Health o Meter Physician Balance Beam Scale
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List Price: Our Price: $149.25 You Save: $80.72 (35%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Health Care See more product details |
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Customer Reviews of Health o Meter Physician Balance Beam Scale
Customer Review: Begone, bathroom scale.
Summary: 5 Stars
My strain-gauge bathroom scale as well as the more traditional spring-loaded one don't give me consistent readings. I could step on and off all day and never get three consistent readings. Even the range of readings fluctuates depending on the weather, positioning, stars and so on.
If your scale tops out at 250 lb and you weigh 245, expect to see inaccuracies. If you're 180 lb, the scales are more accurate and precise for that sweet-spot weight (for this example)
Now about this one:
Assembly is required. But it's minimal and well worth it.
- The four-nut install is simple if you place the column as the instructions suggest.
- Make sure you tighten and retighten with the provided tool so you don't have to do this again later. Don't use any more force than this tool allows, the nuts seem to be designed to firmly lock the base to the column.
- Even hooking up the assembly from the column to the base was designed for consumers, there's a convenient thumb-pull that brings the hook out of the column so the base can be functional. It sounds more complicated than it is.
Accuracy:
- It's easy to zero-adust with the big cylindrical weight on the left. Turn the screw one way or the other to get the indicator to float between the constraining ends.
- This is a balance beam, so you're simply balancing your weight with the counterweight. There are no springs that get weaker or change with the weather, no strain gauges that vary based on your foot's proximity to the corners.
- Here's how good it is. I drink 24 oz of water after weighing myself. Step back on and I'm exactly 1.5 lb heavier. I've never seen a bathroom scale work as well.
- If you're over 350 lb, prepare to do some math. Placing the supplied counterweights in the notches is easy, adding 88 lb or 150 lb as appropriate isn't that easy, but there is a handy table supplied for easy lookup, in 1-lb increments.
- You can measure 500 lb, not 450lb as the information suggests.
- An additional benefit here is that you could weigh suitcases before flying so that you don't have to dump stuff at the airport when airlines get testy about keeping the weight down. Bathroom scales don't do a good job of this and they are harder to read.
- I'd trust this more than a bathroom scale for parcels, say of 5lb or more.
Extras:
- Keep the weights safe and around if you're going over 350lb.
- There's a vertical scale in the middle that lets you measure heights up to 7 ft (I think). Great if you have growing kids.
- If you have a baby, you can simply get on the scale, measure your weight and then get back on with the baby. The difference will be consistent enough to yield the baby's weight. With bathroom scales, your balance change while holding the baby will cost you accuracy.
Customer Review: A pain to assemble, wonderful to use
Summary: 4 Stars
Other reviews cover how great this scale is; I'll tell you what problems I had with it:
I ordered this scale and it arrived damaged-- a corner of the package got banged in shipment and there wasn't enough styrofoam to shield the four screws at the bottom of the pillar, one of which got bent. This made the scale impossible to assemble. Customer service was very helpful and shipped another one out right away, while emailing a UPS shipping label to send the damaged one back for free.
The new scale arrived and it wasn't too easy to assemble. The instructions are understandable, but it's hard to lug the two heavy pieces (pillar and platform) around and screw them together. I'm young and strong, but my mother could never have managed to do it.
After assembly the balance beam was stuck; it took a call to a very knowledgable tech support lady to determine that it had gotten jammed by a screw gun at the factory. Under her guidance I unscrewed the face plate and shook the assembly loose. This got the scale working.
The scale is advertised as being accurate to within one quarter of a pound, but it takes time and care to get such a precise reading. If you weigh 147.25 pounds, you can have the scale set to 147.0 or 147.5 and it'll still look balanced because the beam will drift without ever coming to rest. You have to watch the beam to see if it wavers near the top, middle, or bottom of the loop to determine whether you're right on or a quarter pound off. I only care about being accurate within half a pound anyway-- I just wanted to mention that the quarter pound accuracy isn't worth the effort.
