Antony Worrall Thompson Kitchen Appliances
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Antony Worrall Thompson Autograph Digital Scales
by rufusdog I wanted some new scales for the kitchen as the old ones we had were so bad you would weigh something and then weigh it again and it would be a completely different weight. I wanted some digital scales and wanted some that would give me the results in either oz or grams whichever I needed. We had a look in Wilkinson and found these ... scales by Anthony Worral Thompson. They looked nice on the box so bought them. I can only say that I don't think he could ever have actually used them himself as they are really badly designed. The plate that you stand things on is clear so you can see through it to the bit where it has the numbers but if you put something on the plate that is a fair size, like may be a plate with food on then you can't see the numbers as they are covered up. This is quite annoying as I wanted them to weigh food for my diet so I am finding that a lot of the things I am weighing cover over the numbers. I have to get everything to fit into a small bowl to be able to see properly. There is another fault with the scales. You have three buttons on the front, one turns them on, one switches the mode over from oz to grams etc and the other one will reset to zero. This option is for if you want to put a bowl on and then you can reset to zero and it takes off the weight of the bowl so you will just be weighing the contents inside the bowl. Only trouble is that the numbers that show up disappear pretty quickly so you do not have enough time to keep adding ingredients to the bowl. This is a right pain especially if you are doing something like grating cheese and weighing it as you go, the numbers vanish where it switches itself off and then when you turn the scales back on again it just goes back to zero again. If you take the bowl off and reweigh it then you get the weight of the bowl added in and there is no way to take the weight off again. Hence you would need two bowls the same all the time so you can get a good reading or other wise you would need to empty the contents and start again. I havent used them for cooking for a recipe yet but can see this not working for this either if you are trying to add different ingredients to a bowl and weigh them as you go instead of having them all separate. I paid about £12 for these scales and must say I am disappointed with them so far. They are ok for just weighing out something easy like a couple of potatoes or something that you can pour in quick but if its something you need to keep adding too to get the weight right then you need to be so quick that its just about impossible to do. I certainly would not recommend them to anyone looking for scales. I am sure there are better options out there that work better and have a better design. Read the complete review |
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Antony Worrall Thompson Chrome Electronic Scale
by marymoose ---Why the review? --- Wanting to review another household appliance I decided that I'd review one which I use pretty much on a daily basis, and thought that kitchen scales would make marginally more interesting reading than a toaster review. ---The Scales--- Like my kettle (and toaster), these scales are NOT ... available to buy anywhere, and this review serves more as a historical document, and as a recipe for Gingerbread Moose...read on... My ex and I used to have some cheap plastic scales which didn't really work very well...and on one shopping trip to Morrisons we picked these up - I seem to recall that they cost £9.99, but I wouldn't put my life on it. I would also imagine that they were purchased sometime in 2007 or 2008. On researching in order to write this review, I have come across some very negative accounts of the Antony Worrall Thompson Autograph Digital Scales which retail at £13, and can be purchased currently. The negative comments seem to focus on the auto turn off feature, and not being able to see the display when things are being weighed. Of course I am NOT reviewing the Autograph model. It actually seems a bit strange as I THINK that my scales are probably the predecessor to this model, and therefore it would appear that they have replaced something which works very well (my model) with something which doesn't work so well. ---So, what do they do?--- Essentially they weigh things - for baking and stuff. Described as "Digital kitchen scales of a modern design", they weigh things up to 5kg. They weigh in metric and imperial, and this can be changed at the press of a button which says "Unit" underneath. This can be done while you're weighing things, so can easily switch from grams to oz, or lbs (there's three different settings). I find this quite useful as I haven't quite decided yet whether I'm a metric or imperial kind of girl...for baking purposes though I tend to use metric. So, to use you simply press the "On" button. It has an auto-zero feature, which basically means that when you put your mixing bowl, or saucepan, or whatever on the scales you can then press the "On" button again, and it returns the weight to zero, enabling you to then add ingredients. There is an auto shut-off feature, which is to save energy/conserve battery life. Critics of the other model have said that on that model it auto-shuts off far too quickly (20-30 seconds) and that it isn't consistent. I have never found the auto shut-off feature to be a problem...possibly as my kitchen is small and ingredients are usually ready to hand. For review writing purposes I have timed it three times, and it turns off after exactly 1 minute of inactivity. I feel that this is perfectly reasonable. If for instance I needed 500g of flour, and only had 259g in one bag, I would simply remember that when returning from the shop with a new bag of flour that I needed to add 241g when I returned to my scales. The scales run on two Lithium 3V batteries (I have just looked) - I haven't had to replace them yet, but since I'm perfectly happy with my scales, I'll be happy to buy more batteries when they do run out. ---Real life applications - putting the scales to moose - sorry, use...