugged in and is extremely well built to be handled, wiped down daily with no ill effects. I use it to weigh what I'm going to grind, each dose as needed for espresso as well as green/roasted weight to calculate exact moisture loss as it's quite important for tracking development along with using what senses I have remaining. Might be a bit overkill, but seeing that it stomps the 4-5 sets I had leading up to it like no tomorrow it's $ well spent for the longevity/end result.