Item: Ultraship 75 Lb Electronic Digital Shipping Postal Kitchen Scale with FREE AC Adaptor
Purchased from: Amazon.com (Amazon merchant DBROTH)
Purchase price: $31.95
Shipping: $10.95 (Standard)
TOTAL cost: $42.90
Order placed: October 12, 2008
Item Received: October 22, 2008
Rating: 
VERY GOOD
The Ultraship 75 Lb electronic
digital shipping postal kitchen scale (spot the keywords!) does everything I expected it to. It is extremely easy to use, has a toggle switch on the side that converts the weight from pounds and ounces to kilograms and grams, is accurate to 0.1 oz up to 2 lbs, to 0.5 oz up to 75 lbs (that’s good enough for my cooking), and has a detachable display. Actually, I didn’t expect that last feature, but it is useful, nevertheless.
It didn’t get a 5-star rating because it is pretty ugly. Actually, as a shipping or postal scale it isn’t unattractive. It’s very functional. However, it is also touted as a kitchen scale, and one may expect a certain degree of aesthetic appeal in a modern kitchen. Apparently, it is possible to get a silver one, but I didn’t notice that when I ordered mine. I’m not that worried as I don’t think it would be much improved in silver and it’s not something I would leave on display in the kitchen. I am very much a form follows function advocate, with looks coming second. That doesn’t apply, of course, to shoes, clothing or men. 
I wanted an easy-to-use scale with a ‘tare” (zeroing) function. This means you can use any bowl on it, hit a button, and it sets the display to zero. Very handy. With the Ultraship 75 you can do this multiple times as you add ingredients. Admittedly, if you use stainless steel bowls the 0.1 oz precision is lost almost immediately. That said, for most of the recipes I cook, accuracy to 0.5 oz is perfectly acceptable. Moreover, you could use a light plastic bowl and weigh ingredients individually before adding them to the main bowl.
Now I can make bara brith without guessing the quantities. Indeed, the Ultraship 75 helped me determine the exact quantities required to produce the perfect (AKA my mum’s bara brith) Welsh fruit loaf.
I haven’t tried the Ultraship 75 with the batteries (4 x R14C). I imagine it would work just the same. I would not have considered purchasing if it did not have an AC adaptor. That’s another reason it didn’t get 5 stars. Somehow, the razzle dazzle “FREE AC Adaptor” marketing ploy rankled. An AC power supply should come as standard and shouldn’t be called out as “free.” But getting back to the batteries, while I find the option useful, I find batteries tend to expire at just the wrong moment. If you were using this scale in a post room on a regular basis, I imagine changing the batteries regularly would be pretty tedious.
Finally, the Ultraship 75 has a detachable display. I am unlikely to need this in the kitchen, but when packing for a trip home it could come in useful. The weight limit per bag on most airlines seems to be 50 Lbs. With a maximum weighing potential of 75 Lbs our Ultraship 75 should come in very handy.
All in all. The Ultraship 75 is a great product, although it could improve its looks, especially when sold as a kitchen appliance.
The Brit
Posted under Appliance Reviews, Electronic Goods Reviews
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