I’ve been an avid home baker for well over a decade (my first stint in “food media” was a baking blog I started in middle school!), and I can confirm that there is no single tool quite as important to the outcome of your baked goods as a simple kitchen scale. Bon Appétit’s Test Kitchen team agrees, which is why you’ll see gram measurements in the baking recipes on our site.
Best kitchen scale overall: Escali Primo Digital Food Scale
Best budget kitchen scale: Amazon Basics Kitchen Scale
For bakers who are also coffee nerds: Fellow Tally Scale
For the skeptics, try this actual experiment, which I did with senior editor Noah Kaufman: Make one batch of cookies with flour scooped directly from the bag and weighed, and another with flour spooned and leveled into a measuring cup. The two batches will turn out completely different. Scooped flour packs more densely into the cup, so you end up with more flour than the recipe calls for, and that will have a major impact on your finished product. A scale is the secret to staying true to the recipe every single time.
Another bonus of a kitchen scale? In most cases, you can kiss measuring cups and spoons goodbye, which means far fewer dishes to clean once your bakes are in the oven.
Scales aren’t just for bakers, either. They make portioning burger patties and meatballs easier, streamline meal prep, and keep your Sunday morning pancake routine cleaner.
I’ve tested 16 models over several years and consulted Shilpa Uskokovic, BA senior Test Kitchen editor and co-owner of Hani’s Bakery, to find the best kitchen scale for home cooks. The winner is just $27.
New in this update: I tested the new ThermoWorks Gravitas Precision Kitchen Scale, but ultimately, while it can serve a real purpose for larger projects, I didn’t think its performance matched its price tag. You can read my full review below.
This Escali Primo has held the top spot in our testing for over six years and has been a favorite in the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen for far longer than that. “This scale has been with me for more than a decade of my career, staying faithfully by my side through 12-hour shifts in pastry kitchens, bouts of religious recipe testing, and weekly sessions of casual baking,” says senior Test Kitchen editor and resident baking whiz Shilpa Uskokovic.
It’s durable, accurate, intuitive to use, and affordable—pretty much everything we could ask of a kitchen scale.
What we love: The Escali Primo is lightweight, comes in a variety of fun colors, and has a simple two-button interface to turn it on, tare it, and toggle between ounces, pounds, and grams. In testing, it was responsive and precise, quick to tare, and delivered accurate readings every time. Its 4.5-minute auto shut-off is among the longest of any model we tested, so you won’t lose your measurements mid-bake. Plus, its 11-pound capacity is large enough to accommodate any task a home cook might ask of it.
Performance aside, the Escali Primo has several design features that helped it stand out. For one, the fact that the weighing platform is elevated and offset from the base means you can easily read the display or use the buttons even when measuring into a large, wide mixing bowl. The plastic body and sealed control panel make it a breeze to wipe down after a floury baking session and also keep stray crumbs from getting stuck in any crevices. Another detail we like? The four rubberized feet keep it stable on your kitchen counter.
The Escali Primo has proven quite durable as we’ve continued to test it long-term, another reason why it’s a perennial favorite among our Test Kitchen editors. Shilpa again: “It’s compact and easy to store, it’s easy to wipe clean, it toggles between grams and ounces seamlessly, and it’s reliably accurate.”
What we’d leave: The Escali can only measure in 1-gram increments. While this was typical of most scales we tested, those looking to use their kitchen scale for dialing in their coffee routine will want something more precise (though coffee scales are kind of their own thing). Unlike some pricier models, the Escali’s display is not backlit, but we didn’t find this to be an issue. It’s also worth noting that the Escali is not a touchscreen device, so you’ll need to use a bit of pressure on the buttons.
Amazon Basics products are not consistent across
Amazon Basics products are not consistent across the board, but this scale is a certifiable hit. At about half the price of the Escali, it’s a good option if you’re not positive about this scale thing and want to spend as little as humanly possible to do so.
What we love: There are a lot of similarities between the Amazon Basics scale and the overall winner. The Amazon Basics scale has the same two-button setup, a similar elevated weighing platform that makes it easy to see the display, and the same 11-pound maximum capacity. It’s made of plastic with a stainless-steel platform that’s easy to wipe down and is just a touch larger than the Escali at 7 inches across.
In testing, I was impressed by the Amazon scale’s accuracy, considering its price point. It responded to weight addition or removal almost as quickly as the Escali and provided an accurate readout about 99% of the time. That 1% weight change inaccuracy happened when someone repeatedly added weight or switched back and forth between units of measurement, and when it did happen, the reading was off by a minor amount. The problem could be fixed by removing what was on the scale, taring it, and starting over. For $10 (at the time of writing), you’d be hard-pressed to find a better model.
What we’d leave: Unlike the Escali, the Amazon scale’s buttons lack any kind of laminated sealing to prevent crumbs or liquid from entering the crevices around them. As mentioned, this scale isn’t quite as accurate as the winner and it tended to overshoot an item’s actual weight at first (before correcting itself relatively quickly). And last, the stainless-steel platform is more prone to scratching or smudging than Escali’s plastic one.
You’ll notice there aren’t any other scales marketed as coffee scales on this list, and that’s because the Fellow Tally was the only coffee scale we thought could plausibly work as an all-purpose model too.
What we love: The Fellow Tally is one of our favorite coffee scales (especially for pour-over) thanks to features like a built-in timer and a “brew assist” that directs you on the proper ratio of coffee to water—but its 5.5-pound maximum capacity means it works for most home baking projects too. If you’re the kind of person who likes to nerd out over your brewing and baking techniques, this is your best bet unless you want to invest in two separate scales.
In testing, we quite liked the Tally’s design for its tactile controls and easy-to-read OLED display, and appreciated its ability to measure grams, ounces, pounds, and milliliters (that milliliter measurement is calibrated for water, so one milliliter equals one gram; if you’re measuring a heavier liquid like milk it will be slightly off). The elevated 6-inch platform is large enough to comfortably hold a mixing bowl while allowing easy visibility of the display.
What we’d leave: This is undeniably a pricey scale, so unless you’re interested in its special coffee-making features, it’s overkill. And while the 5.5-pound capacity should be enough for most things the average person would bake at home, if you see giant batches of sourdough or holiday cookies in your future, opt for the Escali.
These scales didn’t quite make our list of top picks, but they still impressed us in testing and might fit your needs depending on what you’re looking for.
This is another scale from the makers of our top overall pick. It’s sleeker and slightly more advanced, with a four-button control panel that includes the typical on-off, unit change, and tare functions, plus a “hold” feature that keeps your measurement on the screen rather than automatically shutting off after a given amount of time.
We ultimately didn’t think the added feature and upgraded design merited spending an extra $10, but this is undoubtedly a good scale (and the rainbow of colorways available makes it easy to find a match for your kitchen decor).
This Oxo scale is a favorite among professional chefs for its easy-to-clean stainless-steel weighing platform, handy pull-out display design (great for measuring into extra-large bowls), and accuracy. We liked it a lot, but didn’t feel it merited its price tag, which is about double that of the winning Escali at the time of writing. Editor’s note: This is a newer version of the model we tested.
We also tested the Ozeri Pronto, Etekcity Multifunction
We also tested the Ozeri Pronto, Etekcity Multifunction Food Kitchen Scale, and GDealer Tempered Glass Kitchen Scale, all of which have been discontinued.
Alaina Chou: Alaina has been testing products at Bon Appétit for over three years, which means she’s used dozens of air fryers, toasters, rice cookers, and—you guessed it—kitchen scales. She’s an avid baker who’s been a proponent of measuring by weight for the better part of a decade.
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Source: www.bonappetit.com
