Neither have I.
However, every once in a while, I do need to know the mass of an envelope or a certain collection of items. That's where having a scale would come in handy. The only times I had used digital scales were at school in science classes, and the instructor was always reminding the class to not break the really expensive scale. Those were pretty high precision and accuracy devices, but I was still a bit surprised to find that consumer-grade scales that measured down to grams were only about $20.
The initial plan was to get an Ikea ORDNING scale. At CAD$ 19.99 (US$ 24.99), the ORDNING was competitive price-wise and used AAA batteries (Ikea.ca website). Problem was that it had a maximum load of only 3 kg (Ikea.ca website) compared to 5 kg that other options I was looking at had.
It came down to the Ozeri Pronto for about CAD$ 20 with features similar to the ORDNING and a mechanical CAD$ 12 weigh scale. Decided that I wasn't in the mood to read a dial, so that was that.
 |
| Ozeri Pronto Digital Kitchen Scale |
Configuration
Ozeri Pronto Digital Multifunction Kitchen and Food Scale
Paid: CAD$ 20
Video
Ozeri Pronto Digital Kitchen Scale Overview
Overview
According to the Amazon.com page, the scale used two AAA batteries, had a tare button, and could measure up to 5050 grams.
Unboxing
It came in a cardboard box with a plastic window showing off the scale. Inside was the scale and two sets of AAA batteries (total of four) mounted into a block of foam. Batteries were partially plastic wrapped in pairs, and the scale was placed in a clear plastic bag along with the manual. The two sets of batteries was surprising. I picked up some rechargeable NiMH batteries so didn't even touch them.
 |
| Ozeri Pronto Digital Kitchen Scale Rear |
The scale turned on the moment I put two rechargeable batteries into the rear. Once my hand wasn't gripped around the plate, the display went to zero. I found only two buttons on the front: one for power and tare, another for units. Clicking the power button once turned the scale on or off -- the manual also said it would time out on its own to save power after a few minutes. Pushing the units button showed that it could display readings in grams, ounces, pounds and ounces, and milliliters. Think the manual said the volume measurement was a guestimate and only good for certain types of liquids. Volume is just weight (g) divided by density (g/L), but you obviously need to know the right density.
With a new scale, I went about testing its accuracy across the rated range up to 5 kg. Not wanting to break anything, I tried to keep it to slightly under 5 kg using known weights. The scale only went to the nearest gram, but with a combination of supposedly known 1.7 g and 4.5 g weights, I was able to test out the range up to 50 g. The scale was within a gram or two. Steeping up to the other end of the range, I used a 10 lb dumbbell that showed up as 10 lb 5 oz.
In the middle, I used the tare function and a few different volumes of water.
Overall, the scale seemed reasonably accurate. Without well-tuned weights and a high quality scale to double-check these weights, I had no way of really testing the scale's accuracy properly. For $20 though, it seemed reasonable.
Conclusion
I thought it was a reasonably good scale for the price. There was no way more me to test the scale's accuracy properly. Ballpark testing using consumer-grade weights suggested that accuracy was reasonable for about CAD$ 20 though.
No comments:
Post a Comment