Basic bathroom scales should offer one crucial function: reliable and consistent weight measurement. After testing 31 different digital bathroom scales since 2015 and performing over 800 weigh-ins, we now recommend the EatSmart Precision+ Ultra-Wide Bathroom Scale. While no scale is flawless—especially on slightly uneven surfaces—the EatSmart Precision+ stands out for its exceptional reliability, robust construction, and user-friendly readability.

None of the scales we evaluated for this guide come with wireless syncing capabilities to an app. If you’re interested in automated tracking of your weight and other biometric data, we recommend exploring our guide to smart scales.

We’ve consistently recommended the EatSmart Precision+ Ultra-Wide Bathroom Scale due to its exceptional precision and accuracy. In our testing, this scale delivered fresh, real-time readings (rather than relying on stored memory) at each weigh-in, provided it was used on level flooring. With its impressive 15-inch width, it surpasses most scales we’ve tested, offering enhanced stability and reducing the risk of wobbling, which can adversely affect measurement accuracy. Its large, 3.5-inch backlit display is exceptionally easy to read, and the weight remains visible for a generous 20 seconds after you step off. Capable of measuring up to 440 pounds, the scale allows you to choose between kilograms or pounds and features instant on and off functionality. Additionally, its operation is completely silent—free from beeps. The EatSmart Precision+ Ultra-Wide is backed by a two-year warranty, underscoring its reliability and value.

The Greater Goods AccuCheck Scale matches the EatSmart Precision+ in accuracy and precision, delivering consistently fresh readings when used on level flooring. However, it features a smaller platform and backlit display compared to our top recommendation. The AccuCheck system also involves a slight learning curve, as it is designed to double-check each reading to ensure precision. This scale supports a lower weight capacity of 400 pounds and displays your weight for 15 seconds after you step off, which is about 5 seconds shorter than our top pick. Like the EatSmart Precision+, the Greater Goods AccuCheck Scale operates silently, turns on and off instantly, and offers measurements in both kilograms and pounds. It is backed by a generous five-year warranty, offering extended peace of mind.

Why you should trust us

We consulted a range of health and fitness experts to ensure comprehensive insights, including Dr. Linda Everett, a bariatrician specializing in weight loss; Beth Skwarecki, an experienced health writer; and Rachel L. Pires, author of Diet Enlightenment and a weight-loss counselor. Additionally, we invested hours analyzing customer reviews of scales from Walmart and other retailers to gather diverse user experiences and feedback.

Who this is for

Owning a reliable bathroom scale can be highly beneficial for many people. Regular weigh-ins are standard at physical exams for a reason: being over or under healthy weight recommendations is linked to an increased risk of certain health issues. Monitoring significant weight fluctuations can alert you to health or lifestyle changes that may need your attention.

In fact, simply tracking your weight can contribute to achieving long-term weight loss goals. Research, including a 2014 review drawing from The National Weight Control Registry, has shown that individuals who weigh themselves regularly (at least weekly) are among the most successful at losing weight and maintaining it over the years.

However, it’s important to remember that weight alone is not a comprehensive measure of overall health. Daily weight fluctuations—averaging around 5 pounds—can result from various factors such as hydration levels, recent food intake, and even what you’ve recently eaten. “As long as you don’t become overly fixated on the number on the scale, the benefits of using one generally outweigh the drawbacks,” advises Rachel L. Pires, a weight-loss counselor.

Today’s bathroom scales often offer more than just weight measurements. Many models now feature biometric readings and sync with an app to automatically track your weight over time. While smart scales can be more expensive than traditional digital models, our recommended pick is priced similarly to conventional bathroom scales. Smart scales may provide additional features, such as estimates of body-fat percentage and body mass index (BMI), which is a measure of body fat based on weight and height. However, they are not necessarily superior to other digital scales—they simply offer enhanced connectivity and additional metrics.

How we picked and tested

The two most critical factors in a scale’s ability to provide a useful measurement are accuracy—ensuring the scale reads reasonably close to your true weight—and precision—ensuring the scale delivers consistent readings if you weigh yourself multiple times in succession.

