10 Best Digital Food & Kitchen Scales

Kitchen scales have been around for a long time now and as a matter of fact, from qualified chefs to housewives, all of us need these weighing scales to weigh the food before and during cooking. Since food includes a lot of different categories, weight can go well from Kg to Lbs to Oz and thus the best food scale is one that allows multiple measurement units.

However:

Multiple measurement units is not the only criterion to gauge and vet a food weighing scale; there are many other relevant and highly considerable criteria. For example, the weighing capacity of a digital kitchen scale also matters a lot.

A good scale is considered one that is at least 2 Kg+ and the best ones are those that have the weighing capacity of 5 Kg+. Then there come technicalities like how many weighing units are available in a certain scale and what are the dimensions of it.

Food Scale Review Criteria

Although there can be a lot of gauges to vet a kitchen scale and see if it is up to the consumer expectations or not, there are at least 6 criteria which are more important than other standards. Here is a list of these criteria, a reasoning of how this criteria is judged and how the number game works.

Based on all these criteria, the final rating of a professional kitchen scale is devised, and that overall rating is based on a strict point system which I am going to explain in this part of the review.

Usability

Well, usability is the most important criteria of this comparison and contrast review. A food weight scale can be considered usable in a care where it has a bigger weighing capacity and it makes it easy for the user to weigh any food item on it, which cannot be accomplished unless the weighing area is large and stable enough. Usability secures 2 points out of total 10 points of our review criteria.

Design

Design of a food weighing scale matters a lot because there are those who come with fixed weighing trey, then there come those that have removable bowls and then there is a big line of distinction between those who have digital meter and those who have analog meter. The shape of the food weight scale, type and size of display meter and dimensions of a scale constitute its design. Design also covers 2 points out of total 10 points.

Measurement Units

Well, now we are being drifted from broad review criteria to more technical and narrow criteria. The measurement units on a weighing scales are in Kg, Lbs, Ounces or other units. Most of the weighing scales have 4 units. This criterion also secures 2 points.

Graduation

Well, this is more technical detail and it is very important in a case where you weigh something very lightweight. The graduation marks mean that you cannot make accurate measurement of something less than that mark. So if graduation mark is in gram, you cannot make a measurement in milligrams. This criterion secures 1 point in our point system.

Maximum Weight

Alright, so let us assume that you have an ideal electronic scale with finest graduation marks, maximum measurement units and an awesome design and capacity, would you call it an ideal one if it cannot measure anything beyond 2 Kg? Especially when you have to weigh items heavier than that? The answer is no! The amount of weight that a kitchen scale can measure makes it a good or bad deal. This is why this criterion secures 2 points in our criteria.

Weight of the Scale

Although this is not very relevant because you probably have to hold a kitchen scale once in your life and that too when you bring it from door to kitchen counter, still it still makes a difference because everyone loves small and lightweight products. Considering that this might be the least important criterion, we allocated 1 point to this criterion.

List of 10 Best Digital Kitchen Scales

Considering some of the most important criteria, we made a table to see as to how the top ten best food scales perform and as per that table here are the results.

1. Ozeri ZK 14-S Pronto Digital Food Scale

Alright:

So this the best digital kitchen scale that we could find over Amazon. This is editor’s choice and you are going to learn as to why this is the best food scale for its value.

As it has been stated above, this scale has 5 measuring units which is a big deal since most of the good scales have only 4 measuring units. The units are grams, lbs, lbs:oz, oz and ml. This means that you can convert a lot shifting from one to another weighing measurement unit.

However, where this weighing scale beats other scales six ways to Sunday is in terms of weighing capacity. It also measures food weight as much as 179.84 ounces, which is second highest when compared to the weighing capacities of all of the cooking scales that we included in this review.

Apart from the weight measurements and weighing capacity, there are a lot of other good reasons to prefer this weighing scale to others. For example, this scale is a very smart and sleek scale that not only you can easily move from one place to another, but that will not take much space on your kitchen counter.

