There seems to be a huge variety of scales out there. Which do you use in your shops/home? Do you like it? Will it survive?
So far been looking over these so far:
AWS scales (cheap, but small and do not like moisture)
Ohaus (Expensive! Build quality? Accuracy?)
Jennings CJ600/CJ4000 (Cheap! I’ve heard good things about toughness, but no timer is an issue)
Acaia (Obviously the gold standard, but is it worth spending 5-8 times as much on it)
Brewista (Pretty tough and cheap, but we managed to burn through a couple of them already)
Hario (Can be finicky and a little slow, plus not super durable)
AWS are good but their durability is questionable.
Jennings are nice for brewing pourovers but not good for weighing the coffee that need to be ground. It only has half gram precision. Also the batteries on ours have started to fail so we normally keep them plugged in all the time otherwise they die within 20 minutes.
Acaia scales are so nice I’ve never had a problem with them. The only time I’ve questioned their quality was when there was some user error on my part happening. When you are charging the scale, the cord that runs from the back can cause additional resistance on the scale and cause it to read inaccurately.
Those are the only three I have extensive experience with. If you an afford Acaia, go with Acaia for everything… I’d avoid Jennings and get hario or brewistas instead. Get AWS for weighing espresso extraction but budget $30/mo in AWS scales.
I like the Jennings for lots of stuff. They are great for batch brews, many pour-overs, weighing out bags of beans, tea service, etc. etc.
They are basically good for pretty much everything except espresso or smaller hand-brews.
I prefer to use an acaia for all my brewing but the low cost of the jennings means a cafe can afford to have one at every other station. Plus, they can be programmed to stay on indefinitely, which can be very useful during the ebb & flow of a work day.
The one scale i have used and do not recommend for brewing is the hario pour-over scale. It simply has too much of a lag time to make it useful when pouring water.
Hario: .pros:
-has a built-in timer
-big enough to put your brewing-device on that
.cons:
-too big to put under the espresso machine (especially when you have the outlet of the 3-way valve uncovered)
-can’t stand water, neither moisture, which can be a disadvantage, when you’re working with water (dry coffee doesn’t taste that good)
-very, very slow (which makes it unreliable for espresso) so you won’t save time with this particular one, in a rush-hour it can lead to instant death
-sometimes inaccurate as well
Breurer KS36: .pros:
-small enogh to fit under the espresso machine
-fast and accurate
-it actually can stand water
cons:
-it doesn’t come with a built-in timer, so you’ll need a phone or a timer, which makes it inconvient to use sometimes
-it’s size can be a disadvantage, since you can only put 2 espresso cups on top of it, but only one 160ml capp cup, this led sometimes for a 20g (1:1 ratio) espresso, when I forgot that there are 2 cups now
About the Acaia, you can sync it with your phone to make brew ratios/record flow-rates So it’s geeky and techy enough. However it comes with a price of course. Everyone liked their acaia scales so far, they are accurate, fast and durable as well.
I use the Hario for filter and the breurer for espresso (with the Hario’s timer).
How could you burn the Brewista? Since I have an eye on that, since it unites the advantages of the Breurer and the Hario.
I do really like the brewistas for espresso.
I’ve wrecked a couple of them but that was before they redesigned the battery compartment door to be more rigid. Also, I started putting packing tape over the door to provide even more waterproofing.
The cool thing is, their customer service always replaced the scales quickly if something happened without giving us a hard time. Just be sure to call instead of email.
Good to know. They were awesome until they were dead. I have a feeling that they weren’t taken care of properly, because I’ve seen them last for a lot longer at other shops. I suspect they were slid over a little too close to the steam wands after brewing was finished. Maybe I’ll try them again if they’ve been redisgned.
After soaking out 5 aws scales and 3 brewista scales, I decided to give a scale on Amazon called lovinglove a try. It’s way more waterproof than the brewista, and weighs to .1g. I’ve had the same one for over a year of consistent drip tray use and still have yet to have water damage occur. The best part is that it’s under $20.
I personal had the Hario metal scale.Just like my other coffee stuffs,i was super careful when i used it.Suddenly,after only 4 months,is completely dead.The on off button doesn;t work,although is fully charged.
Originally I had an aws scale. Due to carelessness of water at the outer edge of my pourovers I wrecked in about two weeks just through basic use. I decided to go with the acaia lunar for pourover simply because I wanted something that will last. I’ve had no problems with it in my first two weeks of use and haven’t needed to charge it yet either for home use.
I’ve used the plastic Hario scale for a couple of years at home now. No issues re water or durability and for daily use I’ve changed the batteries maybe twice. Good size and timer is a must for aeropress though can see how the speed would be an issue for commercial.
Can’t agree more on their customer service, they always replaced ours quickly. I do think that the quality of build is too low for high volume bars. They’re susceptible to breaking even after extrmemly limited contact time with any liquid