The 2 Best Bathroom Scales of 2025

The two most important factors in a scale’s ability to give a useful measurement are accuracy (the scale reads reasonably close to your true weight) and precision (the scale gives the same reading if you take two or more readings in a row).

Our survey of more than 600 Wirecutter readers helped us discover the other features people want most in a scale (including, importantly, digital readouts — which led us to eliminate analog or mechanical scales from consideration). Beyond reliable measurements, we considered:

• Weight limit: We preferred scales with weight limits of at least 400 pounds, which is typical for digital bathroom scales meant for home use.
• Platform size: Generally speaking, larger scales are easier and more comfortable to stand on.
• Display: Backlit displays are easier to read. We preferred scales with display times of 5 seconds or more, which is enough time to check the readings before the display goes blank.

For each round of testing, we set up all the scales according to their manuals and calibrated them as instructed. Then over the course of a few weeks, we weighed ourselves on each scale several times in a row, using books, jackets, water bottles, and dumbbells to add and subtract different weights and see if the scales could pick up on the differences.

We learned that some scales offer a seemingly manufactured sense of precision and accuracy: They may calculate your weight based on the memory of your previous readings rather than actually weighing you each time.

For example, after weighing myself, then weighing myself while holding a 10-pound dumbbell, then weighing myself yet again without the dumbbell, I found that one of the scales said I weighed 10 pounds more than I did. Other scales would at first correctly show the additional weight difference when another tester was holding a sandal that weighs 0.4 pound, but they would then revert to her previous weight measurement without the sandal, suggesting that the scale doesn’t pick up on subtle weight fluctuations.

We gave each scale a maximum 0.2-pound margin of error. So, for example, if a scale weighed one tester at 120.0 pounds and they then got back on the scale with a 0.4-pound book, we considered the scale to be accurate if it said she weighed anything from 120.2 to 120.6 pounds.

It’s understandable to desire perfection from your bathroom scale, but according to the experts we spoke to and our own testing experience, 100% accuracy and precision is generally not feasible with a household bathroom scale due to a variety of factors — floor evenness, scale movement, and a person’s balance, to name a few.

To get accurate readings on any bathroom scale, you need to place it on a hard, flat surface, and you should calibrate it every time you move the scale (by quickly stepping on and off it). If the scale is placed on an uneven or carpeted floor (bathroom mats included), it might not be able to display fresh weights, as we found out in our testing — no scale was able to overcome uneven flooring.