What Is a Scale?

A scale is a battery-powered platform with a load cell underneath and a digital readout on top. Weight presses on the cell, the cell reports it, and the display shows a number in grams, ounces or grains.

Two specs define any scale: capacity, the most it can weigh, and resolution, the smallest change it can see. A 200 g by 0.01 g pocket scale is the common all-rounder. Milligram models trade capacity for finer steps, while bench-top platforms do the opposite.

Are Scales Right for You?

Digital scales suit anyone who wants a number instead of a guess. Cooks portioning ingredients, hobbyists weighing resin or powders, blokes checking supplement doses, collectors weighing coins, and anyone posting parcels who would rather know the weight before the counter tells them.

They are not for you if you only ever need rough amounts — a measuring spoon is faster and cheaper. And no pocket scale is a workshop tool: overload it once and the load cell never reads quite the same again. If you need to weigh anything heavy, buy a bench model. You can see the full scales range here before you commit.

Types of Scales: Which One Suits You?

Three formats cover almost every need, and the difference is simply how much they weigh versus how finely they read.

Pocket digital scales

The default choice. A flip lid protects the platform, the whole thing fits a jacket pocket, and typical specs are 100–500 g capacity with 0.01 g steps. Runs on AAA batteries, tares in one press, and costs less than a bottle of lube. Start here unless you have a specific reason not to.

Milligram precision scales

Built for tiny amounts, reading to 0.001 g with a capacity often under 50 g. They come with tweezers, a scoop and calibration weights, and usually a draft shield, because a breath of air moves the reading. Slower to settle and easier to overload — precision is the whole point, capacity is the sacrifice.

Bench-top platform scales

A wide stainless platform, a bright backlit display and capacity from one to five kilos, usually in 0.1 or 1 g steps. Ideal for kitchen work, parcels and bulk decanting. Too coarse for fine measuring and too big to hide, so this is a benchtop or cupboard tool, not a pocket one.

How to Choose Your First Scale

Work through capacity, then resolution, then build. Get those three right and the rest is preference.

1. Match capacity to the heaviest thing you'll weigh

Pick a scale whose maximum sits comfortably above your usual load, including the container. Weighing a 180 g jar on a 200 g scale leaves you no room, and overloading is the single fastest way to kill a load cell. Double your expected weight and buy that.

2. Choose resolution honestly

0.1 g is fine for kitchen and parcel work. 0.01 g is the sweet spot for small quantities and the reason most blokes buy a pocket scale. 0.001 g only earns its keep if you genuinely measure in fractions of a gram — otherwise you are paying for digits you'll never read.

3. Check the build, then spend the rest elsewhere

Look for a stainless steel platform, a hinged hard lid, a backlit display and a tare button that works one-handed. Scales are cheap, so the change left over usually goes on other Essentials — customers most often add a triple pack of aromas or a bottle of masturbation cream from our wider Naughty Boy range to the same order.

Materials & Body-Safety

Platforms are stainless steel or tempered glass. Steel is the tougher of the two, wipes clean and shrugs off knocks; glass looks sharper and sits flatter, but it will chip at the corners if you drop it. Housings are ABS plastic, which is light, rigid and easy to keep clean.

Keep liquids off the platform entirely — a load cell is not sealed, and moisture inside it is terminal. A damp cloth on the outside is as wet as a scale should ever get. If you are adding toys or gels to the same order, stick to body-safe silicone and pair it with water-based lube, since silicone lube degrades silicone surfaces.

How to Use a Scale

Set the scale on a hard, level surface. Soft carpet, a mattress or a wobbling table will all skew the reading, and so will a running fan or an open window on a milligram model.

Switch it on with nothing on the platform and let the display settle to zero before you load anything. Put your empty container down, press tare to zero it out, then add what you're weighing — the number you see is the contents alone.

Calibrate with the supplied weight when the scale is new, after it has been travelling, after a battery change, or any time two readings of the same object disagree. Follow the calibration sequence in the manual, since the button combination differs between models.

Care, Cleaning & Storage

Wipe the platform with a dry or barely damp cloth, never under a tap. Brush spills off before they set rather than scraping them.

Store it closed and flat, with nothing resting on the lid, and take the batteries out if it's going in a drawer for months — a leaked cell ruins the contacts. Above all, never leave weight sitting on the platform between uses; a load cell held under strain slowly loses its accuracy.

Our Top 8 Scales for 2026

A scale is a single, simple buy, so here is what our customers actually add alongside one. All of these come from our wider Naughty Boy and Essentials range rather than this category, and every one has been handled and shipped by us. Prices and stock sit on each product page, and you can always check the current scales lineup first.

Scales FAQ

Why Trust Naughty Boy

We're an Australian business, and we've handled, compared and shipped every product on this page ourselves. Ranking here follows what our customers actually buy and keep, not what a supplier pushes. Orders leave our Australian warehouse in plain packaging, ship Australia-wide, and if something arrives faulty you talk to a person here who can sort it out.