Etekcity Digital Food Scale Review: Long-Term Kitchen Use

I bought the Etekcity digital food scale about a year ago, a few months after my doctor told me my numbers were creeping up. I was 56, retired from the dental office, and suddenly paying attention to portions for the first time in my life. I did not want a scale that felt like a lab instrument. I wanted one I could leave on the counter, use twice a day without thinking, and actually read without my reading glasses. After a year of daily use, here is what I can tell you honestly.

The short version: it is still sitting on my counter, it still works, and I still reach for it every single day. That is more than I can say for the two cheaper scales I tried before it.

How I've Used It

I keep the Etekcity on the corner of my kitchen counter, next to the toaster. Every morning I weigh my bowl of Greek yogurt and berries. Every Sunday I use it for meal prep, weighing out chicken, rice, and vegetables into lunch containers for the week. When I bake, I use it for flour and sugar instead of my old measuring cups. That is the short list, and it adds up to a scale that gets used at least twice a day, every day, for a year.

My husband Rick uses it too, mostly to weigh his evening snack portions, which is a small victory in itself. Even Biscuit, our 30-pound beagle mix, has learned that the scale means I am about to weigh his food, and he sits by my feet waiting. The scale has survived a year of Ohio weather, a counter that gets wiped down daily, and the occasional drop. It has never needed new batteries, which surprised me.

I weigh in once a week on Saturday morning, and I keep a simple food log on my phone. The scale is the part of that routine that never feels like a chore. I set the bowl on it, hit the button to zero it out, add food, and read the number on the backlit display. That is the whole experience, and after a year, that is exactly what I want it to be.

Sunday meal prep is where the scale earns its keep. I weigh out three and a half ounces of chicken breast per container, two ounces of dry rice before it goes in the pot, and a cup and a half of frozen vegetables straight into the bowl. Last month I prepped nine lunches in about forty minutes, and every container came out within a few grams of the others. With my old measuring cups, the chicken portions could vary by an ounce or more, which added up to hundreds of extra calories by the end of the week without me noticing.

One morning in late February, I weighed out my usual yogurt and berries and then, out of curiosity, weighed the empty bowl first. It came in at 142 grams, and the display held that number steady while I fumbled for the button to zero it out. That might sound like a small thing, but my old scale would have drifted by a gram or two and left me guessing. The Etekcity held its number, which is the kind of quiet reliability that has kept it on my counter for a full year.

What the Specs Actually Tell You

The Etekcity scale weighs up to 11 lb or 5 kg, which is plenty for kitchen use. The thing that makes it different from cheaper scales is the dual increment system. Under 1000 grams, it measures in 0.1 gram steps. From 1000 to 5000 grams, it switches to 1 gram steps. That matters more than you might think. When I weigh a single slice of deli turkey, the scale shows me the half-gram difference. When I weigh a whole chicken breast, it still gives me a clean, readable number instead of jumping around.

The 0.1 gram precision under 1000 grams showed up in an unexpected place: my bread recipe. The recipe calls for 7 grams of dry yeast, and my old scale could not tell the difference between 6 and 8 grams. The Etekcity reads the difference clearly, so my loaves rise the same way every time. That kind of consistency is the difference between baking that works and baking that keeps you guessing. It is also why I stopped reaching for the measuring spoons for anything that matters.

The display is a 2.4 x 1.1 inch LCD with a backlight, and that backlight is the reason I can use this scale without my reading glasses first thing in the morning. The numbers are large enough to read from a normal standing position, and the backlight makes them visible even when the kitchen is still dark at 6 a.m. I did not think I would care about a backlit display. After a year, I would not buy a scale without one.

The scale runs on two 1.5V AAA batteries that come pre-installed. A year of twice-daily use and I have not replaced them once. The included components are simple: the scale, the batteries, and a quick start guide. There is no app, no Bluetooth, no Wi-Fi, nothing to pair or update. For me, that is a feature, not a missing one. I do not want my kitchen scale to be another thing that needs a firmware update.

The Flip-Up Bowl Is the Detail I Didn't Expect to Love

The scale comes with a stainless steel bowl that flips up and down. Flip it up and you have a bowl for weighing cereal, berries, or chopped vegetables. Flip it down and the scale is flat for weighing a chicken breast or a slice of bread. This is the feature I was most skeptical about, and it is the one I would miss most if it broke.

The bowl is plastic with a stainless steel top, and it is easy to wipe clean. I use it every morning for my yogurt and every Sunday for meal prep. When I am done, I flip it down and the scale takes up almost no space. My old scale had a separate bowl that lived in a cabinet, which meant I often did not bother to get it out. The Etekcity bowl is always there, so I actually use it.