This means that this kitchen and food scale can literally measure the weight of anything that you might need in your daily kitchen life. What’s more? The instant unit converter on this scale can immediately convert one measurement unit into another. So if you see the weight in Lbs and you want to see it in ounces, simply push unit button and convert one unit into another.

2. Greater Goods Nourish Food Scale with Nutritional Facts Display

Let us fist talk about the good things offered by this one of its kind food weighing scale. The biggest plus point of this scale is its design. It is the most smart, sleek and lightest scale among the scales that we acquired and reviewed for this review.

They have turned this scale into a computer and the details of all types of food ingredients have been stored in it. You can get nutritional data for up to 2,000 food ingredients so as to keep up with your calorie check and it is the perfect weight machine for those who want to shed some pounds off their bodies. So, it’s kind of best food scale with nutritional calculator.

A very smooth and wide surface works as a good weighing area and the hygienic touch sensitive buttons make it possible for you to keep track of weights as well as nutritional values or convert one type of units into another type of units.

This nutrient scale also comes with 4 measuring units and a graduation of 0.1 ounce. The total weighing capacity of this calorie scale is 176 ounces. The best thing about this nutrition scale is its ability to count the calories for up to 2000 food ingredients and if you think that something is missed, you have the space to save as much as 99 custom entries.

There is this tare/zero function to reset the display and weigh more food in a bowl. The smart tare function will show you the weight excluding the weight of the bowl or any other container. The surface of the weighing trey is a non-slip and scratch-proof tempered glass top.

A customer was not able to find value for a simple item such as butter, because the way how they have categorized the food items, is complicated. Also, because of so many functions available, the vertical digital display is hardly visible; the digits are too small to easily read.

3. Nicewell – Stainless Steel Digital Kitchen Scale

Easy to use and lightweight to transport; Nicewell MQD-C018 contains the finest finish that you can hardly witness out of many digital kitchen scales available in the market. Popular amongst the world-wide clientage, this takes you a few moments to wholly learn its functions to start using like you have known it for long.

Comprises upon 5 clear and understandable measurement units that can weigh the food items (be it liquid as well) to know their weight up to micro-levels. Prepping the next meal just for yourself or getting a few friends waiting to get served with a healthy meal, you are all set ready to inspire! Take to measure from g/kg/lb:oz/fl’oz/ml to never exceed the desired quantity the recipe requires.

This takes 2 AAA-rated batteries to convene with the operation but does not worry about draining out the batteries as it employs the auto-shutdown system that turns off the scale after 120-seconds (2 minutes) if found not in use. Seems to be a non-adequate duration when you are busy preparing the meal but this little functionality is cost-efficient to always have the batteries by your side.

The bigger and larger weight panel comfortably takes even a serving-size plate without blocking the display unit’s view at all. And crafted with stainless steel layered along the tempered glass seems a nice addition where it would eliminate the chances of rough scratches. Apart from that, the tare functionality can zero-in the weight associated with the containers/serving plates, so that everything that goes inside is accurately recorded.

It takes up to 352.0 as the maximum weight to which is quite enough weight count enabling you to prepare even a large meal for the group of family and friends visiting you.

The graduation (see through the table for the Graduation rating it contains) with the minimum graduation increment of up to 0.1oz gives the liberty to weigh even the spices that go into the tasty meal. So, the added weight should at least be nearing 0.1oz, or else it would not record anything.

However, this measurement unit shuffling lands you the opportunity to swiftly change the unit to explore how much it weighs, let’s suppose, you had it added into lbs, and now you demand to check the weight in grams, which you can comfortably do by pressing the ‘UNIT’ button from the scale.

4. Etekcity Digital Kitchen Scale 

The scale is rectangular with curves on long ends and there is a beautiful digital meter to show the weighing units. This scale offers 4 measurement units which are ounces, milligrams, pounds and grams.

A very good option that Etekcity weighing scale offers is the Tare function. Those who use digital weighing scales know how it becomes headache to reset the meter to zero. The Tare function allows you to reset the digital meter in a simple touch.

This saves the AAA batteries that you have to use with this scale. However, the use of AAA batteries seems to be a downside of this scale. A USB charging option could have been a smart choice because they never run short of power and you can always use them without any fear.