Our survey of over 600 WalletRays readers revealed the additional features that people value most in a scale, including, crucially, digital readouts. This feedback led us to exclude analog or mechanical scales from our considerations. In addition to reliable measurements, we focused on identifying scales with:

1. Weight limit: We preferred scales with weight limits of at least 400 pounds, which is typical for digital scales meant for home use.
2. Platform size and display: Generally speaking, larger scales are easier and more comfortable to stand on, and backlit displays are easier to read. We also preferred scales with display times of 5 seconds or more, which give us time to check the readings before the display goes blank.
For each round of testing, we meticulously set up all the scales according to their manuals and calibrated them as instructed. Over several weeks, we conducted an extensive number of weigh-ins, using various objects such as books, jackets, water bottles, and dumbbells to add or subtract different weights and evaluate the scales’ ability to detect these changes.

Through our testing, we discovered that some scales seemed to offer a false sense of precision and accuracy. These scales might calculate your weight based on the memory of previous readings rather than providing a true measurement each time.

For instance, one tester found that after weighing herself, then adding a 10-pound dumbbell, and weighing herself again without the dumbbell, one scale incorrectly showed a 10-pound increase in weight. Other scales initially detected the weight of an added book correctly but later reverted to the previous weight measurement, indicating they may not consistently capture subtle weight fluctuations.

We allowed each scale a maximum margin of error of 0.2 pounds. For example, if a scale recorded a tester at 120.0 pounds and she then weighed herself with a 0.4-pound book, the scale was considered accurate if it showed a weight between 120.2 and 120.6 pounds.

While it’s natural to expect perfection from your bathroom scale, our testing and expert consultations indicate that achieving 100% accuracy and precision is generally unrealistic with household scales. Factors such as floor unevenness, scale movement, and personal balance all contribute to variations in measurement.

Our pick: EatSmart Precision+ Ultra-Wide Bathroom Scale

The EatSmart Precision+ Ultra-Wide Bathroom Scale excelled in our testing, consistently delivering accurate and precise weights over several weeks, always within a 0.2-pound margin of error. Unlike many budget scales, which may only detect weight changes of half a pound or rely on memory rather than measuring each time, the EatSmart scale proved dependably reliable.

Its performance was notably consistent. Whether we weighed ourselves successively or on different days, the EatSmart scale provided stable readings and accurately detected incremental weight changes of a few tenths of a pound. This scale’s high weight capacity and readability further set it apart. With a weight limit of 440 pounds—higher than most scales, which typically cap at 400 pounds—and a large, 3.5-inch by 2-inch backlit display, the EatSmart Precision+ is easy to read. The display remains visible for a generous 20 seconds, allowing ample time to record your weight manually if needed.

The scale’s dimensions of 15 inches wide by 12 inches long offer a larger platform compared to most scales, making it an excellent choice for individuals with mobility or balance issues and those with larger-than-average shoe sizes (men’s size 10½ and above). It supports measurements in both kilograms and pounds, enhancing its versatility.

One advantage of the EatSmart scale is its silent operation; it does not beep when finished weighing. Instead, it flashes three times to signal the end of the measurement, so you need to watch the display or count to six in your head.

For accurate readings, the EatSmart scale should be placed on a hard, flat surface and calibrated by stepping on and off quickly each time it is moved. As with all scales, placing it on an uneven or carpeted floor, including bathroom mats, can affect its performance, as no scale in our tests could overcome such conditions.

The EatSmart Precision+ Ultra-Wide is available only in silver and comes with a two-year warranty, which is standard for bathroom scales. In comparison, our runner-up pick, the Greater Goods AccuCheck Scale, offers an impressive five-year warranty.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Like most modern electronic scales, our pick is made of tempered glass, which can be slippery when wet, and, according to some customer reviews, can shatter. An EatSmart representative said that the company receives “one or two complaints of this happening” annually. “Tempered safety glass is specifically designed to cause minimal or no injuries to the users,” the representative added. If your scale breaks, call EatSmart for a free replacement scale.

Runner-up: Greater Goods AccuCheck Scale

It’s extremely consistent. The Greater Goods AccuCheck Scale demonstrated exceptional performance in our testing, matching the accuracy of our top pick with all measurements consistently within a 0.2-pound margin of error. It did not rely on memory from previous weigh-ins, ensuring fresh and precise readings each time.

