OXO Good Grips 11 lb Stainless Food Scale

What the maker puts in writing

• “Stainless Steel is Smudge and fingerprint-resistant”
• “Zero function for taring the scale before weighing additional ingredients”
• “Digital screen with large, easy-to-read numbers”
• “Removable platform for convenient cleaning”
• “Pull-Out display prevents shadowing from large plates or bowls”
• From the name: “11 Pound”
• Reference 11214800 · Catalog: 816 g (28.8 oz), 241 × 181 × 32 mm (9.49 × 7.13 × 1.26 in)

Five bullets, and only the product name carries a number

That is the honest summary of the most expensive scale sold on Amazon.com.

What it publishes: a pull-out display, a removable platform, a zero function, “large, easy-to-read numbers”, and a smudge-resistant stainless finish.

What it does not:

No resolution — where its own 5 lb stablemate at $37.95 publishes “1/8-ounce and 1-gram increments” No unit list at all No minimum weighable load No auto shutoff No backlight — where the stablemate has an “optional” one No capacity meter — which the stablemate has, uniquely on this shelf No battery type No dimensions No warranty

What twenty-five dollars buys elsewhere on this shelf, for comparison.

Escali, $25 — a lifetime warranty, the only one here · two-button operation · a sealed control panel against spills · a four-minute shutoff · 8.5 × 6 × 1.5 inches · 11 lb at 0.05 oz / 1 g · three units Greater Goods, $24.99 — 22 lb at 1 g · six units · a display that extends beyond the platform · a five-minute HOLD · a two-minute shutoff · 3 AAA, included · 7.6 × 5.6 × 1.3 in · a 5-year limited warranty and lifetime support · and the only stated limit on this shelf: “Not for laboratory or microgram measurements.”

So on published specification this is the thinnest page here at the highest price.

What is genuinely on it and nowhere else except its own stablemate: the pull-out display and the removable platform — which happen to be the two best answers on this shelf to the two real problems of a kitchen scale.

The pull-out display, which solves the one real design problem

“Pull-Out display prevents shadowing from large plates or bowls”

The problem: the platform sits above the display. Put a mixing bowl or a dinner plate on the scale and it covers the number you need — and no backlight shines through a mixing bowl.

Three answers on this shelf:

Pulling the display out of the body — this, and the OXO 5 lb at $37.95, in the same words Extending the display past the platform — the Greater Goods at $24.99: “the bright Hi-Def LCD display extends beyond the weighing platform for better visibility under large mixing bowls” A backlight, which does not solve the geometry at all — the SOYOK at $6.98, the Ultrean at $6.98, the Etekcity at $13.99, the OXO 5 lb

Nine scales ignore it entirely.

Which is better. A pull-out reaches furthest. It can be set clear of a 12-inch pot, which an extended display cannot. And it is a mechanism, with a cable and a slide to fail, where an extended display has nothing to go wrong.

More reach, more to break.

And on a body of 241 × 181 mm — about 9.5 × 7.1 inches — the reach is the point, because a mixing bowl is wider than that.

The workaround on every scale that does neither, and no page here suggests it: zero the scale, add the ingredient, then lift the bowl to read — or use a HOLD function. Three scales on this shelf have one: the Greater Goods at $24.99 (up to 5 minutes, the only duration published), the Etekcity USB at $29.99, and neither OXO.

“Large, easy-to-read numbers” is the legibility claim, and no scale on this shelf publishes a digit height or a display size — “wide LCD screen” (Amazon Basics), “Hi-Def” (Greater Goods), “large fonts” (Etekcity) and this are the whole vocabulary.

A removable platform, which only its stablemate also has

“Removable platform for convenient cleaning”

The OXO 5 lb at $37.95 publishes the same: “Platform removes for hand washing.” Nobody else on this shelf does.

Where the problem lies. A scale platform meets raw meat, lemon juice, flour and spills. On a fixed-platform scale the join between platform and housing is a crevice no cloth reaches — and the path water takes to the load cell.

A damp load cell drifts rather than dies, which is the worst way for a scale to fail: you keep trusting the number.

