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Ohaus^® Emerald 500 ^®

Capacity: 500g

Readability: 0.1g

Accuracy (as tested): ±0.1g

Modes: Grams, Ounces, Pennyweight, Troy Ounces

Tare: Yes

Calibration: Digital Auto Calibration using a 500 gram weight (not included)

Warranty: 1 year (no fees)

Included Accessories: Batteries, Cover

Size: 5.35" x 3.25"

Price (avg) $99

The Ohaus Emerald is a remake of the old HH and HS scales. is the "Standard" Ohaus pocket scale. The HS/HH was originally made for Ohaus in China by Bonso. This year Ohaus tells us they have left Bonso in order to improve quality and moved production to a new Ohaus/Mettler factory in China. Ohaus also recently updated the looks of their pocket scales with a new paint job and new fake stainless steel buttons. The new Emerald also has a higher capacity, an improved backlight, and higher quality components. Additional improvements are a translucent scale cover and a built in thermistor.

We took apart our Emerald and found it to be very well built. We miss the tactile keyboard of the old HH/HS, they were rubber and had a good feel to them. The new fake metal buttons look "cooler" but they don't have the tactile feel. The new Emerald is powered by an FSCII chip, used in many major name brand scales. However scales are much more then just a microprocessor. The Emerald uses very high quality sensors and passed our drop-test with flying colors!

Accuracy was good, the scale was accurate plus or minus 0.1g throughout our testing spectrum. The Emerald somehow arrived perfectly calibrated, it did not require recalibration for our tests. Even at 500g, the Emerald showed a perfect 500.0g. The thermistor helped the Emerald keep it's perfect accuracy even with temperature fluctuations. The Emerald also offers good RF interference protection.

Mode	Capacity / Accuracy
Grams	500g x 0.1g
Ounces	17.63oz x 0.01oz
Troy Ounces	16.07ozt x 0.01ozt
Pennyweight	321.5dwt x 0.1dwt

Overall: Great Redo!
This Scale is a great redo of the old HH/HS. The updated components help this scale perform with perfect accuracy. The blue backlit display is the highest quality we've seen on a pocket scale and the new silver paint job looks a lot nicer then the old flat gray.

Recommendations: When people buy an Ohaus scale they're usually brand specific. This is a great scale, and it's one that you should definitely consider purchasing if you're in the market, but be prepared to dig into your wallet - Ohaus is not a "value" brand :)

WARNING: ITIN Scale Co has imported a copy of the Ohaus Emerald! It's called the "Minx Enterprise". The Itin knockoff is NOT MADE BY OHAUS, it's just a low quality knockoff of the Ohaus and should be avoided!

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Important Disclaimer: Scales are sometimes difficult to compare. Our results are just a sample of tests done at random conditions. The actual operating conditions of your scale may vary from our test conditions and your results may differ from our results. We did our best to test the scales in a blind and unbiased manner. We receive advertising consideration from companies that support this site. We do our best to not allow this to affect the results of our tests and evaluations. However, we strongly recommend that you do your own comparison tests in your actual operating environment to determine which scale is best for your needs. The terms Ohaus, Emerald, Tanita and all are trademarks or trade names of their respective parties. Names are used for comparison purposes only and for the purposes of this article. No other rights are expressed or implied. This article and all images therein are © 2003/4 Scale Magazine.com.