Escali Pana V136 Large Volume Measuring Kitchen/Baking/Cooking Scale, Preprogrammed With Over 150 Ingredients, LCD Digital Display, 13lb Capacity

I can't say enough good things about this scale. It's by far the best kitchen scale I've ever used or even heard of. It has helped me finally learn to bake properly, and it's truly the secret to my success. Everyone loves my beer cheese bread, chocky cake, and chocky chip cookies. This scale, a KitchenAid stand mixer, and King Arthur Flour are must-haves for any serious home baker, IMHO. Pros: 1. My favorite, stand-out feature of this scale is the pre-programmed conversion calculations it can do. By using the included, laminated card (see the pic) to find the product you're using, flour, sugar, milk, etc., it will convert the weight into a volume unit like cups or tablespoons. This is very useful if your recipe only gives volume instead of weight measurements. Good baking really needs accurate measurements. 2. It can handle a wide range of weights. From 1 gram increments up to 13 pounds! That's far more than any other scales I've seen. It makes it the only scale one would need in a kitchen, and even around the house. 3. It's small, low-profile, and lightweight, making it easy to store out of the way in a drawer or cabinet. 4. It's easy to clean with a sealed control panel and a removable, stainless steel platter. 5. It's powered by a standard 9 volt battery that lasts a good long time thanks to the auto-off feature. 6. The display is easy to read and can show/convert imperial or metric weight units, as well as the volume units mentioned above. 7. Made in the U.S., so the company says and it appears to be, which is a good thing, I guess. It's not just some generic rando brand. Cons: None - full stop. Highly recommended. Just get it. You know you want it.

This is a fantastic little scale. It's the second one I've bought - after many years of working great, it got dropped. I noticed that the part that broke off because it had been glued on the old model is now screwed in on the new model, so that should increase durability. This scale will automatically convert any recipe to weights with its built-in database of ingredient densities. It's accurate, easy to use, and has a nice high maximum weight. I also love that you can use either pounds and ounces OR total ounces in addition to kg/g. (e.g. 20 oz or 1 lb 4 oz) NOTE: This scale uses a pretty light cup of flour - 4.25 oz. Because the weight of a cup of flour can vary significantly from person to person or author to author (that's why you want to convert to using weights in the first place - much more accurate) if you - or your mom or grandma - are/were a heavy flour weigher - that is, you just dip the measuring cup into the flour without fluffing it first or without sprinkling it into your cup measure, your recipes probably run 5 oz or more per cup of flour, so I would recommend that you NOT use the volume conversion for flour in your old tried and true recipes, but rather, figure out your own, personal weight for a cup of flour and use that. (Only for those old family recipes, though. Use the scale's conversion for everything else in the absence of actual weights, or if the author doesn't specify how they measure their flour. And if they don't... maybe don't use that recipe? Anyone writing recipes these days without giving weights is probably not someone you want to trust with your valuable time and ingredients.)

My wife was skeptical, she thought my penchant to buy tools had expanded into her area. She's a home baker and I felt this was the next step for her to iron out some of the occasional misses. Baking is prescriptive, scientific, more so than cooking which seems more artful and dependent on alchemy from time, ingredients and heat. Measurements have to be right, especially for ingredients which can compact/compress. So weight becomes key. This is easy to use. It comes with a chart that we quickly noticed was missing some commonly used ingredients, but it's probably because they're used in such small amounts. You can always use your favorite search engine to lookup something in lieu of, or to supplement, the chart. All in all, super intuitive to use. Watch the video(s) on it by the manufacturer.

One of the primary reasons I purchased this scale was to use the volume conversion for accurate measurements when baking. The first time I used it, I tried measuring out the water by volume for my triple batch of bread. "WOW" I thought--"my measuring cups are WAY, WAY off". I tried different measuring cups, different brands of cups, and they were all off--the measurement said I had a cup of water when it was about 1/8 cup low. Try a recipe with 4 cups of water, and that's 1/2 a cup difference. Not insignificant. After a little checking, I found that the weight of a cup of water should be 236 grams. So I tried again, this time using the grams setting on the scale. 236 grams--right at a cup on my measuring cup. Using the volumetric measurement, a "cup" of water came in at 206 grams. About a 13% error. I worked in a laboratory for years, and am familiar with the use of this type of scale. The tare was properly used, and the measurements were repeated several times--with the same results. While the scale gives accurate weights, the volume conversion does NOT work. At least on the scale I received. I'm returning it for replacement, and will see if the next scale is any better. If the results you get with this scale indicate your measuring cups are way off, I'd suggest you check it using water. 1 cup should be 236 grams. Using water does away with any errors caused by compacting ingredients, humidity, etc.

