Works great, amazing battery life
This review has been long overdue. I love this coffee scale and pretty much everything about it.- The pad on top is easy removable and washable. The rest of the scale wipes down well also.- There is a hardware on/off switch, which had been a big problem with some other of my scales that I used to throw into a cabinet and would turn on by themselves. On that note, I also like that there are no separate rubber footies on the bottom that come off (also a problem for previous scales of mine).- It has 0.1 gram precision. This is great for weighing the coffee beans to the right amount. Honestly it doesn't make that much of a difference for the water pour because I am not precise enough with the kettle to be able to hit a 0.1 g mark on the dot.- The battery life has been amazing. I've had this scale for a year now and I use it once a day and I'm STILL ON THE FIRST CHARGE. Not only that, but there are still 2/3 bars of battery left. Whether that is an accurate indication of remaining battery I couldn't say because again, I'm still on my very first charge. Maybe I'll update this review in another year :-P- There have been a lot of complaints about how the auto-start timer will pause itself if you lift up the brewer to swirl. I saw those comments when I bought the scale so I never attempted it myself until recently. It turns out it has the tolerance for at least one lift and swirl of a few seconds, which I do at the beginning in the bloom stage. I tested it again at the end and it indeed pauses, so I could see how that might annoy others. However, since it works for my one swirl at the beginning, still 5 stars for me!Overall it's a great scale and hope the company continues to offer this basic version.
✔ Verified Purchase
B
Brendon C.
December 07, 2023
Basic Plus- All the necessary features without being overcomplicated
After having a couple cheap scales that failed after a year or two of use, I decided to upgrade and picked up the Basic Plus for pour over. Right away I could feel that it was higher quality than what I had used before. The numbers are clear to read, but the buttons are a little hard to press accurately because they are touch buttons rather than ones with a defined border. I wanted to turn off the beeps and learn how to use the auto-timing mode, and the included instructions were clear enough to make this easy to do. I haven't been using the auto-timing mode because it automatically pauses if weight on the scale is reduced, which happens when I swirl pour over brewers, though this feature was just an interesting bonus for me rather than a requirement.One of the big advantages over the cheaper scales I've had is the accuracy. My previous scales would "snap" to round numbers like 10.0, 20.0, etc. when they're getting close. For example, I'd be measuring beans and my old scale would jump from 9.5 straight to 10.0 and then right to 10.5. From what I've read in reviews of other products and in forums, this is a common issue with cheaper scales, and it's an inconvenience at best. The Basic Plus doesn't have this problem at all and is super responsive. It changes quickly and clearly when even a single bean is added.In all, this has been a huge upgrade over cheaper scales. I was looking for something relatively basic with more reliable than what I had before that comes at a lower cost that scales with more features like the Acaia Pearl. In fact, I've used a Pearl and found this one nicer to use because it starts up immediately whereas the Pearl is slow to start up. It also requires an app to access the full set of features, which isn't needed for the Basic Plus.Pros:+Large, stable platform+Easy to read display+Auto timer available if you want it, but can be turned off if you don't+USB-C charging+Long battery life (well over a month with multiple brews per day)+Does not "snap" to round numbers like 10.0 like some cheaper scales do+Beeps can be easily turned off+No app requiredCons:-Timer stops during auto timing mode if you lift brewer to swirl, etc.-Does not have features of some higher end scales such as flow rate (may not be a con if you don't care about this)-Buttons aren't the most repsonsive
✔ Verified Purchase
Started having issues right outside the return window
I liked this scale quite a bit when I first got it. I wasn't a big fan of the flimsy rubber heat pad thing that isn't secured to anything on the scale itself and that somehow always ends up with coffee grinds stuck to both sides of it that don't just brush off, but you can just take it off and not use it. It isn't secured to anything - it just sits there loose with a tiny lip on each end that drape over the sides of the scale uselessly. Without that pad, I liked the otherwise straightforward, clean, minimalist aesthetic and it seemed to be much more responsive and accurate than the scale I was using prior.After just a couple of weeks, the beeping you're supposed to get when you press a button stopped randomly. You can turn it on and off by holding the timer button down, which I've never done (at least not intentionally) and when I try holding the button down when the beep disappears, it doesn't succeed at turning the beep back on. As a lot of other people have mentioned, the tare and timer buttons aren't physical buttons - when you press one down, the entire top of the scale depresses with your finger. There's no click, there's no actual tactile feedback whatsoever, but it beeps when it registers your press. At least it did at first. Now, about 80% of the time and for seemingly no reason, the beeping doesn't happen and won't turn back on. The tare function takes a couple of seconds to clear the display, so I will sometimes have to press the button 3 or 4 times, waiting a few seconds in between each, to see if it actually registered, since the programmed ability to turn the beep on doesn't seem to work on mine.The worst part, however, is setting the scale up under my espresso portafilter, setting my glass down, taring the scale to 0, starting the shot, and the readout suddenly shooting up for no reason. No bump of the scale, no movement whatsoever, not a single drop of coffee hitting the glass and the reading will jump to 7g, or 30g, or 19g for no reason. If I'm not eagle-eyed watching the scale through the entire shot time, I might end up with a readout that's anywhere from 5-30g off and I won't even realize it. More than once now, I've had to frantically try to tare the scale back to 0 after the pump has been engaged to try to get it reset before the coffee starts flowing, even though it was just showing 0 a few seconds ago. Sometimes I'm quick enough, sometimes I'm not.Similarly, the readout has started to drift. When weighing beans, I’ll dose out 19g, turn around to grab something, and turn back around to find the scale at 18.8g… then 18.7… then 18.8… then 18.9.This is the first Timemore product I've ever owned, and it's making me nervous having spent several hundred dollars on backing the Sculptor before having these issues with the scale.
✔ Verified Purchase
