Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Bathroom Scales: Do They Really Need This Much Precision?

I have not used a bathroom scale in a long time.  Far more important than the number is whether your clothes are loose or tight, because muscle is denser than fat.  If you weigh the same amount, but you waistline is an inch smaller, it means that you have more muscle than you used to have.

But I need a bathroom scale to weigh my telescope.  (I am getting ready to order an equatorial platform, which provides an alternative form of equatorial mount tracking for a Dobsonian mount.)  As I look at bathroom scales on Amazon, I find myself asking: why bother with high precision bathroom scales that give you weight in 0.2 pound increments?  Does a fraction of a pound really matter?

Even more troubling: the scales that go up to 440 pounds.  If you need this scale, it is probably time for more than a scale.

I think I'll order this one, which is not only cheap, accurate within a pound, and most importantly: requires no batteries.  One less thing that will become useless with the coming collapse of civilization.

UPDATE: The customer reviews of the simple scale are dramatically different.  Some say it is accurate and cheap. Others say it is cheaply made and often varies as much as 60 pounds from day to day.  Hmmmm.  Reviews give high marks to this digital scale, and it's only $20.


3 comments:

  1. I have one that read like that. Although I feel the need to get on it repeatedly to get the same reading three times in a row before I accept it, because (oddly) the fraction might stay the same, but the pounds digit will be off +/- 1. I track my weight very closely. (You can lose as much as 2 lbs overnight.)

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  2. If you didn't order already, get the digital. I have both and it seems the digital 1-2 years out is a lot more consistent.

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  3. I was trying out digital scales at Bed Bath & Beyond recently, and each one I stepped on gave me a significantly different reading, sometimes 10 lbs or more. I think I want one of the old balance beam scales, but they're SO expensive.

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