Kitchen scales are a humble but vital tool in the modern kitchen, and they have stood the test of time, too. Like everything in our lives, they’ve received a technological facelift, and modern kitchen scales range from the old-fashioned to the smart and feature-rich.
Kitchen scales make weighing and measuring a breeze, and allow for greater precision in cooking and baking. Recipes can be delicate, so proper measuring is one way to upgrade your baking and cooking skills. Scales will suit anyone from expert bakers to coffee connoisseurs to those who need to count their calories. For their price and small size, they pack a punch to make them worth the purchase.
In this guide, we take a look at why you need a kitchen scale and what makes a good one. We’ll also give you our top picks for the best kitchen scales available today.
Our Top Picks: Summary
- Best Overall: Escali Primo
- Upgrade: Oxo Good Grips Stainless Steel Food Scale
- Best Budget: 1byone Digital Kitchen Scale
- Best for Bakers: My Weigh Bakers Math Kitchen Scale
The Best Kitchen Scales: Our Top Picks
Best Overall: Escali Primo
Escali Primo
A great all-rounder to suit any kitchen.
Why We Picked It
With an 11-lb capacity and a simple, two-button interface, the Escali Primo is easy to use and suitable for most kitchens. Weight readings are in 0.05oz (1g) increments and units can be swapped between pounds, pounds and ounces, and grams. A simple LCD display makes this scale easy to read. The buttons and display are both sealed to protect them against spills, reducing clean-up time and extending longevity. A tare feature allows users to easily subtract a container’s weight from the ingredients and an auto shut-off ensures it won’t waste battery power.
The Escali Primo comes in a range of colors, so it will suit both minimalist and quirky kitchens. The scale is covered by a limited lifetime warranty, giving it excellent value for money.
Keep in Mind
While easy on the budget, this scale lacks some of the features of more expensive models.
In a Nutshell
- 11-lb capacity
- Two-button controls
- Limited lifetime warranty
Upgrade: Oxo Good Grips Stainless Steel Food Scale
Oxo Good Grips Stainless Steel Food Scale
Upgrade your kitchen with a new level of precision.
Why We Picked It
If you’re looking to upgrade your kitchen to suit your style, then the OXO Good Grips scale could be the right choice for you.
This scale has an 11-lb capacity and measures with a precision of ⅛ oz, which makes it more finely tuned than many of its competitors. Combined with the tare function, this gives you precise control over your measurements. The scale even shows you how much of its capacity remains with a convenient meter. The interface is a simple and clear four-button design with a central digital display, which includes an optional backlight.
One of this scale’s most useful features is its pull-out display. The entire front panel of the scale can slide out, remaining connected by a wire. This allows users to see the display and manipulate the controls even when dealing with large bowls, averting the awkward games of kitchen Limbo that sometimes ensue instead.
Keep in Mind
The removable display is useful, but take caution not to damage the wires when working with wet ingredients or putting the scale away.
In a Nutshell
- 11-lb capacity
- Pull-out front panel
- Backlight display
Best Budget: 1byone Digital Kitchen Scale
1byone Digital Kitchen Scale
Kitchen utility at a great price.
Why We Picked It
Some shoppers aren’t looking for luxury in their kitchen scales, just utility. For these shoppers, we recommend the 1byone digital kitchen scale.
Available at a super low price, the 1byone scale still offers up to 11 lbs capacity with a 0.04 oz precision range. Units can be converted between pounds, ounces, grams, and milliliters with ease using the prominent Unit button. On the opposite side of the digital display is the dual on-switch and tare button.
This scale also features a chrome-plated platform that is easier to clean and inhibits bacterial growth compared with plastic platforms.
Keep in Mind
The low cost of this model does mean it lacks features such as programmable memory.
In a Nutshell
- Super simple interface
- Chrome-plated platform
- 11 lbs capacity
Best for Bakers: My Weigh Bakers Math Kitchen Scale
My Weigh Bakers Math Kitchen Scale
Precision features for the serious baker.
Why We Picked It
Bakers have a specific set of must-haves from their kitchen scale and can benefit from features that allow greater measurement precision. That’s why we’ve chosen the My Weigh Bakers Math kitchen scale for bakers.
The My Weigh scale boasts a large, 8,000 gram capacity and its units can be swapped between pounds, pounds and ounces, ounces, and kilograms, which makes following most recipes easy.
The big baker-friendly feature of the My Weigh is its percentage weighing function, which can support precision bakes and soap making. Another excellent feature is the hinged gunk shield, which protects the unit during messy bakes and makes clean-up much easier. The stainless steel platform also makes it easy to wipe the unit clean.
The scale’s controls are simple, with a backlit weight display and prominent buttons, which users can also use to access the programmable auto power-off.
Keep in Mind
The features on offer make this scale a more expensive option than other models.
In a Nutshell
- Percentage weighing function
- Hinged gunk shield
- 8,000 gram capacity
How We Chose the Best Kitchen Scales
To find our top picks for the best kitchen scales, we looked at a few key categories to see how each model performed. Here are some of the areas we considered:
Capacity
Kitchen scales are available in a range of capacities, with most being suitable for small-to-medium baking needs. Larger options are available for bakers who work with more substantial recipes. We favor scales with medium-to-high capacities, as scales are inexpensive and small, so it makes sense to opt for some wiggle room. Remember that a bowl or container will take up some of the scale’s capacity, which is most relevant when working with heavier bowls.
