Scale confusion

[Tysonlad]

I’m just curious if I need to use a new scale. Every time before I weigh in I use two 20 lb dumbbells and two 15’s to test the accuracy. The 20’s will mostly weight in at 40.8 while the 15’s weigh in at 34.6. I’m confused as to weather or not when I weigh in at 170.8 if it’s accurate or not?

 

[Err2]

Most consumer scales are better than 99% accurate, which means your scale reading would be within 1.7 lbs of your actual weight. On the other hand, most dumbbells are only 95-98% accurate, so 40lb of dumbbells might be off by 2 lb.

 

[Trusylver]

Are your weights calibrated ? if not the it would be rare for them to actually weigh the stated weight and will not help in checking scales for accuracy. Unless you need your scales to be super accurate for some reason (Like weighing in for a sport with weight classes) most bathrooms scales have a reasonable level of accuracy.