Customer Reviews

Soehnle Magnum Digital Food Scale

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I don't know what that other customer is talking about - this scale can weigh down to the .1 oz. I've used it for soap making for 3 years now, often times measuring in ounces, and it is very accurate, easy to use, and precise.

Again, despite what the first reviewer states this scales DOES display weight in tenths of an ounce. (Perhaps he/she had it set for weighing in grams?) I bought this as a postal scale for mailing letters and packages from my home and not for weighing food. A 10 lb scale of lesser quality for postal purposes sells for $70 at Office Depot. The only thing that would be nice is a "hold" function commonly found on a postal scale, but for the price and Swiss quality I can live without it.

I've gotten into bread baking and many of the books recommend measuring ingredients by weight instead of volume so I bought this scale. It's very affordable and made by what I considered to be a good manufacturer. I didn't think, though, that I would meet a scale that is so temperamental and indecisive. I always place the scale on a level, flat surface but when I put something on it to be weighed, the readout fluctuates anywhere from tenths of an ounce to an ounce or two, going up or down and not really settling anywhere. I have to wait a minute for the scale to make up its mind about EXACTLY how much the object weighs.

I probably should have gone to a brick-and-mortar store to check out the actual design of the scale before I placed my order. Instead of individual on/off and tare buttons, this scale has "on", "off", and "tare" marked on the front edge of the scale and you are supposed to press down on your function of choice and the edge kind of buckles down and activates hidden buttons inside the mechanism: Bear with me here, this is weird and hard to describe! And it doesn't work very well either. Sometimes, pushing down on "tare" turns the scale off. I don't know why they didn't opt for simple straightforward buttons for the functions, but there you go.

The button that switches the scale between pounds/ounces to metric is on the bottom of the scale. While it doesn't particularly bother me, one time, I did want to weigh something in one system and switch to another (too lazy to bust out the old conversion formula) and I had to remove the item, turn the scale over, flip the switch, and start the weighing process again.

I think I should have returned this and bought another model that would have made me happier. This was a lesson in buying gadgets without physically checking them out--this scale looks good on paper and has a very affordable price tag, but it's not the best digital scale out there. More than half the time, I don't feel like dealing with this wishy washy scale so I just measure out my ingredients by volume. Which, indeed, defeats the purpose of why I got this scale in the first place!

I totally agree with the last review of this scale. By the time I weighed out the next ingredient to be added to the bowl on the scale, the display showed 8-16 grams more. I even delayed the time between adding ingredients hoping the scale would settle on a single weight. I tried using different types of bowls (plastic, glass, metal), but it made no difference. The buttons are inadequate. It is hard to discribe the button design because the right front edge of the scale is labeled ON OFF TARE. You may turn the scale OFF trying to TARE the weight of the last ingredient. This usually leads to a loud expletive. I purchased this scale based upon the good reviews this product had as well as the fact that this scale is from the same company that manufactures the most highly rated, but very expensive, scale I've found. However, based on what I know now, I would never recommend this scale to anyone. I guess I got what I paid for - a cheap scale.

This scale is a piece of junk! Every time I would put food on the scale and get a reading, after waiting a few minutes the number would change! Or I would weigh an apple once and get 6.0. I would weigh THE SAME APPLE again and get 6.2. I would weigh it again and get 5.8! It drove me crazy. Even when I would zero the scale out, after a few minutes it would show a negative number. I returned the first one and asked for a replacement. I thought it was just that particular scale. But the replacement scale did exactly the same thing. Argh!

I weigh flour for waffles and bread to a tenth of an ounce. As for the on-off-tare switch, it could be a little frustrating if you got one that's too touchy but mine works fine.
No regrets.

The on/off/tare switch on this scale is actuated by pressing down the front left corner of the cover. In time, this cover can come loose from the base and interfere with the weighing platform. It is easily fixed by pressing down firmly on both sides of the panel next to the platform. Symptoms of this problem include inconsistent weights for the same item, and different weights for the same item placed on different areas of the platform. The front plate is designed to bend when actuating the on/off switch. The back of the plate next to the platform should not move. See also [...].

Please be advised that the description provided herein is misleading - they claim to measure within 0.1 oz increments, when in reality there is no decimal reading on this scale. It measures in 1 oz increments only!