Brevity: works well as a kitchen/cooking scale, perfect for my baking and brewing needs. Accurate enough as determined by my calibration weights. Taring among different containers works very well. Several negatives: as mentioned by other reviewers, this scale works best with a DC power; powered only with the 9v battery results in uneven performance (need to adjust battery contact). My suggestion is to buy one. Also, the scale came with the "on/off/tare" button slightly worn off. I considered returning it, but when it's plugged in, it works well and, as such, it's a keeper (at least for now).

The ability of this scale to weigh by volume was truly a revelation. I enjoy baking and for a long time used a Salter Aquatronic scale -- weighing is truly the way to go! Still, the majority of recipes are written with volume measurements and this has always posed a problem to me. Unless I wrote all my conversions down - which I did for a few favorite recipes - I had to pull out all usual measuring gadgetry. This scale changed all that. The absolute most number of bowls I might use is two, but 98% of the time I can get away with just using one. Referencing the included laminated chart, you enter an ingredient's corresponding number, measure it out, hit the tare button and keep going. Usually I'll measure out the dry ingredients first, set them aside on some waxed paper, measure out the wet ingredients, then mix everything together in the same bowl. Another unexpected bonus was being able to bake much more accurately. I found out one handblown glass measuring beaker I'd been using was unacceptably off. And of course you will have fewer items to wash. This scale's platform lifts off the base for easy cleaning. I didn't bother to get the AC adapter. My old scale used batteries and I only changed them once in 5 years, so I expect this Escali will have similar power usage. I've been using the scale for about a year now and cannot imagine baking without it. UPDATE (03/25/11): One nice feature about this scale that I forgot to mention is that it stays on for decent amount of time even when there's been no activity. Why is this important? Well, the old Aquatronic scale used to blank out after about 20 seconds, which was frustrating when using the tare function and not having every ingredient at hand. My Escali will wait patiently for me to fetch that forgotten ingredient and not lose its tare brains in the process. Even with the longer display, I still haven't had to replace the batteries. Another tip: if you have a favorite recipe, it's still expeditious to do a volume to weight conversion, so you won't even have to look up the ingredient code. The conversion is really easy to do with this scale: measure the ingredient by volume, then switch the mode to grams/ounces. Just mark it on your recipe once and you're set for life!

I am a professional baker and was given an Escali Pana by the manufacturer. I used it for my home baking for years until I finally wore it out. I loved it so much that I bought another one immediately. It is not cheap, but IMHO it's worth every penny. If you do a lot of baking, this scale will make your task faster, with a lot less clean-up. Escali worked with the very reputable King Arthur Flour Company to develop a dependable list of baking ingredients and their weight by volume. The list assigns a numbered code to each item and the scale uses that code to convert the weight of the item into volume measurements. The most accurate way to measure ingredients for baking is by weighing them, but most recipes are written with volume measurements, not weight. Place a container (such as a bowl) on the Escali Pana scale, press the tare button to start at zero, set the scale for "volume", and enter the code for the ingredient you want to measure. As you spoon the ingredient into the container the display shows you how much of the ingredient, by cups and tablespoons, you have spooned in. The scale can also be used for straight weighing by ounces, pounds, or grams (to measure, for instance, 6 ounces of chocolate). To do this you simply press the Kg/Lb button, set a zero tare, and place the item to be weighed in the container or directly onto the scale. This scale not only saves time, but you will not have a sink full of measuring cups and spoons when you are finished baking; I use the same bowl to measure all of my dry ingredients. I do a great deal of baking, and I can't think of a single item in my kitchen that I use more often for baking than this scale. Whe the first one finally wore out I was distraught until the new one arrived. it can also be used with the adapter or with a battery.

Very nice design. I'm impressed that although this scale has some fairly sophisticated features, it is still simple to use. You press just one button to get a basic weight measurement. Just another press and you can use the tare feature. Changing units is just a press of a very obvious button. The volume function (a very handy feature) doesn't get in the way of the simpler functions. As a designer myself, I can appreciate the thought that went into this product. I get annoyed when I see a product that is overly complicated and requires a user's manual to do the simplest thing. This produce was designed properly for easy use in the kitchen.

Love the accuracy. Don’t use the cups type of measurements often, but I have and they work very well as long as you have the sheet full of codes handy

I am really happy with this product, I really recommend it, I use for make soap and works perfectly fine. A**

The scale seemed to work well enough for my purposes (baking for leisure). It is bigger than a lot of other scales, beeps loudly when you turn it on or change modes and takes some time to register changes in weight but wasn't a huge deal to me. It's intuitive to use. The problem is that after 3 uses for a total of 15 mins max over a span of 3 weeks, the battery died. The on button is quite sensitive and I did hear it turn on randomly once. Luckily, because it beeps I turned it off immediately. I also removed the battery between two of the uses so the scale wouldn't accidentally be turned on. This scale has an auto shut off function so not a case of the battery being drained. I don't have 9V batteries around so haven't tested that that's the only issue.

Great product !