Another plus point of Etekcity is it’s lightweight. This food weight scale weighs only 7.2 ounces and it still does the job. With graduation units of 0.01 ounce and total weighing capacity of 5 Kg, this weighing scale is ready to meet any and all daily food weighing challenges,

The application of this kitchen scale is both: household and commercial. It comes with 1-year warranty from Etekcity. Although the scale does not show weight in Kg, it still covers 4 major unites e.g. oz, ml, gram, and lb. These units are actually more than needed in case where you do not use scale at commercial level, because in that case from time to time you have to use a scale that shows Kilograms as well.

5. My Weigh KD8000 Scale

Yet, this is not the only plus point of this scale. It has actually many of them. For example, it touches the demographic of customers who are into cooking and baking not just for fun, but it is their profession. The percentage system on MyWeigh scale helps them a lot with sustaining a uniform taste in their products.

Still, everything is not kosher about this scale. First of all, it lets you charge it with an AC adapter, but it does not come with one. How awkward is that? Then there is this general complaint about this scale that you can notice in the reviews. Many customers reported how scale stopped working after a few months. Since we did not use it for a few months, we cannot attest this flaw. This scale scored 7.25 on our points table, which makes it better than above average scales.

6. Etekcity Digital Food Scale with removable Bowl 

This Etekcity food scale is not any different than the other one when it comes to the basic essentials. It allows a maximum measurement of 176 ounces just like others and the graduation unit is also 0.1 ounce just like most of the other scales in this review.

And this is where it gets tricky. A weighing bowl should not be so easy to break. But this one, as per the customer reviews and as per our observation, is made of substandard plastic and it tends to break.

7. AccuWeight digital kitchen scale

This scale definitely charms you with its dazzling black finish and stain resistant glass platform. With 4 high precision G-force load sensors, it can weigh anything up to 176 ounces. However, the best part about this kitchen scale is the confidence that the manufacturers put in their product.

A big problem with a lot of other food scales is their small display LEDs or small display units, and even if there were those few that had big display, occasionally they were without any back-light. This one, however, comes with a back-lit display that has adequately big digits and the ambient maroon back-light.

Another amazing feature is the auto-indication of low-battery and overloaded items. The Zero button offers the zero/tare function and you can wipe the display clean whenever you want to add a new item or bigger quantity of the same item.

All of this comes with 2 AAA batteries, which means that two lowly AAA batteries are enough for this scale to perform all its functions. Since the weighing platform is stain resistant, it is free of fingerprint problem and you can clean it easily.

8. 1byone kitchen food digital scale

One can easily shift from one to another measurement unit and very convenient tare + auto zero button makes it easy for you to wipe the slate clean and measure new items.

The ultra-low power offers you better battery life and you will not have to install new batteries every now and then. However, the problem is again the AAA batteries; this device takes 2 AAA batteries and as it has been stated above, an AAA battery is not dependable.

9. OXO Good Grips Pull-Out Display Food Scale

OXO Good Grips stainless steel food weighing scale is a very capable scale that comes with many goodies. OXO food scale can weight food up to 176 ounces and the graduation unit is 0.05 oz only. This means that you get to weight even the lightest quantity of food and you never make a mistake with your perfect recipe.

Large digital numbers on the display are a blessing because so many digital displays have an unfriendly size of the digits, let alone the analog displays. This scale has large digits with an option of backlight so as to make sure that you read the digits with ease and accuracy.

There is another thing to appreciate about the large and well-lighted display of this food scale. The scale is elevated on a 45 degrees angle to make it easy for you to read the display. Most of the displays are either on top of the scale or at an angle where utensils’ or counter’s shadow would make the display less visible.

It comes with a cord-free design like rest of the famous kitchen scales, but 4 AAA batteries make it even more vulnerable than those with 2 of them. It is more costly than the scales with 2 batters. The problem that I have with cordless kitchen scales is their dependability.

In the event of a misplaced battery or expired battery, you are unable to use the scale unless you go and buy one. This means that you will have to leave your baking or cooking in the midst of it and go get some batteries.

