Choosing a Digital Scale

There are many different types and styles of digital scales available, from a cool digital scale like the one to the right, to a sturdy industrial scale designed to hold up to rough use. The digital scale you choose should be one that suits both the purpose for which you intend to use it and the style of your home or office. Here is a quick description of the many different types of digital scales available.

Digital Food Scale

A digital food scale is made for weighing food in the kitchen.  This type of scale is also called a kitchen scale.  There are two main uses for a kitchen food scale.  The first is to weigh food before you eat in order to be sure that you are eating the correct portion size.  This is important if you are dieting because many people think a portion is larger than it really is.  Weighing food portions can also be helpful for people with certain medical conditions, such as diabetes, who must be careful about what they eat.

The other use for a digital food scale is to weigh ingredients when cooking.  Although most home recipes use volume measurements such as cups and teaspoons, professional recipes used by chefs in restaurants usually list ingredients by weight.  Weighing the ingredients for a recipe is a more accurate method of measurement and ensures that the recipe turns out the same each time.  If you are buying a digital kitchen scale to use in cooking at home, you will want to get a scale that allows you to weigh ingredients in a bowl.  That requires a tare feature on the scale so that the weight of the bowl is not counted.

Digital Bathroom Scales

For dieters, a digital bathroom scale is a very important thing to have.  Studies have shown that people tend to keep their weight under control better if they weigh themselves at least once per week.  Using a digital bathroom scale makes it much easier to read the weight since the numbers are usually quite large.  If you are tired of squinting at the little lines on your dial scale, it is time to switch to a digital scale to make your weekly weigh-in less of a chore.

Industrial Scales

If you're buying a scale for a factory, you're probably going to need an industrial scale.  These scales are built to stand up to heavy use and designed for specific industrial needs.  The main types of industrial scales are the floor scale and the counting scale.

A digital floor scale has a large platform that sits on the floor.  The platform can be small, but most factories and warehouses will have one that is large enough to weigh an entire pallet.  These scales are most often used to get accurate weights for shipping purposes.

A digital counting scale is usually small enough to sit on a desk.  The scale has a tare feature so that you can weigh parts in a container without the container's weight being counted.  A counting scale allows you to weigh one part first to get a per-part weight.  When you add the rest of the parts, the scale will divide the total weight by the per-part weight to tell you how many parts are in the container.