Hello list,
Towards the end of last year, I posted a sort of query/rant about Bluetooth kitchen scales and how I was having no luck with the MY Weigh Vox talking scales. No matter how careful I was, the vox scales would unfailingly crap out on me only after a few months at the most. At the time of that post, the two of my vox scales died within days apart of each other during the Christmas holidays. Being stuck without an accessible scale was not fun. That and they were already replacements of replacements of replacements… My Weigh did swap them out for me and at least that time, they didn’t even charge me the standard $25 fee. I just had to pay shipping for both of the scales to Arizona. Came out to something like $10. Anyway, the most recent Vox 3000 scale replacement I got towards the middle of January and this time . . . it lasted all the way to mid-March… In the meantime, I had been checking out some Bluetooth kitchen scales for accessible alternatives as it seems that My Weigh really is the only manufacturer that makes talking kitchen scales that can weigh to the gram. And as it appears that I’m more or less Charlie Brown when it comes to vox scales, I didn’t want to continue to play the swap out game for eternity. I came across two Bluetooth options. The Perfect Bake 2.0 Smart Scale: https://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Recipe-Kitchen-Wireless-Bluetooth/dp/B019C4PU OA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8 <https://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Recipe-Kitchen-Wireless-Bluetooth/dp/B019C4P UOA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1526269584&sr=8-3&keywords=bluetooth+kitchen+scal e&dpID=51EpnAj-ZTL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch> &qid=1526269584&sr=8-3&keywords=bluetooth+kitchen+scale&dpID=51EpnAj-ZTL&pre ST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch for $20.00. as well as the Drop Scale - Connected Kitchen Scale: https://www.amazon.com/Drop-Scale-Connected-Step-Step/dp/B00TTY34KG/ref=sr_1 _1?ie=UTF8 <https://www.amazon.com/Drop-Scale-Connected-Step-Step/dp/B00TTY34KG/ref=sr_ 1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1526268636&sr=8-1&keywords=drop+bluetooth+kitchen+scale&dpID =31UVszDTlQL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch> &qid=1526268636&sr=8-1&keywords=drop+bluetooth+kitchen+scale&dpID=31UVszDTlQ L&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch which I got on sale for $56.00 from its usual $80.00. As of this posting, it looks like the Drop Kitchen scale is $70.00. Both devices have iOS apps. The Perfect Bake Smart scale I ended up returning as I found it to feel on the cheap side in regards to materials (it felt very plasticky and flimsy) and the paring was kind of a hassle. I don’t recall exactly the process, but I do remember not being able to figure out the buttons (memory serves that there were four buttons) and ended up calling my sighted wife to help me out. The app it was more or less accessible with from what I was able to gather VoiceOver reading the different areas, but again, the app and its layout just felt a little too busy for me. To be clear, both these scales and their associated apps have the main focus on interactive recipes with a heavy visual element to them. You follow a recipe and you can see on the display how virtual bowls and what have you filling up and so on. This too added to the over all feel of the perfect bake smart scale giving more of the impression of being a kid’s toy than anything else. In the Perfect Bake Smart scale, there is an element where you can put VO focus on and as the weight fluctuates, VO will announce the changes, but it kind of gets lost with everything else on the screen. That and for me at least with this model, I started to get all sorts of crazy readings into the thousand of grams. I really didn’t play around with it much to see if I could figure out or correct the weird readings since I knew within a couple of days I wasn’t going to keep it so I just sent it back. As far as the Drop Kitchen scale, it’s actual feel seemed more in line with its higher price. It is small (maybe 7 inches in diameter) with a rubbery surface where you would put whatever bowl or plate or any other container on it. There is one simple button that slightly sticks out of the side of the device and is almost like a little apostrophe or comma in a visual sense that you press to pare with your phone or iPad. Paring with this scale was super easy. The iOS app (Drop Recipes) is fully accessible and the first time you launch it, you go through a couple of prompts including the paring part which was done in a snap. This scale like the Perfect Bake Smart scale is again, focused on recipes, but what this scale has that I didn’t not come across in the Perfect Bake Smart scale was a simple scale function. When you first set up the app and device, the default screen is the whole busy recipe section and the different steps and so on, but you can have the scale screen be your default which is super clean and simple. You’ve got a menu button that says hamburger button like a lot of other apps do, then there’s a heading that just says Scale, after that is where the weight would be announced and it the scale is not connected, VoiceOver will say not connected. If the scale is connected, then you’ll have “current weight”. After that element, there’s a toggle where you can switch from grams (it can measure to the tenth of the gram), to KG to ounces. Double tapping it will cycle you through G, KG or OZ and lastly there is a tarra button that simply says “zero”. All these fields are laid out vertically. I ended up keeping this scale mainly due to the clean layout of the scale feature. If VO focus is left on the current weight element, VO will speak the weight fluctuations instantly. There was an app update a few weeks ago that broke this real time announcement and it was frustrating as you had to flick focus away from the current weight field and back to it to get the updated reading, but the developers put out a new update a couple of weeks ago that fixed it. To be clear, my preference is to have a simple accessible talking scale, but as again, it appears I’m eternally cursed in this regard, I’ve found the Drop Kitchen scale to be a satisfying solution. I don’t know if I would have bought it at $80 since1) again, it’s main purpose (recipes) isn’t really VoiceOver accessible, but for an actual scale, it’s completely accessible and easy to use and at $56.00 it felt a little more reasonable. Since I was spending money on shipping vox scales back and forth every couple of months anyway. That and I had also written both companies about their VoiceOver accessibility. The Perfect Bake Smart scale folks gave the standard “we’ll take it into consideration” whereas the Drop Kitchen people wrote me back expressing their willingness to improve on the recipe aspect, but were skeptical on how it could be done since again, there’s a large visual element to it, but they also took the time to check on whether VO spoke the weight measurements in real time and also mentioned that one of the support staff’s sibling is blind and uses it. I’m fairly confident that the app will continue to be accessible and as has already been demonstrated, if something gets broken, it’ll get fixed. The Drop Kitchen scale site is: https://www.getdrop.com/ if anyone wants to check it out. It seems they also support other appliances, but I’m not in the market for an oven or anything so I have no idea about accessibility for any of those other items. 2) One complaint I’ve read about the Drop Kitchen scale is that the battery dies fast and as it’s a particularly unique battery which you have to write the company for, but I’m going on two months with this scale without any issues so we’ll see. Cristóbal -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: mk...@ucla.edu. 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