Accuracy
While it’s not something many of us think about, 10 ounces on one scale isn’t always equivalent to 10 ounces on another. That may sound counter-intuitive, but it’s a question of precision. Some shoppers may value precision more than others, so we consider each scale’s precision to find out which kind of shopper it suits. We also take a look at how quickly a scale settles at its final weight, as this can affect precision for users with a need for speed.
Layout and Materials
The design of a scale affects both its aesthetics and functionality, so it forms a key part of our evaluation.
We like scales that keep things simple, with a small number of buttons with clear functionality. A readable display is vital, and brownie points are awarded for displays that solve the issue of overshadowing from large bowls.
Given that kitchen scales are rarely a centerpiece of a kitchen’s decor, we value simplicity and minimalism over a strong sense of style. We also picked options that made cleaning easy, with features designed to protect the controls and display along with a platform that’s easy to wipe clean.
Customer Reviews
By looking at customer reviews, we can build a complete picture of the scale’s performance “in the wild,” including any quirks or performance issues that might come to light. Kitchen scales are often cheap to buy, but this comes with the downside of there being many poor-quality models with questionable durability on the market. We use customer reviews to get a sense of the model’s lifespan and how well it will stand up to general wear and tear.
Who Should Get a Kitchen Scale
Kitchen scales are useful for a wide range of people, so let’s take a closer look at some of the people who might benefit from buying one.
Bakers
Baking requires precise measurement and careful control of ratios to guarantee that the result matches the recipe. But it’s also a matter of consistency. Bakers need to be confident they’ll hit the proverbial target on subsequent attempts, and, in most cases, that’s a result of consistency when weighing and mixing.
For bakers who like to experiment, kitchen scales may not seem so essential—at least until it comes to reproducing your recipe. By using scales, you can be sure you can repeat that recipe and even share it with people you know.
People on a diet
It’s a fact that people who have more knowledge of what they eat are more likely to be successful in weight-loss programs. Much like managing money, it’s important to track and tally income and expenditure. One of the simple changes most people on a diet can make is to weigh their food. This gives instant feedback in a way that cements the information in the conscious mind.
Weighing your food also reconnects you with it. With the right tools, you can begin to move away from processed, convenience-first foods and toward food you’ve measured and prepared yourself, giving dieters a full understanding of what they’re taking in.
Athletes tracking their macros
There’s a lot of overlap between athletes and people on a diet, for some of the reasons we just outlined. Like dieters, athletes can work with their body by identifying and tracking what they eat and in what proportion. Tracking the big three macronutrients (fat, protein, and carbohydrates) by weight is one of the easiest ways to maintain an athletic diet.
Coffee connoisseurs
Coffee connoisseurs take their coffee seriously. Like bakers, they aim for consistency, so kitchen scales make it easy to weigh coffee beans to achieve the same result each time. For connoisseurs who blend their own coffees, knowing the ratio used is the difference between a one-off experiment and a new invention. With a scale, you can share your blends with other coffee enthusiasts.
A scale can also help with your general admin, too. If you have an extensive coffee bean stock, a scale will provide you with more information than just estimating that you have a tenth of a bag of this, a third of a bag of that, and so on.
What to Look For in a Kitchen Scale
When looking for your ideal kitchen scales, you’ll want to keep a few factors in mind to find the right scales for you. Scales don’t vary as widely in functionality as most kitchen appliances, but there are still a few things to consider.
Capacity
This is simple enough: the larger your recipes, the larger the scale you’ll need. If in doubt, opt for something larger. It doesn’t matter if you don’t use high-capacity scales to their full potential, but you’ll miss that extra capacity if you’re trying to make something high-volume with low-capacity scales.
However, high-capacity scales are often more expensive, as they’re more mechanically robust. If you’re only weighing coffee for one (for example), then you may not need to go all-out on capacity.
Memory and Tare Functions
A tare function is common on most digital kitchen scales. With this, you can place the bowl on the platform, press the tare button, and weigh out your ingredients knowing the bowl’s weight has been accounted for. While available on most scales, be sure to check before you buy to avoid disappointment.
Some scales also include memory functions so you can store recent measurements. This can be helpful for dieters and athletes, making it easier to keep track of calories.
Different Measurements
Whether you’re working with recipes from around the world or like to use different units of measurement for different purposes, the ability to switch units on the fly is a common feature on modern kitchen scales. Commonly available units include grams, milliliters, pounds, and ounces. Switching between different units can help your precision, or help you out when dipping into some European recipes.
Design
A scale’s design factors into both its aesthetics and its functionality. Some scales feature an elevated weighing platform to make the scale easy to read when using larger mixing bowls, and some even include pull-out displays to save you bobbing and weaving like a boxer as you bake.
Aesthetically, most scales are low-profile and inconspicuous items, and the best designs play into that role. The most aesthetic scales tend to be the least ostentatious or quirky. The design of kitchen scales also plays a role in how easy they are to clean. If you’re the impatient or messy type, then you’ll probably want to opt for a design that resists dirt and can be wiped clean.
Related Resources
Looking for more kitchen guides? Be sure to check out our other pages.
