Comments on: Weight Drift on Digital Scales

By: Chance Cook

Chance Cook — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 15:36:02 +0000

Thanks for the tip to give certain scales a long warm-up time. I’d hate to start using it only for the scale to drift. I’d rather be safe than sorry when it comes to weighing things.

By: Kate Welling

Kate Welling — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 23:18:10 +0000

You mentioned that you recalibrated the scale twice. It sounds like this would be a great thing to do when weighing anything! It is especially important when weighing really heavy things, like trucks or hardware.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sun, 28 Oct 2018 06:19:35 +0000

Also binding will cause a reading to be out. And be careful to never exceed the scales weight limit as this can damage the loadcell permanently and cause drifting

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sun, 28 Oct 2018 06:16:54 +0000

Temperature,wind,and using cal weights that have been repeatedly handled without a clean white glove will all affect the weight reading to a certain degree.

By: Jonathan Long

Jonathan Long — Tue, 23 May 2017 17:56:31 +0000

Reading the comments here, I’m thinking it is a fact of life of an electronic scale. Many of you are talking about higher end expensive scales. I have a cheap digital that came with my “kit”. It does exactly the same. And as for line conditioners, mine operates off batteries. No cleaner powder than that.

By: Scott Gray

Scott Gray — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:09:17 +0000

I had an issue with a drifting zero on my PACT, which made it unusable. It was happening at my house, but not at other locations, such as my office. The fix for my issue was a ferrous noise filter on the power supply cord . It is basically a hinged barrel shaped plastic tube that contains two magnets. Near the scal end of the cord, lay the cord into the slot, wrap it back through, then close the filter around the cord. Before installing, mine would drift off as much as 2.9 grains, which was being caused by some type of environmental “noise”. It is absolutely stable now. You’ll see a lot of these type filters on the cords for computer acessories. Yo may have to experiment to find one that works for you, some have different magnets that have different filtering abilities. Cost about $3. I purchased mine at Randolph and Rice Industrial Electronics in Nashville, TN item# SF.065 Hope this helps, it did for me.

By: norm larson

norm larson — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:54:37 +0000

You bet the electronic scales are SENSITIVE. As one of the other comments stated – check, recheck , recheck and calibrate frequently. I rezero after every 5 rounds, use
cal. wieght every 10th round . Calibrate before beginning loading – leave the unit turned ON for weeks at a time – it will not hurt it.

My brother had a hell of a problem last year with a electronic scale going nuts on him – he was shooting 10’s and X’ss at 1000 yds then would have a shot go way off to a 7 or called miss.. He went home that night and reloaded a buncha ammo with a balance beam , came back Sunday and was shooting 10’s amd X’sss again.

YOU NEED A LINE -CONDITIONER – voltage varies continually coming into your house so you must maintain a constant incoming voltage for your unit otherwise what you see is the result of this variance.

Contact a good electrical or industrial supply house for a line-conditioner . Keep air movement away from the unit all possible…. oh yeah .. GOOD LUCK !

By: L Wong

L Wong — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 20:49:46 +0000

I bought the first MXX-123. It went “OL” second time I powered it on and put on the included check weight. It hung on “OL” no matter what. It could have been static charge killing it. Called DI (excellent people)and got a replacement without hassle. The second MXX-123 would stay zero after warm-up, but if you left the load on, it would drift up by itself at a rate of .02 grain a minute. I left the check weight on for a few hours to see how much it would drift upward – I got about .4 grain. It also wouldn’t re-zero after drifting upward. The drifted amount would become residue reading after I removed the load, and added on all subsequent weighing. I don’t have such problem with a PACT, but it read down only to .1 grain so it might just not be sensitive enough to show. I don’t have enough experience with other scales to know if that was a common “handicap” for electronic scale, but it make me question all those “reviews” for this particular products. I just expect a scale in that price range would not keep changing its mind. Am I expecting too much?

By: M&C Future Enterprises LLC

M&C Future Enterprises LLC — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 21:43:02 +0000

I just came across your blog about digital scales wanted to drop you a note telling you how impressed I was with the information you have posted here. I also have a web site & blog about digital scales so I know what I’m talking about when I say your site is top-notch! Keep up the great work, you are providing a great resource on the Internet here!

By: Stephen Tooke

Stephen Tooke — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 05:07:40 +0000

You mentioned a “line conditioner”.Are you talking about a surge protector? Or is it one of the battery back-up systems?

While in Lowe’s I saw a surge strip that had ” computer clean power” on it. Is this the one you are talking about? I’m trying to see if something will help my Pact. Don’t have a lot of problems. But if something will help I’ll install it.

Love the helpfull hint articles.
Thank you.

Editor: I can’t say what the Lowe’s product does. A normal surge protector simply protects against extreme voltage spikes–sort of like a circuit breaker. However, it will still allow swings of voltage to get through. We’ve seen voltage (at the wall socket) swing between 80 and 145 volts. This was causing a computer battery pack (UPS) to constantly go off. A true “line conditioner” takes the voltage from the wall socket, analyzes it, and boosts or reduces voltage as necessary to deliver constant 110-120 AC through to the appliance. Some of the inexpensive UPS (uninterruptible power supplies) condition the voltage–others do not. You need to be pretty careful when you buy.