PARCOScientific PA0090 Triple Beam Balance with Tare, 610 g Capacity

After reading reviews (see, people do read what you write) for electronic scales, I decided to go with the only manual scale listed among the choices. I would make that choice again after using this scale. I figured it was better to go with something that I could run checks on. One can assume that electronic scales zero properly over their measurement range, but verifying that can be tricky.PROS:1) I have a good level confidence in my measurements.2) The scale seems durable, with one issue with the zero drifting, as I expected it would given the big weight range.3) The scale measures from 0.1 gram to 600 grams, a good and bad feature, as I will explain.CON:1) The zero drifts around between measurements, in particular when going from a heavy measurement to a lighter one. Since I was familiar with dealing with that issue from my college days, it was no biggie. I also had planned up front to convert all my ingredients measurements to volume once I determined the weight relationships, so the work put in dealing with zero drift was short-term. The large weight range is why the zero drifted. I noticed a greater value of zero drift after I measured something that was heavy. When I saw drift, I used the 0.1 - 10 gram beam to offset it and place the indicator needle at the zero mark, once that was done, I left it in place and put on my "tare" container and did the tare measurement before adding ingredients to the tare container.Any tool that works with springs or flexures, like scales, will suffer zero drift, especially if they have a big weight measurement range like this scale. Given that reality, I trust a manual scale that I can see develop the zero drift, and correct, than an electronic one that I have to trust the builder on.

It takes for EVER to balance. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to use it until my return window had closed, but if I'd used it before then I would have sent it back. There's no notch at zero so the weight knobs can easily wiggle out of place. Also, there are ball bearings underneath the weighing plate and they shift around throwing it out of balance every time I take it out of the cabinet to use. If you touch the bearings to readjust, you need to scrub your hands forever to get the mess off.

Rear weight on calibration bar has to ge very tight. The rear large weight will hit it regularly and loosen the hex nut throwing the balance off. Overall ok, gets to show kids weights, balance, and even real world errors that can happen; folks a little spoiled by digital scales. Would’ve preferred more weights for the additional $s.

Not only is it a nice product, but it is beautiful. My students are going to love it

Worked very well but because it’s made of aluminum not steel it’s overly sensitive and hard to get to come to rest. I’m satisfied.