One honest note: the bowl is not huge. If you are weighing a big batch of soup or a whole pot of something, you will want to weigh in smaller portions or use a separate container. For my daily portions, it is exactly the right size.

How It Holds Up Over Time

After a year, the Etekcity still reads accurately when I check it against my old measuring cups and the weights printed on food packages. The buttons still click, the bowl still flips up and down smoothly, and the backlight still lights up every time.

The drop happened in May. I was reaching past the scale for a mug, caught the edge of the bowl with my sleeve, and sent the whole thing onto the linoleum. The bowl popped off, the batteries stayed in, and I set it back together expecting the worst. I zeroed it, weighed a bag of rice against the printed weight, and it matched. That was the moment I stopped treating it as a new appliance and started treating it as a permanent one.

The one thing I have noticed is that the stainless steel surface shows water spots if I do not wipe it dry. That is cosmetic, not functional, and it takes two seconds to fix. The plastic bowl has not stained, even after a year of tomato sauce and berries.

I also appreciate the five units of measurement: ounces, pounds, grams, fluid ounces, and milliliters. I mostly use grams because they are the most precise, but the fluid ounce setting is handy when I am following a recipe written in cups and I do not want to wash a measuring cup. The unit button cycles through them quickly, and the display makes it clear which one you are looking at.

In March, I weighed out a 4.2 pound bag of flour to check the scale against the weight printed on the bag. The scale read 4 pounds 3.2 ounces, which is within the normal range for a bag that has been opened and settled. That kind of check used to make me nervous with my old scale, because the number would wobble. This one sat still. It is the same steadiness I noticed with the empty bowl, and it is the reason I trust the numbers I log on Saturday mornings.

A year of twice-daily use, zero new batteries, and it still reads to the tenth of a gram. That is the whole review.

Where It Falls Short

No product is perfect, and this scale has three honest limitations. First, the 11 lb capacity means you cannot weigh a large roast or a full pot of stew at once. For everyday portions, that is fine. For big-batch cooking, you will need to weigh in parts. Second, the bowl is on the smaller side, as I mentioned. Third, the scale is a mini form factor, which means the buttons are small. If you have large hands or limited dexterity, you may find the buttons fiddly. I have not, but I can see how someone else might.

The capacity limit bit me once, during the holidays. I was weighing a spiral ham that came in over 9 pounds, and the scale would not give me a number. I had to weigh it in two pieces, which worked fine, but it was a reminder that this is a portion scale, not a kitchen workhorse. For a big holiday meal, I still pull out the old spring scale my mother gave me, though I will admit it is not as accurate as the Etekcity.

There is also the matter of the 1 gram minimum measurement. The specs say minimum measurement is 1 gram, so if you are weighing something lighter than that, like a single pinch of salt, the scale will not register it. For cooking and portioning, I have never hit that limit. For jewelry or supplements, you would want a different scale entirely.

One more small gripe: the buttons require a firm press, and if you tap them too lightly the scale does not respond. It took me a week to learn the right touch. Now I press with the flat of my finger and it works every time, but I mention it because the first few days left me wondering whether the unit was faulty. It was not. It just wanted a deliberate press, and once I figured that out, the scale has not given me a single moment of trouble.

Who This Is For

This scale is for anyone who is trying to get a handle on portions without turning the kitchen into a science lab. If you are weighing your food to be more honest with yourself about portions, if you are meal prepping on a Sunday, if you are baking and want consistent results, this scale does the job without getting in the way. It is especially good for people like me who do not want to put on reading glasses first thing in the morning, because the backlit display is genuinely easy to read.

It is also for people who have tried to use a food scale before and given up because it was a hassle. The flip-up bowl means the scale is always ready. The simple controls mean there is no learning curve. The lack of an app means there is nothing to maintain. If your goal is to build a habit that sticks, the scale that stays on the counter is the one that wins.

Who Should Skip It

If you regularly cook in huge batches, weigh entire roasts, or want to weigh large pots of food, the 11 lb capacity will frustrate you. Look for a larger platform scale instead. If you need to weigh things lighter than a gram, like supplements or spices in tiny amounts, this is not the tool for that job. And if you want a scale that connects to your phone and logs your food automatically, this one will not do that. It is deliberately simple, and simple is exactly what some people do not want.

If you have arthritis or limited hand strength, the small buttons might be a real obstacle. I would not want you to buy this scale and then struggle with it every day. In that case, look for a scale with larger, more widely spaced buttons, or one with a touch bar instead.