I bought this scale off amazon - https://www.fasttech.com/p/2050005
Since I opened it has been acting off. On a flat surface, no weight, no external factors it will go up 0.02 or down 0.02 ish every four or five seconds. It makes weighing precisely hard and I second guess myself. Sometimes it take a few seconds to go back down to the correct weight. Any ideas? Can I recal it? Should I return it?
Do you have an air-conditioner or fan running near where you're weighing? That can throw things off.
Actually... Would 0.02 actually make any difference whatsoever? Try putting a glass bowl over it and wait a couple of minutes to exclude external factors. If it persists and makes weighing hard for you, see if it has a calibration mode or contact the seller with your concerns.
Im anal about accuracy, and in some concentrates like biscuit, cookie, sweetener, lemongrass, rixh cinnamon etc 0.02 can make a huge diff and throw an entire recipe off
Google what a quarter weighs and see if it's accurate, you might be able to recal with that.
I tried a nickel at 5.00 g and a quarter at 5.67 g but every nickel and quarter ive used all weigh different lol
It's been a while since I read the manual that came with my scale, but I seem to recall it saying that where you are in a room can effect it (I think closer to the edge of the room was more accurate?) I'll see if I can track it down
Edit: "Always weigh on a flat and leveled surface, free from vibrations and drafts. The corner of a room is usually the most stable."
And try seeing if the measurement stabilizes after 30-60 seconds
I'm pretty sure the precision standard on this type of scale is +/- .05 g or more. Mix large enough batches to make this variance insignificant, say 60ml. If you really need more precision, you will need to spend more $ on the instrument. Look at something from Ohaus for example, but understand you'll spend several hundred to thousands of dollars for a scale this precise, with the same capacity & resolution. The $10-15 scale from FT is doing what it is supposed to do.
Wait do you mean 0.01 or 0.1 gms since .02 will not make any difference even in smaller batches and just standing next to it will make it shift since it's a cheap cheap scale , If you really want accuracy then look at proper lab scales but add a few zeros to what you paid for this one.
If you're talking +/-0.02 grams variance in your house with no case to protect the scale from air currents, that's as good as you're going to get. Your scale is just precise enough for you to observe this minuscule error. Set the precision to 1/10th gram f you can and it will be easier to ignore.