4 Best Kitchen Scales of 2022, According to Testing

In our Kitchen Appliance and Culinary Innovation Lab's side-by-side testing, we evaluate kitchen and food scales based on two main categories: accuracy and ease of use.

• Accuracy: To determine which kitchen scales are the most accurate and easy to use, we test three samples of each scale using an assortment of steel weights that weigh one ounce, eight ounces, one pound and 11 pounds (a range that includes most standard kitchen scale minimum and maximum capacities.) We also test the tare function on each scale by taring out a glass bowl and weighing an eight ounce weight inside of it.

• Ease of use: We test each scale for ease of cleaning, ease of installing batteries, efficiency of automatic shut-off, ease of taring, range of measurements, visibility of read-out and whether or not there was a backlight to help visibility.

✔️ Digital vs mechanical: The majority of modern home kitchen scales are digital, but there are some mechanical options on the market. Most digital scales require a power source like batteries or an electrical plug, while mechanical scales do not. A mechanical scale’s reading often has limited measurement units, while a digital scale can have various settings and units of measurement at the push of a button.

✔️ Style: Digital scales now come in many different colors and materials; some are very portable, while others need to stay put on your kitchen counter. Some scales come with a removable tray that you can weigh ingredients directly in, while others work best with a tared out bowl or tray on the scale platform. The digital readout of measurements also varies, from very tiny to a large LED readout with a backlight, which is great if you are cooking with kids or don’t want to pull out your reading glasses.

✔️ Weight capacity: Most kitchen scales on the market are able to read a minimum of one ounce or 28 grams for smaller ingredients like extracts or baking powder and a maximum of 11 pounds for larger ingredients like a whole squash or a turkey. If you need to weigh out very small measurements like salt or yeast, you should look for a scale that is sensitive enough to give readings as little as .001 ounces or .03 grams. If you need to weigh larger or heavier ingredients, there are models with 22-pound (like the Zwilling model in our list) or 33-pound weight capacities.

✔️ Range of measurement: A good kitchen scale should be able to switch easily from ounces and pounds to grams and kilograms because recipes may be written in metric or imperial units. Recipes from the United States will normally use imperial units (ounces and pounds), while recipes from outside of the United States will usually use the metric system (grams and kilograms). If you are measuring a lot of liquid ingredients it is also helpful to look for a scale which offers fluid ounces and milliliter measurements.

✔️ Ease of use: A seamless scale surface with few buttons and crevices is much easier to clean, especially if working with fine ingredients like flour or sticky ingredients like honey. Automatic shut-off is a great feature to have since it conserves batteries, but if the shut-off is too quick, you can lose your weight data, which can be frustrating. The tare feature is critical so you can weight out multiple ingredients into one vessel.

✔️ Batteries: The majority of digital kitchen scales come with batteries that you have to install or are already installed. We recommend making sure the battery type is easy to purchase in the future, like AA or AAA. Try to avoid a scale that requires a harder-to-find battery type or one that is more difficult to install, like flat and rounded button batteries, which often require a screwdriver. Some newer scales on the market simply need to be charged with a USB cord, which prevents any need to install batteries or purchase more batteries in the future.

In the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen Appliances and Culinary Innovation Lab, Eva Bleyer has tested everything from ranges to juicers to cookie sheets. She conducted the most recent side-by-side lab testing of kitchen scales. As a trained chef who has experience in developing recipes and making hand-extruded pasta, she understands how important it is to have a quality scale for accuracy and precision. She earned a B.S. in Food Studies, Nutrition and Public Health from New York University and is a graduate of the Natural Gourmet Institute.