But I love this scale! If you're trying to track half-pound gains and losses, a balance beam scale is a heck of a lot quicker and more accurate than a regular bathroom scale that requires repeated weighing to have any confidence in the number.
Customer Review: Great Scale/Great Bargain
Summary: 5 Stars
This scale is very easy to put together, it is very accurate, and it is 100% consistent. It is a heavyweight - just like the scale the doctors use - not some flimsy imitation.
I had a standard bathroom scale that wasn't inexpensive, but you could step onto it 3 times in a row and get 3 different readings that would vary by up to six pounds. When you are trying to figure out if you have lost or gained weight in a given week, that level of accuracy is useless. If you get on this scale 100 times in a row, it gives you the exact same, accurate weight every time. I can't overstate how important this is to staying motivated.
I should note one more thing, because this confused me when I was trying to make a purchasing decision. I research things extensively (maybe obsessively) and I had noticed that some scales by this maker, seemingly of the same model, seemed to have a silver colored balance beam, and others seemed to have a black colored balance beam. When I got the scale I realized that the balance beam is reversible, with one side being in pounds and the other side being in kilos. The two sides are different colors, so when you are looking at various pictures that do not show model numbers please understand that a different colored balance beam does not necessarily indicate a different model of scale. This is important because if you research these types of scales you will find that some sites that rate these types of scales have brought in experts to test the various scales under scientific conditions, and the Health o Meter came out on top. These sites don't give model numbers, but the Health o Meter scale they show looks just like this one, but for the fact that a different side of the balance beam is showing, and but for the fact that it is way more expensive than Amazon sells it for.
Customer Review: Worth the price for serious dieting
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm not naturally a heavy set guy, but my job keeps me deskbound and over the years I'd just settled into a habit of eating too many sugary junk food treats to keep my energy levels up during the day. When I was a teen I was a rail thin 114 pounds. I stayed under 120 until my middle ages, when the weight began creeping up. Just last month I weighed in at around 170.
So my weight problem isn't big compared to other folks, but it was still too much for me. But when I started dieting, I quickly realized how inadequate my little bathroom scales are.
Balance beam scales like this one are a superior way of keeping close track of your weight. And when you get into that stage of dieting where the changes are small over time, they will give you Much better feedback then the usual spring loaded bathroom scales do. The better your feedback, the more you stick to it.
I didn't have the problems assembling this scale that some others here have. I think where the instructions tell you to tip the scale back to attach the beam to the base isn't the best. There is an illustration in the instruction booklet showing the scale resting face down on a flat surface with the base hanging off one end. That's how I attached everything together and it all went smoothly.
This scale is a pure joy to use. You get an excellent feel for how your body is gaining or loosing weight as you eat and exercise. It is a very good tool for the serious dieter, and weight watcher. It works just fine for someone in my weight range (I'm down to about 150 now). It is well worth the money if you are willing to commit to using it, and paying attention to what it is telling you.
Customer Review: research frenzy
Summary: 5 Stars
After 1 month of trying to dig thru all the propaganda, and find a quality, affordable scale, After reading hundreds of forums, I came to the conclusion that the 402kl by health-o-meter was what I was looking for (However let it be known that the professional models were bought out and now made by sunbeam corp.) I received my scale in the mail promptly, 3 days of ordering , put it together without to much difficulty, but found that the balance beam kept hitting the forward and aft part of the eye(where the needle is), I called my friend over who has an older model, it took us 2 hours adjusting it trying to get it to float free. I found that for the next 7 days, every time i weighed in I had to adjust it(the counter weight), this is not what I had read about! every forum I had read said they put it together and it was good to go! "aaahhhhg-of course" I would be the one in a million with the lemon. I called the company that sent it, I was expecting and prepared for a battle, but to my surprise, they took my information, arranged for ups to pick up the old one, had the new one in 3 days, put it together, it was dead accurate right out of the box. I was shocked, what customer service, and the product is great. this very same scale at local medical supplies is double the price. so if your looking for a quality , affordable, and safe model(safe meaning your not screwed if theres a problem). then this is it!