Digital Scales... Prices and Quality... Recommendations?

I have been looking to buy a scale online and have found nothing that stood out to me as the scale that was right for me.


I am looking for a scale that is portable and cheap but also acurate.
I have seen prices as low as 20$ but i do not know if these would be unreliable.

Thank you in advance

Thank you guys very much for the quick and useful replies

Thank you very much Max for the two great cheap models you suggested. I am most likely going to be purchasing one of the two models after i take a closer look.

I am a complete and total scale novice, except for chemistry in high school, your comment about calibration weights, "Also, get the correct calibration weight for whatever scale you get." made me realize just how little i know about scales. I though that a scale would come calibrated for the factory and there would be options to calibrate a scale for a tray or dish. But i really have no idea.


vtac the PalmScale 7.0 looks really sleek and futuristic. Would you recommend this scale over cheaper choices or are the looks what the extra money is going to?



Thank you guys again for the great advice

Just received my new Palmscale 7(Advance 200), it really is a very nice scale. I ordered through Old Will Knott and they sent this "anti-vibration" pad along with the scale, have any of y'all used these pads before? I'm probably just going to stick it in my knick-knack drawer as I don't see it as necessary.

Hm, I perused the links and came across the Jennings 150g c/c scale in the $30 range: http://www.businessvision.net/edge/...&PageType=Product&SKU=SC-CC150&CategoryID=398
It's max is only 150g but definitely beyond my needs and it's accurate to 0.05g. Anyway, as my first scale, I think it's a good start. Anyway, will let ya'll know how it works out.

I ordered a .01 scale from Hong Kong for $1. Shipping was ~3$.

It weighs *perfectly*. A dollar registers precisely a .96 and all my calibration scales are spot on. It's sturdy, well designed and uses 2xAAA's.....

It just goes to show you don't have to pay a fortune....

edit//

I've ordered from Knott's a few times before, great place... never used the pads.

Archi, any chance you could post a link to this amazing deal or at least give the name of the scale?

Thanks Vtac. I just ordered the PalmScale 7 from Amazon. Looks like a good investment

FUCK!!! found this thread too late, just ordered Palmscale 7 from warehouse goods online on ebay for 59.99 + 14.95 shipping = 74.94, just checked old will thanks to this thread and same scale is 44.50 + about 10.00 shipping = 54.50 so paid about 20.00 too much or 27% more and no free vibrakill mat.

cancel your order dude. it will be well worth it. the economy is rough and you iwll have more money for buds.

yeah, too late ebay purchases are not cancellable.

So I took a risk and ordered this cheap Fast Weigh TS-100 scale. I'm not sure if it sucks or if its behavior is normal. I wanted this one because it's supposed to weigh in .01 g increments but it doesn't even seem to recognize anything under .03 g. If I put the tray on the scale, zero it out and start dropping little pieces onto it, it stays at zero and then hops up to .03 g. Am I doing something wrong? Should I not expect it to actually weigh something under .03 g? Also, does anyone know how to calibrate a scale without a calibration weight? I know nickels are supposed to be 5 g. I tried a few and got slight differences of .01 - .03 g.

yep, that's just one example of what happens with a cheaply made scale. I received my palmscale 7 and it is very accurate, can easily weigh .01 gram worth of saran wrap increasing .01 gram at a time.

You can only calibrate with a known exact weight of the scales max capacity.

Damn. I was afraid of that. I'm totally to blame, though. I read the warnings but still went ahead and bought it cuz a few other Fast Weigh models on Amazon got decent reviews. Well, at least I've helped provide an example of what NOT to do.

EDIT: I wonder if this would be considered a defective unit and qualify for an exchange. The rest of the scales on that site are probably crap too, though.

I bought a cheap ass scale cause from a pawn shop because I needed one right away. It does a decent job but it only weighs down to 0.1 and for some reason has a stupid power saving feature where if there's no movement on the scale for 10 seconds it shuts down and you have to start all over. I really want to get one of the Palmscale 7's that read down to 0.01, the chrome body makes them look ubersexy.

Hmmm... the plot thickens. I see max mentioned Proscale as a quality brand. I was considering getting the 111 "Snake Eyes" model, but then I noticed it looks virtually the same as the crappy Fast Weigh TS-100 I just bought.

Here are some comparison pics: Proscale 111 and Fast Weigh TS-100.

Are they essentially the same scale? They look slightly different and the 111's max weight is 111 grams as opposed to 100 for the TS-100. Also, on the Old Will Knott site, it says to use a 100 gram calibration weight. How would that work for a 111 gram scale if the weight's supposed to equal the max capacity?

LOL, or use a good scale to weigh out 111 grams and then use that to calibrate.

Sorry to keep posting every detail of my crazy scale-purchasing adventure, but I thought you all might wanna know about this. They're selling the Jennings JScale HP-100X at both Amazon and e-Bay for under $25 shipped, 100 g calibration weight included! I just bought one. I ignored the 3 star Amazon review because I figure that guy must've just gotten a defective unit.

Old Will Knott also has an e-Bay store and they're selling the Proscale 111 for $20 shipped, calibration weight included. I'm going with the Jennings because, well, it's a Jennings and has a higher retail value. It's also bigger than the Proscale and looks less like the crappy Fast Weigh I just got burned on.

Legit or no?

http://www.scaleshack.com/