The shelf, on water:

A published rating — the Etekcity USB at $29.99 alone, IPX6: “allowing you to easily measure liquids and wipe the scale clean” A claim with no rating — the SOYOK at $6.98 (“more waterproof and wear-resistant”), the GGQ at $17.98 (“waterproof Anti-collision glass weighing panel”) A sealed panel — the Escali at $25: “Display and controls are sealed under a protective shield to guard against accidental spills” An explicit prohibition — the KitchenAid at $23.99: “Hand wash only; do not immerse in water or put in dishwasher; wipe with a damp cloth and dry thoroughly” A removable platform — this, and the OXO 5 lb Silence — the other six

So the two OXO scales take the mechanical route rather than the sealing route, and it is arguably the better one. The part that gets dirty comes off; the part with the electronics never goes near the tap.

Two habits the page does not give. Dry the housing under the platform too — that is where spills collect once the platform is off, and it is directly above the load cell. And make sure the platform seats properly when it goes back, because a platform sitting crooked is a platform transmitting load unevenly.

The finish claim is the other half of the cleaning story, and it is the opposite of a rival’s position. “Stainless Steel is Smudge and fingerprint-resistant” — where the KitchenAid at $23.99 is glass, which stains less and shows fingerprints more, and the Letron at $34.99 combines stainless and glass deliberately.

No grade is named here. Three scales on this shelf publish 304: the Ultrean at $6.98, the Etekcity at $13.99 (“304 food-grade”) and the Etekcity nutritional at $39.99. 304 is an austenitic stainless with roughly 18 percent chromium and 8 percent nickel — the standard food-contact grade, and the one that does not pit from acid.

Eight hundred and sixteen grams, the heaviest scale on this shelf

The shelf, by weight:

Etekcity 200 g · SOYOK 222 g · GGQ 250 g · Greater Goods 367 g · Amazon Basics 381 g · Escali 431 g · KitchenAid 535 g · Letron 544 g · Etekcity nutritional 544 g · OXO 5 lb 581 g · Etekcity USB 700 g · this 816 g

Four times the lightest scale here.

Why it matters in use. A kitchen scale is routinely used with a bowl on it that you then pour into and stir — and a light scale moves under that, which at best is annoying and at worst changes the reading.

A strain-gauge scale measures the deflection of a beam, so a scale not resting evenly on all four feet reads wrong — consistently, and without saying so.

Two scales on this shelf address it mechanically rather than by mass: the SOYOK at $6.98 with “four anti-slip bases” and a “rounded corner design” against edge collisions, and the GGQ at $17.98 with “4 no-slip rubbers”.

This page publishes neither feet nor platform size — and the removable platform is the feature that most needs a stable base, since a platform that lifts off can sit back down crooked.

The other thing weight buys is the pull-out mechanism. A display on a slide has to be pulled without the scale coming with it, and 816 grams is what makes that a one-handed action. On a 200-gram scale it would not be.

The cost is storage. At 32 mm thick and 816 g this is a cupboard object, where the slim scales here — the SOYOK and Ultrean at 15 mm, the Etekcity nutritional at 15 mm, the GGQ at 18 mm, the Etekcity at 19 mm — go in a drawer, and the Etekcity at $13.99 sells exactly that: “easily storable in cabinets”. The GGQ at $17.98 publishes a hanging hook, the only one here.

Eleven pounds, and the resolution has to be inferred

Eleven pounds is the commonest capacity on this shelf — eight of the thirteen scales sold on Amazon.com. The full spread:

5 lb / 2.27 kg — the OXO pull-out at $37.95, this maker’s own, and the lowest here 11 lb / 5 kg — eight scales, from $6.98 to this at $64.95 22 lb / 10 kg — the Greater Goods at $24.99, the Etekcity USB at $29.99 33 lb / 15 kg — the GGQ at $17.98, the Letron at $34.99

So the most expensive scale sold on Amazon.com has less than a third of the capacity of a scale at a third of the price.

And the resolution is not published at all. The 5 lb stablemate at $37.95 gives “1/8-ounce and 1-gram increments”, which is almost certainly the same here.

