Before you spend $200 on the next coffee gadget, spend $14 on a scale. It is the one purchase that removes a variable instead of adding one. This page says what a scale actually has to do, where 0.1 g and a timer earn their money, and names four worth owning, from a kitchen scale to the one baristas keep on the bar. One of them is on our shelf.
We are never paid for a review. We sell one of the scales below on our store, so weigh the enthusiasm; some other links earn ShopCoffee a small commission at no cost to you. Details
● Written from the makers' own pages and our store, November 2, 2026Prices and models move — tell us if something here is stale
What this is: the specifications and prices on each maker's own page (etekcity.com, hario-usa.com, timemore.com, acaia.co) and on our store, read November 2, 2026 and quoted where it matters, plus the arithmetic of brewing ratios, which is the whole reason to own a scale.
What this is not: a bench test. We have not measured the accuracy, drift or response time of any scale here. Where a maker says "0.1 g" we report the claim. The one scale we have on camera is the Etekcity, in our 55-second Short, and that video quotes the listing, not a test.
Prices are the makers' own on November 2, 2026 and our store's the same day. Amazon sets its own prices, which move daily; we don't quote them.
Filter coffee is a ratio. The one our free ratio calculator defaults to is 1:16: 15 g of coffee to 240 g of water for one cup, 30 g to 480 g for two, 60 g to 960 g for a full pot. Hit that ratio and the same bag tastes the same tomorrow; miss it by a scoop and you blame the beans, the grinder or the water for a cup that was simply under-dosed.
A scoop cannot hold a ratio. The same scoop holds a different weight of a light roast than a dark one (dark roasts are less dense), a different weight coarse than fine, and a different weight heaped than level. A gram is a gram. That is the entire argument, and it costs $14.
It is also why a scale comes before a gooseneck kettle, before a second dripper and before most of what is sold as an upgrade: those tools refine a brew that is already dosed right. Nothing refines a brew that was a guess.
If you own a grinder and no scale, the scale is the next purchase, whatever you brew on. If you own neither, read the grinder guide first and buy the $14 scale in the same cart.
Speed of the display, which is what the expensive scales really sell, matters for espresso and for flow-rate nerds. For a cup of pour-over, every scale here is fast enough to pour to a number.
Not a coffee scale. A thin stainless kitchen scale that weighs in grams, tares, and runs on two AAA batteries, which is the entire specification a filter brewer needs. Etekcity's own page lists the capacity as "176 oz / 11 lb / 5000 g / 5000 mL", units of "oz / lb:oz / fl:oz / g / mL", a backlight that turns off after 120 seconds, "2 x 1.5V AAA Batteries", a footprint of "7.3 x 5.7 x 0.6 in", and a "2-Year Limited Warranty". The Amazon listing we read on October 27, 2026 for our video added "1 g increments" and showed 4.6 stars from 178,107 ratings; Etekcity's own page does not state the increment, so treat 1 g as the listing's word.
What it gives up: no timer, no 0.1 g mode, no water resistance claim, and a platform wide enough that a small dripper-and-server stack looks lost on it. None of that changes the cup. It does one thing, and that thing is the thing.
This is the scale in our Short "The $11 upgrade that beats your $200 coffee gadget", where it cost $10.99 on Amazon on October 27. We have not tested it; the figures are the maker's and the listing's.
We carry this one, so read the entry as a disclosed pick rather than a neutral one. It is the scale Hario designed to sit under its own dripper and server: 120 mm wide by 190 mm deep by 29 mm tall, with the display and buttons sticking out from under a drip station. Hario USA's page: "It weighs in both 1 gram and 1/10th of a gram measurements for desired precision", and its own table says exactly when: 0.1 g from 2 g to 200 g, 0.5 g from 200 g to 500 g, 1 g from 500 g to 2,000 g. So the dose is read to a tenth and a full pot to the gram, which is the right way round.
The built-in timer is the feature you will touch every morning: bloom, pours and total time without a phone. Our store's listing adds that it "runs on 2 AAA batteries; auto-off after 5 minutes, unless the timer is running". Two honest limits from Hario's own page: the body is ABS resin and "this scale is not water resistant", so wipe it, don't rinse it.
Who it is for: the pour-over brewer who wants dose, water and time on one small display and would rather buy from the shop that stocks Hario than from a marketplace. Our listing ships from SPARKS (formerly Space Camp) in Portland, Oregon; the black version from Espresso Parts is $59.
The scale that made 0.1 g and auto-timing affordable, and Timemore's own page is unusually specific: "accurate measurements from 0.1g up to 2kg", a "minimum detection weight: 0.5g", an "automatic timer and water flow rate test function", "automatic shutdown after 3 minutes of inactivity", a "1600mAh rechargeable lithium battery with up to 10 hours of runtime" with USB charging behind "an upgraded closable charging port", a "waterproof dial surface" and a "silicone waterproof insulation pad". The surface is acrylic, and the touch buttons switch between grams and ounces.
