I purchased this scale, not for cooking purposes, but actually for knitting. I use it to evenly divide up balls of yarn, to calculate yardage-weight ratios for yarns so I can substitute materials, and to calculate remaining yardage.
This scale has been very valuable to me. I chose it because it has a 1 gram sensitivity, which is key for yarn, as it is so light. I am able to accurately divide a hank for making socks and have been able to calculate how much yardage remains so I know if I can get a few more rows in or if I should wrap it up. It's also allowed me to make more educated material substitutions.
The scale itself is silver plastic and has a glass plate. For whatever reason, it did surprise me that the silver part was plastic, but it seems to be sturdy enough. I do not know if the plastic area is waterproof or water resistant and do not intend to find out through first hand experience. I do find that where I place my ball of yarn on the glass platform can change the measurement I get, but only by a gram or so. I assume that is probably pretty standard across these relatively less expensive kitchen scales. It also converts to oz, which I've used on occasion with certain hanks of yarn. The scale has a temperature reading on it, which does nothing but amuse me. The display is easy to read and is back lit. The scale also contains a timer and you also have the ability to put a bowl or other vessel on the scale and re-set it to zero. This model has four separate buttons and I mention that b/c other reviews for different scales had been annoyed by a one button set up that caused them to lose data.
Again, my uses of this product have been strictly for knitting, to which end it works really well. If I were that type of cook, I would most likely purchase another scale just like this one for kitchen use.
