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What to look for when buying Low Cost Bench Scales & Indicator Packages

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Bench Scales -- What you need to know when selecting your next scale

This page has been designed to educate you, the consumer, on what to look for when purchasing a bench or counter top digital scale. Typically, standard bench scales have weighing platforms from 12" x 12" to 24" x 24" and capacities normally range from a few pounds (2, 5, 10 lbs) up to 1000 or 2000 pounds.

Most bench scale systems on the market today are value bundle priced and include:

Digital Readout
Weighing platform
Calibration of the readout / weighing platform

If you've done any shopping for bench scales, you've probably noticed prices for these types of scales all all over the board. Usually there's an obvious reason why some items are priced much lower than others. Here are some things to look for:

Scale Platform Size (Shipping Weight) -- When you are first starting your process of looking for a bench scale, you need to make a decision up front. Am I going to buy an economical bench scale or am I going to buy an industrial tough bench scale. This will help you to figure out what scales to consider. One easy "weigh" to see differences in the bench scales is to look at the weighing platforms. The weighing platform (base) is going to take the abuse of items being placed on it over and over.

Depending on how often & how heavy your items are that you're weighing OR how important your bench scale is going to be in your process OR how "delicate" your scale operators are, will make big a difference in what bench scale you should select. Sometimes saving a few dollars now will cost you more dollars down the road in scale repairs and lost production time. Take a look at the two scales below. Both are good sellers, but take a guess as to which is more industrial tough.

One step further -- watch the video on the DMS base...there are A LOT of bench scales on the market that could not come close to being able to take this kind of abuse

Specifictions -- Do you need a stainless steel washdown scale or will a painted mild steel scale work? Power requirements -- 115VAC and / or rechargeable battery? You'll need to know this when doing your shopping. What maximum capacity do you need? What readability do you need?

NTEP Approval -- Do you require NTEP* (legal for trade) approval? This is fairly standard, but NTEP there are a lot of lower end bench scale systems beginning to flood the marketplace that are not NTEP approved. Why is NTEP approval important? NTEP approval is the process whereby weighing and measuring devices are examined by government officials to determine if the design and performance comply with the Weights and Measures requirements of the country in which the manufacturer wishes to market the device for commercial applications.

The purpose of type evaluation is to examine the design, features, operating characteristics, and performance of weighing and measuring devices for compliance with Weights and Measures requirements. Such tests are performed on sample devices under laboratory conditions.

Digital Readout -- What type of digital readout do you need? The basic readout is usually made out of ABS plastic. The readout shows the weight display and usually 5 buttons (zero, net/gross, tare, print, units) and most include RS232 output. Better digital readouts usually are housed in a stainless steel enclosure and include the weight display, full keypad (ideal for typing in tare weights) & feature both battery and AC power.

Warranty -- Lower end systems have 1 year warranties (some have 90 day only warranties). The higher quality bench scale systems usually have longer warranty periods, usually 2 to 5 years.

Hopefully, after reading our page, you understand what things to look for when buying a bench scale system. There are A LOT of people out there trying to sell digital bench scales. We've been providing quality bench scales with digital readout to our customer's for over 25 years. We don't try to deceive or trick anyone ... we simply try to provide you with as top notch of a scale system as possible for your dollar. Our experience has shown time and time again, in the long run you are much better off purchasing a quality system that is well built and serviceable.