In terms of precision, the Greater Goods AccuCheck Scale surpasses our top recommendation. It is capable of detecting weight fluctuations as small as 0.1 pounds, compared to the 0.2-pound margin of our top pick. However, it features a more compact, traditional 11.8-by-11.8-inch square footprint, making it smaller than our top choice. Its 3-inch-wide display is slightly smaller and less clear than the EatSmart scale’s, though it remains legible.

Weigh-in numbers are displayed for 15 seconds, which is 5 seconds shorter than our top pick, but still sufficient for recording your weight. The scale supports a maximum weight of 400 pounds—40 pounds less than our top pick—and can measure in either kilograms or pounds. It operates completely silently, with no beeps.

The Greater Goods AccuCheck Scale comes in five colors (white, black, blue, clear, and gray) and is backed by a generous five-year warranty, which is more than double the standard two-year warranty of our top pick.

Like the EatSmart Precision+, the Greater Goods AccuCheck Scale should be used on a hard, flat surface and calibrated by stepping on and off quickly each time it is moved to ensure accurate readings.

The AccuCheck Scale’s name comes from its unusual feature of a multistep, color-coded, patent-pending process to verify the accuracy of a person’s weight after they have stepped off the scale. In our testing, we found that the extra steps required were questionably useful and not especially intuitive. After weighing a person for a few seconds, a blinking orange light comes on, and doesn’t turn green until a second or two after the person has stepped off the scale, confirming that the scale has verified the accuracy of the weigh-in. Unlike our pick, your weight isn’t confirmed until you step off the scale, which could prove problematic for people who can’t bend down to see the weigh-in status, as you don’t get any other sign besides the small orange light that the weight has been measured (like a beep). If you can’t (or don’t want to) see the scale, counting to six before stepping off should give it enough time to weigh and for you to record.

In the case of incorrect weigh-ins (ostensibly due to uneven flooring, as all scales tested on that flooring proved imprecise), the orange light still turned green, and the scale doesn’t have an option to display a different color if the weigh-in is unverified.

Like our pick’s platform, the Greater Good scale’s platform is made from tempered glass, which can shatter or be slippery when wet. A Greater Goods representative said that “it is very rare for any of our scales to shatter,” and that aside from the two negative reviews on Amazon, its customer service team had received no additional reports of shattering over the following 18 months. If your scale shatters, call Greater Goods for a free replacement scale.

Other good bathroom scales

If you require a higher weight capacity or just want a bigger platform: The EatSmart 550 Lb. Digital Bathroom Scale is a beautiful, extra-large scale that is as accurate as our picks on level flooring, but beeps loudly three times after each weigh-in with no way to turn the sound off. This scale is covered by a two-year warranty.

If you need extreme precision and accuracy (and are willing to pay for it), or if you are hesitant to buy a scale with a glass platform: We like the Tanita HD-351, which stores weight data for up to five users. Its display is not the brightest and readings take a bit longer than the competition, but this (often out-of-stock) scale performed among the best across all our tests. It is warrantied for three years

The competition

The Etekcity EB9380H scale we previously recommended was not as accurate in this round of testing as it previously was. None of the other Etekcity scales we considered performed as well as our picks, either. These were the EB4887S, the EB4410B, the EB4074C, and the EB9388H.

The Inevifit Bathroom Scale is as accurate as our picks on level flooring but has a less-legible display and usually costs a lot more.

The Tanita HD-662 is a compact, accurate scale with a backlit display and a plastic platform. But in the last two testing rounds, we found that it slides around on the floor easily, presenting a potential safety hazard.

We found the Taylor Precision Products Digital Bathroom Talking Scale to be generally accurate and precise. If you need a scale that speaks your weight out loud and are okay with a few errant measurements, this is an adequate choice.

The Taylor Digital Glass Bathroom Scale proved almost as accurate as our picks during our testing. It has a 440-pound capacity, has a five-year warranty, and, in addition to clear glass, comes in two attractive wood grain-like finishes: brown and gray.

The Airscale, EatSmart CalPal Digital Bathroom Scale, Escali Bamboo Bath Scale, Famili 271B (currently unavailable), Greater Goods Bathroom Scale 0390, Ozeri WeightMaster II, Taylor Digital Stainless Steel Bathroom Scale, and Taylor 7558 and 7506 scales performed poorly when compared with our picks in controlled weight-adjustment testing.