Recommended inexpensive scale for weighing coffee? - Page 9

#81: Post by **Tom_MN** » October 20th, 2010, 7:26 pm

American Weigh Card-V2-600

Works well enough - is accurate and can be re-calibrated with a 500g weight. Just big enough to easily balance the entire chopped portafilter w/basket on it.
Auto-off time of 60 seconds.

http://www.americanweigh.com/product_in ... ts_id=2158

#82: Post by **Ken Fox** » April 1st, 2011, 9:37 am

Another deal on this ubiquitous scale; a Buy.com "marketplace seller," Eforcity, is offering the scale for $8, shipped. I've bought a number of things from Eforcity over the last couple of years and been satisfied with their service.

This is probably not the lowest price out there, but with the free shipping it is certainly within a dollar or 2 of the lowest price you will find. I consider these scales to be "disposable," although I have only tossed one of them in the trash so far. I use them both for weighing grinds, and also sometimes when making shots, right under the espresso cup.

http://www.buy.com/pr/product.aspx?sku=212546497

If you want to use a click-through website, go to buy.com then search for COTHDIGSCLE1 which is the part or item number.

ken

April 1st, 2011, 10:40 am

eBay http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWAX:IT (and other sellers) direct from China $5.48 inc. shipping. Have purchased 3 dozen of them no problem.

#84: Post by **Ken Fox** » April 1st, 2011, 12:50 pm

Compass Coffee wrote:eBay http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWAX:IT (and other sellers) direct from China $5.48 inc. shipping. Have purchased 3 dozen of them no problem.

I have no doubt. But the ones I reference are located in the USA, and will probably be delivered in a matter of days, and have much less chance of being lost in the mail.

ken

April 1st, 2011, 1:15 pm

True enough. If buying only one paying $3.50 more no biggy. Waiting 3 to 4 weeks for delivery, eh, depends on how impatient. To save $35-40 per order I'll wait.

As far as getting lost in the mail sure it's a possibility, so is USPS Priority taking 2 months to go 45 miles across same state (via all around the country). Regardless purchase guaranteed through eBay. And personally have had over a dozen shipments from China and or Hong Kong the past 6 months, all no problem. Correction, one had a problem but the problem was at local post office losing the package for 2 weeks after they received it.

#86: Post by **jpreiser** » April 11th, 2011, 11:34 am

I'm currently using this one from Harbor Freight. I have several HF stores nearby so was able to pick it up during one of my tool shopping sprees. It's not the cheapest but did fit the bill for immediate gratification.

I really like that it uses standard (AAA) batteries and has an off switch in addition to the auto-off. I really hate wasting battery with auto-off only scales.

#87: Post by **JohnB.** » April 14th, 2011, 3:04 pm

I ordered one of the $5.49 (shipped) scales from this seller http://myworld.ebay.com/tomtop_home/ on 4/1. The scale shipped from Taiwan the next day & was in my mailbox on 4/12. I have two of these that I use everyday, one at each coffee bar. Paid $8.99 for the first one a couple years ago & $6.99 for the second last year. At $5.49 I couldn't resist picking up a back up for when one of them finally fails.

#88: Post by **Jeff** » July 5th, 2011, 10:57 pm

Can the "dealextreme specials" be calibrated?

I had high hopes for an AWS/AWM Card-V2-600 based on the good luck I have had with their 100g scale (for weighing dog food vitamins and minerals), but not only is the timeout too short (0.1 seconds faster than the time it takes to pull a shot and get the shotglass on the scale, it seems), but also it turns itself off randomly when pressing the tare button.

I can't recommend the Harbor Freight #93543 "Cen-Tech" scale as it varies far too much depending on where on the platform you place things.

Edit -- Thanks Ian for the "yes" on calibration. The DealExtreme special was under $10 tonight. DX certainly is an "interesting" company -- but $10 I'll risk, even if I do have to call AMEX later on...

I'll probably end up with something better later on, but this I won't feel badly if I pour boiling water all over it.

digitalscale.com has some interesting reviews with detail of, for example, load cell manufacturer and measured accuracy. They also have some information about scale companies and the manufacturers behind them. So you're aware of potential bias, the domain is registered to HBI International, which is the wholesale distributor of MyWeigh, Jennings, and also handles Tanita and Ohaus -- though they do not always have the best to say about every scale they review, including their own.

Looks like the "DealExtreme scale" is also available from Eforcity through Amazon for even less, $8 delivered -- http://www.amazon.com/Mini-Digital-Pock ... 0042E5316/

#89: Post by **cafeIKE** » July 5th, 2011, 11:13 pm

#90: Post by **Jeff** » July 22nd, 2011, 7:25 pm

I recently purchased one of these 1000g scales and can say "It isn't bad for a $10 scale."

Good:

$10
Can calibrate with 1000 g weight, or any weight a multiple of 100g (for example, 500 g)
Relatively long auto-off time (60 seconds?)
0.1 g readability
Relatively consistent if load placed off center

Bad:

Often drifts significantly (0.2-0.5 g in 30 seconds) rendering tare "useless"
Not terribly sensitive to small (0.1-0.2 g) changes in weight
Slow reading (~5 s)

I ended up keeping notes that my basket weighs 30.4 g, and the cup-o-the-morning is, for example, 130.1 g, and re-zero between weighing the beans, the grinds in the basket, the cup, and the resulting shot in the cup.