UltraShip MyWeigh Digital Postal Shipping and Kitchen Food Scale

UltraShip MyWeigh Digital Postal Shipping and Kitchen Food Scale was featured on Leo Laporte's Daily Giz Wiz segment.

Affordable at $26.93. Some suppliers, like In Focus Electronics and MyGearStore, include the power supply and others do not. If you buy the UltraShip Power Supply separately, it costs another $7.87.

With a maximum capacity of 55 lb or 25 kg, this scale is ideal for a home-based business where you regularly ship packages via UPS, FedEx, DHL, First Class, Priority or Parcel Post mail, and you print out your own prepaid USPS labels.

The scale has no pre-programmed rates, but if you go online and give PayPal the weight, you can print your own postage and use the USPS home pick-up service instead of stand in the post office queue.

Besides taking heavy parcels, it is sensitive at low weights, making it great for letters too.

The UltraShip MyWeigh Digital Postal Shipping and Kitchen Food Scale doesn't automatically adjust to the weight of the item, you have to manually select the proper range.

Although described as a postal scale, it is actually a multi-purpose scale, able to weigh a baby (using a rubbermaid container), sick kitten or puppy (put them in a box) to monitor weight gain, your luggage, or for use in the kitchen.

Most times the weight agrees exactly with the post office scale so you know your scale is accurate.

For the readout you can choose between grams, decimal pounds, decimal ounces, pounds and decimal ounces, or kilograms. Select the one you want by pressing a button on the side of the scale.

With increments of 0.1 oz and 2 grams, if something weighs 25 grams, the readout would flip between 24 and 26 grams. That may or may not be precise enough for your needs.

The tare function allows you to put the box on before turning the scale on, and automatically zeroes the weight of the box, without you even needing to press the zero button.

The hold button allows you to read the display after removing the item from the scale, which is sometimes useful.

Colors of the scale vary, but are usually black, silver or cobalt blue, all with a blue backlight.

While an item is being weighed, the bright blue backlight turns on, which makes the weight easy to read. You can switch it off if you wish because it sometimes slightly affects accuracy (but only when using batteries).

Compact at 8 x 9 inches, it requires little space and you can easily pack it away. At 10 lb, it is lightweight.

For the price, the UltraShip MyWeigh Digital Postal Shipping and Kitchen Food Scale is relatively sturdy, but would not suit a busy mailroom.

It has a large, easy to read digital readout. If the numbers jump around, try using batteries instead of the power supply. This sometimes solves the problem

When weighing something big, take care to balance it carefully on the platform.

You can remove the display face to more easily read the weight, but it is quite difficult to do so. You need to turn the scale over, put something like petroleum jelly on the back, and use both hands to remove it. It would probably then be easier to keep it off.

Removing the display face allows you to put large packages on the scale on the floor, and hang the reader on the wall at eye level.

With your purchase you get a letter tube holder which stops rolled up post from rolling off the scale, and a less useful letter tray.

The scale switches off automatically, and does so quite quickly. If you relied on batteries, this feature would save battery life.

You need either four C batteries or the power supply to run the UltraShip MyWeigh Digital Postal Shipping and Kitchen Food Scale. The power supply costs about the same as a pack of batteries, so cost wise it may be worth your while to get it. Occasionally the scale blinks when you use the power cable. Insert batteries, and the blinking stops.

With batteries, the scale is more portable, allowing you to move it around, maybe to the floor for large boxes, then back onto the table top for smaller items.

Easy to set up - put the top of the scale on the base. To use, push the button to switch on, then weigh. The controls are labelled and self-explanatory.

If the scale displays anything other than a zero, use an accurate 10 kg weight to calibrate it, and the instruction manual will lead you through the process.

There is a lifetime/30 year international warranty. Batteries are not included with your purchase, neither is the AC adaptor, or not usually.

Things which might go wrong include:

The unit may be defective when you receive it.

When you switch the scale on, the numbers bounce around, sometimes as much as .5 oz, instead of showing zero, which means if you weigh something very light, you cannot get a reading.

If the scale fails to work with the power adaptor, the power adaptor may be faulty, in which case insert batteries.

The batteries occasionally drain, even when you the scale is not being used.

Quick Supply are unpredictable with regard to customer service - the phone may go unanswered and email replies may be erratic. They refuse to pay return shipping (which is 50% the price of the scale) on a defective item.

So if the UltraShip MyWeigh Digital Postal Shipping and Kitchen Food Scale interests you, it may be worth your while buying direct from Amazon or through Amazon fulfillment in case you need to return it.