Timemore sells it as an espresso scale and that is where it shines: small, 0.1 g, and the timer can start itself when the first drops land. The flow-rate readout is the feature pour-over people buy the Acaia for, at under half the price. Ten hours of runtime per charge means a cable on the counter once a month or so.
What to know before buying: a 0.5 g minimum detection weight is normal for this price and irrelevant for an 18 g dose; the black version was sold out on Timemore's page on November 2, the white in stock at $59. We have not tested it, and we do not sell it.
The scale on most specialty bars, and the one every "smart" coffee scale is measured against. Acaia's own specification: readability 0.1 g, repeatability 0.1 g, maximum capacity 2,000 g (indication limit 2,060 g), a 160 × 160 × 32 mm body weighing 500 g, a 3.7 V 1100 mAh lithium battery that "lasts 30 to 40 hours", USB-C charging at 5 V / 500 mA, and a two-year warranty in the US and EU. The page names Dual Display Mode, Auto-Start Timer Mode and Beverage Mode, plus a "Real-Time Flow Rate Indicator", and says the Pearl "stabilizes faster and more accurately during brewing" without putting a number on it.
Who it is for: the person who brews several pour-overs a day and wants a display that keeps up with the pour, a timer that starts itself, and an app for recipes. Who it is not for: anyone whose cup will be made by the ratio and not by the readout. The Etekcity holds the same ratio for $13.99.
Honest note: we have not tested the Pearl against the Timemore, and the two share most of the spec sheet. What the Acaia price buys, by reputation rather than by our measurement, is response speed, build and the app. If you want to find out whether that matters to you, buy the Timemore first and you will have spent $59 finding out.
One scale is on our store, in two listings, each shipped by the specialty shop that stocks it; the listing's own words and the price as of November 2, 2026. We sell these, so read this as a shelf, not a ranking; the ranking is the section above.
Not on our shelf, and still in the ranking: the Etekcity, the Timemore and the Acaia. We link the first to Amazon and the other two to their makers because we don't sell them, and we'd rather send you to the right scale than to ours.
| Scale | Readability | Capacity | Timer | Power | Size | Price (Nov 2, 2026) | Price read from |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Etekcity EK6015 | 1 g (listing) | 5,000 g | No | 2 AAA | 186 × 145 × 15.5 mm | $13.99 | etekcity.com |
| Hario V60 Drip Scale | 0.1 g to 200 g, 0.5 g to 500 g, 1 g to 2,000 g | 2,000 g | Built in | 2 AAA | 120 × 190 × 29 mm | $60 ($59 black) | Our store |
| Timemore Basic 2.0 | 0.1 g (0.5 g minimum) | 2,000 g | Auto timer + flow rate | 1600 mAh, ~10 h, USB | Not listed | $59 (list $65) | timemore.com |
| Acaia Pearl | 0.1 g | 2,000 g | Auto-start timer, modes, flow rate | 1100 mAh, 30–40 h, USB-C | 160 × 160 × 32 mm | $150 | acaia.co |
You need one to make the same coffee twice. Good filter coffee is a ratio of coffee to water, about 1:16 (15 g to 240 g, the ratio our calculator uses). A scoop changes with the roast and the grind; a gram does not. The scale is the cheapest thing in coffee that removes a variable.
Yes, for pour-over, French press, AeroPress and cold brew: 1 g steps are enough, because a gram either way on a 15 g dose is under 7 percent. What a kitchen scale lacks is a timer and 0.1 g, which matter for espresso and for anyone who wants to repeat a recipe to the second.
For espresso, yes: 18 g in, about 36 g out, and a gram is 5 percent of the dose. For filter coffee, no. Note that even the Hario reads 0.1 g only between 2 g and 200 g on Hario's own table; a full pot sits in the 1 g band regardless.
Small enough for a drip tray, 0.1 g, a quick display and some protection from water. Of the four here, the Timemore Basic 2.0 (sold by Timemore as an espresso scale, with a "waterproof dial surface") and the Acaia Pearl fit; the Hario is sized for a dripper and a server, and the Etekcity has no 0.1 g mode.
Empty brewer on the scale, tare to zero, add coffee to the dose (15 g for one 240 g cup), tare again, start the timer, pour to the water weight. A scale with a timer makes the last step one press; with a kitchen scale, use your phone. The full method is in the pour-over guide.
No. Every figure on this page is the maker's own specification or listing wording, quoted and dated November 2, 2026. We sell the Hario on our store, and it is labelled wherever it appears. When we have test data of our own, this page will say so.
Brewing filter coffee and not yet weighing it: the Etekcity, today, for $13.99. It will fix more cups than anything else on this site at that price.
Brewing pour-over daily and tired of the phone timer: the Hario V60 Drip Scale from our store, with the label above attached, or the Timemore Basic 2.0 if you would rather charge than change batteries and want the flow-rate readout.
Pulling espresso: the Timemore first; the Acaia Pearl when you know the readout speed is what you are missing.
And whichever you buy, put a bag with a roast date on it. The scale makes the ratio honest; it cannot make stale coffee fresh.