Which puts it with at least twelve of the fifteen scales on this shelf at one gram. The only exception is the Letron at $34.99, with a second platform reading 0.001 oz / 0.01 g up to 500 g.

What one gram cannot do. A sachet of dried yeast is about 7 g — at ±1 g that is ±14 percent, the difference between a dough that proves in an hour and one that takes three. Three grams of salt in a loaf is ±33 percent. Baking powder, bicarbonate and ground spices sit in the same range.

What it is exactly right for is everything else. 500 g of flour at ±1 g is ±0.2 percent — finer than any recipe needs.

One gram is the resolution of flour, not of salt. And the only page on this shelf to say so is the Greater Goods at $24.99: “Not for laboratory or microgram measurements.”

And an eighth of an ounce — if that is the figure here — is about 3.5 grams, so the imperial display would move in 3.5-gram jumps while the metric one moves in one. The practical rule on every scale here, which no page states: weigh in grams.

The minimum weighable load is absent too. Five scales on this shelf publish one: 2 g — the Amazon Basics at $11.14, the Etekcity USB at $29.99 · 3 g — the GGQ at $17.98, the Etekcity nutritional at $39.99 · 0.01 g — the Letron’s mini platform. Resolution is the step; the minimum is the floor — and a 1-gram scale with a 2-gram floor shows 0 for 1.5 g, not approximately but zero.

What is not published

No resolution and no unit list, as above — on the most expensive scale sold on Amazon.com.

No minimum weighable load, as above.

No auto shutoff. The durations on this shelf run from two to five minutes: 2 minutes — the SOYOK at $6.98, the GGQ at $17.98, the Greater Goods at $24.99 · 3 minutes — the KitchenAid at $23.99, triggered by no change in weight rather than idleness · 4 minutes — the Escali at $25 · 5 minutes — the Letron at $34.99. Six scales, including both OXO models, publish none. Why it matters: a recipe is weighed cumulatively, and a scale that switches off between two additions loses the tare — so the bowl comes off, the scale restarts, and the flour already in it becomes part of the tare.

No HOLD function, as above.

No backlight, where the 5 lb stablemate at $37.95 has an “optional” one and three other scales publish one.

No capacity meter, which the 5 lb stablemate has and nothing else on this shelf does: “Convenient meter shows how much of Scale’s capacity remains.” It matters because of how a load cell fails: pushing a strain gauge past capacity bends the beam permanently, after which the scale reads consistently wrong rather than failing outright. Two scales publish an overload warning instead — the SOYOK at $6.98 and the GGQ at $17.98 — and a meter is the better answer, because it fires before the event.

No battery type. Four scales here use 2 AAA, two use 3 AAA, two are rechargeable — the GGQ at $17.98 and the Etekcity USB at $29.99 (Type-C, cable supplied). Neither OXO publishes a power source at all.

No dimensions, where four scales on this shelf publish one. The catalog gives 241 × 181 × 32 mm.

No platform size. Only the GGQ at $17.98 publishes a platform figure on this shelf — “7.5” x 5.5” in stainless steel panel provide more stability and space for larger containers”.

No load-sensor count, where the GGQ at $17.98 and the Etekcity nutritional at $39.99 both publish four. Four corner cells sum the load so the reading does not depend on where the bowl sits — which on a wide platform with a removable top is exactly the question. The test on any scale: put a full tin in the middle, note the number, then move it to each corner.

No anti-slip feet, as above.

No steel grade, as above.

No warranty. Three items on this shelf publish something: the Escali at $25 — a lifetime warranty, the only one here, at forty-two percent of this price · the Greater Goods at $24.99 — 5 years limited plus “lifetime support from our St. Louis team” · the GGQ at $17.98 — “12 Months Support”. Ten publish nothing, including both OXO scales. And since nothing on this shelf has a calibration function, check it against a known mass now and again: a liter of water from the tap is 1,000 g to within a gram or two.

No country of manufacture, which no item on this shelf publishes.

Availability

Read on the day this page was built: $60 at the American Amazon shop.

Read from Keepa on the day this page was last revised; stock and price both move without notice.