John T. Robertson—January 26, 2016
The Ozeri Pro Digital Kitchen Food Scale at $12.22 is a great little scale for a small price. Frankly, I was tempted to give this scale only one star just so people would read the review. I really don’t trust the Five Star Reviews anymore, too many are obviously baloney. The Kitchen Scale reviews are also loaded with Five Star fluff from people who gave their “honest review” after getting theirs free. After pouring over the scale reviews for a couple of hours and taking note of what seemed to be unscrupulous five star reviews when balanced against the honest one star reviews, I chose this one And I Paid For Mine. Let’s get to the scale. It measures in grams, kilograms, ounces and pounds. It has a tare function. It weighs to the nearest whole gram (no tenths), and this scale is right on the money. The capacity is stated to be 12 pounds. I have a laboratory grade Ohaus triple beam scale that I used for four trials. On the Ohaus, I weighed an item that came in at 147.3 grams and the Ozeri gave me 147 grams. Next item weighed 294.7 grams on the Ohaus and the Ozeri came in at 295 grams. The next item weighed 2,146.4 grams (4.7lbs.) on the Ohaus and the Ozeri measured 2,146 grams. Finally, I put the item that weighed 2,146 grams on the Ozeri and tared it, giving me a reading of zero and then put the 294.7 gram item on top and the Ozeri read 295 grams. It doesn’t get any better than that, folks. It’s perfect to the nearest gram and the tare function works perfectly. I am very happy with this scale. I almost bought the EatSmart Precision Elite Digital Kitchen Scale with the 15 lb. capacity offered on Amazon for $36.95. The fact that it cost almost three times as much was not relevant for me. What was relevant was the whole slew of One Star Reviews from customers that were very unhappy with both it’s accuracy and reliability. The real deal killer was Winter Solstice’s one star review that drew 31 comments! He hit the nail on the head when he alleged that a good number of the Five Star Reviews appear to be phony as fur on a fish. Many of the comments had been removed. WTF? Shouldn’t we be privy to all the comments so we can all make our own informed decisions? What’s going on here? Many of the comments to Winter Solstice’s review basically accused him of sour grapes, so I took a look at his other reviews. Winter Solstice seems to be a bit of a tree-hugging vegetarian that eats junk food and watches a lot of movies, but he also likes tools so is okay in my book. He also had a good mix of reviews and appears to be a very honest reviewer. I believe him, and was left with a deep suspicion of the EatSmart brand and its 8,000 reviews(!). It was already in my cart, and I deleted it. Then there was the Five Star Ozeri Review where Jackrbike contrasted the Ozeri against the EatSmart Precision Pro (EATSMART VS. OZERI SCALES--WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW IS. . .). THAT review drew 21 comments. I look at Jackrbike’s other reviews and found a good mix of one to five stars reviews – another honest reviewer. Jackrbike’s thoughtful review tipped the scales for me (pun intended)! Wow, Amazon reviews have become a bit of a minefield, but the bottom line is this Ozeri is a very good scale at a good price; you’ll be happy with it. Read more
JC—August 4, 2016
This is a high quality food scale at a very reasonable price. Its functions are very clearly labeled, the display is large and is not dimmed by too much light being shone on it, and the buttons are large and easy to press. Its measurements are precise and accurate, as I tested with weights. I like that it has a large platform for weighing things (food obviously). It has worked well in a variety of conditions. One use that I found great was in weighing raw hamburger meat. I found it easy to put a piece of parchment paper on it, tare the parchment paper, and quickly weigh and remove multiple meat balls for pressing hamburgers into similar dimensions and weights. Cleanup was a breeze afterwards because of the construction of the unit. It's also very easy to put a bowl or plate on top of the platform and weigh things that way, whether it be solids or liquids. I'd highly recommend this scale and it's easily a bargain. I've had it for about 3 months now and its function is just as good as it was the day I received it Read more
Jackrbike—December 20, 2011
1. The EatSmart Precision Pro Digital at $25 (12/11) and the Ozeri Pro Digital at under $20 scales are IDENTICAL. I have both, having had the Eatsmart for at least three years, and the Ozari I bought as a gift and tested it. One is black with a chrome-finish platform. The other is silver with a chrome-finish platform. The black body looks as if it is black plastic throughout; the silver body finish might possibly have been painted or otherwise applied (It's description says Elegant Chrome, but just the platform and buttons have a chromed finish.) Personally, I prefer the black, available in both brands. 2. The readout is large; you don't need glasses. It is not backlit and is a problem only in a dimly lit room--solved by turning a light on. 3. The clear plastic covering the LED readouts is recessed slightly from the body of the scales. Flour, spices, and liquids could get on the clear cover and in the corners, creating an annoyance and the necessity of occasionally cleaning the recessed edges. The solution I found was to put a strip of clear packing tape over the whole lens area, flush with the scale body and not pushing the tape down onto the clear plastic. Cleaning is now a simple wipe. 3. The auto-turn-off period after registering a weight or momentarily tapping the weighing platform was within seconds of the three minutes specified, and differed between scales only slightly. This lag between registering a weight and auto turnoff is extremely important; do not buy any scale that does not have such a lag or does not specify a similar or longer lag time! 4. For light weights and for a five pound weight they each gave the same accurate results. A nickel (US) is 5 grams even, and can be used as a test of your sample's accuracy, Use one, then use ten, for 5 and 50 grams, and more if you wish. Regardless of WHERE on the platform I placed a stack of ten nickels, the weight registered the same for both scales. 5. Contrary to one popular review of the Ozeri: a) The scale in fact turns off very easily: CLICK THE TARE BUTTON ONCE TO GET THE SCALE TO READ ZERO, THEN CLICK IT AGAIN TO TURN IT OFF! I confess it took me a month or so of using the scale before that pattern occurred to me. b) Treat the scale reasonably and it will last a long time. My Eatsmart version is still going strong. 6. The 5 1/8" diameter platform is sufficient for most uses, but when using a dinner plate to expand the platform size (taring out the plate's weight) I have to lower my head somewhat to "get at" the reading, because the edge of the plate hides the readout, preventing a reading from directly overhead. A larger diameter platform scale at times would be nice, but such would present a problem for convenient cabinet storage. Using a bowl instead of a dinner plate makes the readout easier for large volumes or weights. 7. The scales measure grams in one gram units, i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. It measures ounces in units of .05 ounce (1/20 oz.), i.e. .05, 1.0, .15, .20 etc. Pounds are measured in units of .002 pounds. This is as much precision as you could possibly need in a kitchen. 8. The scales work fine with rechargeable batteries. Battery life is reasonable, regardless of the type of AAA battery you use. 9. Both scales came with a book of calorie equivalents. 10. I appreciate the large buttons and the reassuring audible click when they are depressed. Small point, perhaps, but that's how I feel about them. 11. Just the platform and buttons have a chromed finish on plastic. The "chrome" is not hard metal, though the pictures might lead one to think it is. Things I've learned that you may find useful, though not relevant to any particular scale: Using a scale guarantees me a consistent cup of coffee. Measuring coffee by volume can be deceptive, depending on the type of grind and type of roast. If kids argue over who is getting the bigger portions of a particular dish, give 'em the scale and let THEM adjust the quantities for "fairness"!* I've found that standardizing on a cup of flour of 4.8 oz works best with most recipes. If you measure by the level cup, you'll find that a "cup" can equal from 4.3 to as much as 5.4 ounces. 2 grams of loose tea equates with most teabags and the cruder measure of one teaspoon, commonly suggested for one to two cups of tea. *OR, let the complaining child divvy up the food in equal portions, but the non-complainers get to pick before the complainer! Read more