10. Weighmax Kitchen Scale with Glass Bowl

Let us first talk about the pros of this food scale. The best thing about this food scale is the removable bowl that is used as the weighing platform. The bowl makes it easy for you to stack items one on another and get the exact measurements. Also food items like grains and similar other items can be easily weighed in a bowl as compared to a trey.

The graduation unit of this scale is 0.1 ounce, which is although not like Ozeri and Xoxo’s 0.05 ounce, but still something that all good food scales offer. The mode key on the scale is another great option; it lets you change the measurement unit and weigh the food items in any of the three available measuring units.

Talking of the negative side of this weighing scale, one has to say that there are a lot that has been missed. First of all, offering only 3 measuring units while average scales offer 4 and best of them offer 5 units, is a big disadvantage.

Then come to the weighing capacity. Almost all average kitchen scales out there offer 176 ounces weighing limit. This scale allows the maximum weight limit of 70.54 ounces which is extremely insufficient.

Yet:

Kitchen Scales Buyer’s Guide

I know …

I’ve lined up the best kitchen scales that you can find on Amazon or on the internet for that matter, but some of you might want to make a checklist, vet each and every food scale out there and buy only the best one.

In case you want to know what to look for when buying food scales, this buyer’s guide will help you. Just read these points, make a list and pick the scale that checked all of the boxes.

1. Minimum Weighing Capacity

Let us admit …

A food scale is not your everyday digital scale. You cannot just get weight measurements in KGs and pounds when you have to measure food ingredients in ounces. This is why minimum weight capacity is very important – or how would you figure out the exact quantity of one-ounce ground black pepper?

Trust me – your domestic digital scales (ones that you use to measure your weight) is not going to help. A mechanical/analog scale is also not going to help.

You need to buy a food scale with minimum possible graduation unit. The minimum the graduation unit of a scale the better it is for your purpose – especially if you’re a chef or pastry chef and your business relies on accurate measurements.

Take Ozeri ZK 14-S for example – this scale has the graduation unit set at 0.005 oz; considering that most of the scales offer a graduation unit (minimum weighing capacity) of 0.1 oz or more, this is the best scale for those bent on precise and minimum possible weighing.

2. Backlit Display

I know that this might not be a big deal for some people – but there are those that posted negative reviews on Amazon only because their scales either didn’t have a backlit display or the light was not good enough.

There are restaurants and cafes with dim lights where they go by the scheme even in the kitchen and it is almost impossible for the chef to read the measurements if the kitchen scale does not have a backlit display or the light is very dim at best.

Then there are people who use such scales at home and they also want a well-lit display because as it has been observed in surveys and researches due to maintenance issues and fashion-related influences, a sizeable number of domestic kitchens are not well-lit.

So to be on safe side always pick a digital scale with well-lit digital display. AccuWeight’s scale is a good example of digital scale with digital display that is backlit and that has big and easy to read digits.

3. Balanced Measuring

In case you’ve checked a lot of digital food scales on Amazon (and read the customer reviews that people should before buying any product), you must’ve noticed that many digital scales have a common issue: the weight measurements change based on where on the scale you place the item (e.g. corn flour) for measurement.

If it is in the center of the scale, the digital display would show a different measurement and if you move it to one of the 4 corners, the measurement will be changed even though you do not make any change to the quantity of the item.

This issue is a big one – so much so that scales like AccuWeight and Etekcity have been reported to have this issue.

A solution to this problem is ditch digital scales and go for analog scales – they do not offer very precise measurements (0.01oz), but their measurements are consistent so you can rely on them (for your business especially where it is very important to maintain a consistent taste).

However, analog scales are old-school scales and they are not very useful in a modern cooking scenario where you have to measure items in the minimum possible quantity. Think of a pastry chef having to measure 1 oz vanilla extract – can he do this with an analog scale?

So, you need digital scales – better get those that have good reputation for measurement consistency.

From the list of scales that I picked for this list, you can pick Etekcity digital scale – it is praised for consistent measurement readings. Another good scale is Greater Goods Nourish – while display is hard to read, the measurements are correct most of the times.

