I love everything about this scale! While my old digital platform scale was still measuring things accurately, it was quite old, so it wasn’t powering itself back on without the hassle of removing and replacing fresh batteries at least a couple times, standing on one foot, fingers crossed and praying over it. ;) So I needed to go ahead and find a replacement. I knew I wanted an accurate scale that could tare, and also switch easily between ounces and grams. And I didn’t want a model with a backlight because I don’t actually need that function, and I’ve found that this feature can reduce battery life. So with those criteria in mind, I searched online to read reviews, and found that Wirecutter (from NY Times), Bon Appétit AND Epicurious editorial staff ALL chose an Escali scale (same brand, but an older model) as their top picks. Their endorsements of Escali were good enough for me! I love this thing! First, is it actually made from bamboo? YES! Attaching photos to this review so you can see the scale next to a bamboo salt cellar, and one that shows a cross section of the thinner portion of wood face where it’s been cut to fit the display window (the sides are thicker than the cut portion that’s shown in this photo, but other reviewers have shown the sides, so I didn’t bother). The bamboo top is just like a bamboo cutting board that was routed out/cut out underneath to accommodate fitting the electronics (while its bamboo, I would never use this as a cutting board because of the electronics). The bamboo is smooth and well made, with no crevices that would be difficult to wipe down. And this is the cool part: when I’m not using the scale (because let’s face it, you don’t use it every single minute you’re in a kitchen, right?), it looks beautiful out in the open with my wood cutting boards— it fits right in, and if the display portion is hidden it would be *really* hard to tell it isn’t an actual cutting board unless you were to pick it up. I have a small kitchen, so I love that it doesn’t look like an electronic device or gadget. And the design is slim enough that you could store it on a shelf with cookbooks, etc., if that might work better than leaving it out on the counter. I initially assumed a platform type scale would be MUCH better for baking, since that’s what I’d had before, but it doesn’t make any difference to me because the surface of this one is large enough to accommodate my largest mixing bowls. I have no problem seeing the display, even with my largest bowl, or even a large Dutch oven or stockpot sitting on the surface. The tare function works well, the function to convert units between grams to ounces to pounds + ounces to liquid ounces (that one only applies to water, btw, since other liquids will weigh different amounts than water) works well. And the hold function is a nice little bonus. since I’ve sometimes used a kitchen scale to measure lightweight but bulkier boxes for shipping— the scale can handle anything up to 15lbs, according to the box. To use the hold function: press hold, place the item on the surface of the scale, and in a second or two, you’ll hear a beep once the item’s weight has registered. Remove the item, and the weight remains on the display! No more trying to peek underneath a box or bulky item to see how much it weighs. ;) I also like that this scale will retain measurements on the display for up to 5 minutes. With my old scale, I would sometimes find myself scrambling to finish measuring something if I’d needed to open a new package of flour or sugar to add more, if I’d run out of something in one container mid-way through measuring. It’s nice to have a little more time to grab what I need, or refer back to a recipe, etc. The only negative I can think of is that the tare function button sometimes needs an additional press to zero itself. That’s no big deal to me, but I thought I should mention that you might need to wait a second for it to zero, or maybe even press the button again. Even when my older scale was brand new, it required me to press the tare button multiple times (10x or more), and oftentimes I couldn’t tare unless I turned the power off and back on again. So I’m fine with waiting a second or just pressing a button one more time. I’m still getting the feel of it, but so far I haven’t been concerned or frustrated with anything at all with this one. And it takes a second or so to register the weight of any additions, but it’s not so long of a wait time that you’d be likely to inadvertently make a mistake. I measure fairly slowly anyway, so it’s been easy for me to for instance, measure the weight of sugar or flour, spot on to the exact gram weight I need, without adding too much. It’s plenty responsive for any normal home baking, cooking, meal serving/portioning needs. Commercial bakers might require an instantaneous response if they’re measuring things at a lightning fast speed... but at home, I don’t feel held back or slowed down at all by this scale. I’ve tested this against my older scale which I know to be accurate (even though it sometimes won’t turn itself on lol), and weighed items with known weights. This scale appears to be highly accurate, especially if you place the item on the center area of the platform, just as you would with any other scale. I’m a “kitchen person” and I’m pretty picky about the items I use. Because of the functionality and the bamboo surface, this is one of the coolest kitchen tools I’ve ever owned!