4. Size of the Weighing Plate

Another common complaint that I came across while examining digital and analog scales on Amazon, reading the reviews and keenly observing the technical details of those scales, is about the size of the weighing plate.

Many of these companies now offer the weighing scale with a detachable (in some cases non-detachable) bowl. While a bowl gives enough space to measure the weight of most of the items that you may use at home or restaurant, it is actually not ideal for many things.

A few customers complained that the bowl gives different weight measurements because of how you place items in it – also it does not have the kind of spread that you have with a wide plate.

Speaking of weighing plates, it is important to mention that size of a weighing plate matters a lot. Not only a big-sized plate is good for items that a bowl cannot contain, but a big-sized plate can also house a container so you can easily measure the items and mix them – something pastry chefs need a lot.

5. Power Options

Most of the weighing scales that I’ve reviewed in this post and that I’ve examined personally come with double or triple A batteries power option.

Then there are those that come with power adapters.

It is hard to say as to which one of these two is the best option to go for – both of them have their own perks.

Take double A batteries for example – they are better than triple A ones because you spend less money to keep your digital food scale up and running.

Batteries as a whole are a good option because you enjoy mobility – you can pick your food scale and move to any place inside your home/restaurant’s kitchen. It feels good because you are not longer tied to a power socket.

On the other hand, a power adapter is good for those who want to play safe. If your food scale runs on a power adapter, you would not have to worry about stocking extra batteries. Also, it is a general observation that the food scales with power adapters have a better backlit display than those that come with AA or AAA batteries.

However, there is a problem with both of the options – you can always forget storing extra batteries and imagine if your batteries run out while you are in the midst of cooking and when you need to get some measurements.

Also, it is a number game – I always end up switching new batteries with old ones. How would you know if one of your AA/AAA batteries is about to run out and while the remaining one or two are still fine?

But don’t you think that power adapters do not have their own issues. To start with, these items are made all over the world and sent all over the world. How’d you feel about an American-made weighing scale whose power plug is not made for European sockets? You want to use it immediately – right out of the box – but you can’t.

Also, give a kiss good bye to mobility? While AA/AAA batteries let you move the weighing scale freely, with a weighing scale that runs on a power adapter you can only wish this freedom.

6. Measuring Liquids

I believe that a chef’s job is identical to that of a witch’s – they need a lot of dry and liquid items to make the potion that their customers would love.

In case you are a chef who needs to measure liquids a lot or you have to do this at home a lot, you should go with analog scale.

Why?

Because those scales are mechanical and a liquid outpour or leak cannot cause any damage to them.

However:

If you want to work with only and only a digital scale – make sure to check the technical details and see that the scale is waterproof.

Take Ozeri’s ZK21-B for example – I haven’t added this scale to my list of top performing scales, but in case you want a waterproof scale, this one deserves some serious consideration.

7. Solid Material

Last, but not the least, make sure that the scale that you buy is made of solid material e.g. industrial grade plastic or aluminum etc.

This is a very important point lest you underestimate the importance of material. I know that when people look for digital scales, they look for precise and minimum possible weight measurement, but in practice you often have to weigh items in KGs and pounds.

This is where it gets tricky, because as I’ve seen in case of many unhappy customers, they end up breaking the cheap plastic bowl or plate that comes with their scale.

If nothing else happens, they at least hate how squeaky their scales are and how cheap they feel. So, make sure that your scale is not made of cheap and second/third-grade plastic.

Our Verdict

At it is evident, the Ozeri food scale is the winner of this review of the top ten kitchen scales. It scored 9.25 points mainly because of high usability score, high design score and comparatively high weighing capacity.

Runner up is Greater Goods Nourish scale with 9 points. It earned these points with ridiculously light weight, innovative ideas behind it and extreme usability and design.

And not for nothing, Etekcity (without removable bowl) is the third best scale as per our review. It scored 7.25 because of really convenient design and high weighing capacity.

Have a look at these three scales again and choose one that you deem fit based on your budget, requirements and product reviews.

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)