--- I use these scales all the time for weighing out ingredients, useful for quantities when making soup, I just put my soup pan on the scales (the pan weighs 1211g) reset and then roughly work out for instance what 1kg potatoes is. It can sometimes be slightly hard to see the scale display if a large pan is on them, but this is being a big picky as the small and sleek nature of the model is a selling point. Of course these scales are good for more general weights, but are absolutely perfect for smaller weights where more accurate measures or small amounts are needed. I'm currently going through a porridge phase and am religiously weighing out my oats every morning! I also use them for weighing parcels/large letters. I've got into the habit of doing a lot of baking lately - it's very therapeutic, kills some time, and makes my new colleagues love me - I can't help but feel that my homemade ginger cake (and promise of subsequent flapjacks, cakes and muffins - and possibly soup come the winter-time) helped towards me securing my dream job. My scales are a big aid to me in this. Since Monday's apple flapjacks (another success, although not quite as good as the banana ones) have nearly been eaten I thought I'd bake some gingerbread moose to take in to work on Wednesday. There were several reasons for this choice: 1) I had one egg to use up, so needed a recipe which included no more or no less than one egg. 2) I had a moose cookie cutter a friend had given me for my birthday and I had promised her that I would use it soon (she is suitably impressed having tagged the pictures on Facebook). 3) I had a recipe book that my mum had given me, and had told her that I would make something out of it. 4) I wanted to use my kitchen scales in order to review them - and I didn't think that simply weighing out my porridge in the mornings was enough. ---To make Mary's Gingerbread Moose with the Antony Worrall Thompson Chrome Electronic Scale--- 1) Turn on scales - meanwhile preheat oven to 190°C (Gas Mark 5, 375°F) 2) Put mixing bowl on scales - reset to zero 3) Put 350g plain flour into mixing bowl - then add 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda and 2 teaspoons of ground ginger 4) Reset scales to zero and add 100g margarine 5) Remove bowl from scales, and rub margarine into flour mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs 6) Turn on scales, put mixing bowl back on them, and reset to zero. 7) Add 175g dark brown sugar, and stir 8) You've finished with the scales now. Beat an egg and add to the mixture, and then add a tablespoon of golden syrup, and mix to form a smooth dough, kneading lightly with your hands towards the end 9) Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of about a quarter of an inch 10) Cut out gingerbread moose with moose cookie cutter. Now, the recipe says that it does 20 gingerbread men, but I think these would be fairly small ones. My mixture made 11 moose cookies and 4 random circular cookies 11) Put cookies on a lightly greased baking tray (mine took up two trays) - put currants/raisins/sultanas for the eyes (and buttons if doing gingerbread men) 12) Cook for 10-15 minutes until a slightly darker shade 13) Cool slightly, lift (carefully - I lost one moose leg) and place on wire rack to cool completely, but meanwhile eat the random circular cookies while still warm - Yum! ---Final Remarks--- I think that these are an excellent set of scales (I'd usually call them a pair of scales, but that's not appropriate in this age of digital scales!) Being accurate to a gram, there's none of that old guessing game in weights of less than 25g which was played with cheap plastic scales...and none of that fun game with PROPER old-school scales. But while that was fun once in a while (I remember maths lessons at primary school), in practical terms these are much better. They wipe clean easily (the best thing about reviewing household appliances is that they make me clean them), and there's no washing up as with other scales, as you put the ingredients directly into your mixing bowl or pan or whatever! They also take up very little space (and weigh very little, although I can't put them on my scales to weigh them!) , and look nice too. I think that the Antony Worrall Thompson Chrome Electronic Scale is perfect. Unfortunately it can't be purchased, and you're unlikely to find it/them (I'm getting confused with singulars and plurals here!) second hand since anyone who has the scales probably won't be parting with them. I can't endorse any other Antony Worrall Thompson products or scales especially since reading reviews of them from people whose opinions I respect. But this is a fantastic product...and hey, even if you can't buy it, at least you can try making some Gingerbread Moose with my recipe! Also on Ciao with pics! Read the complete review |
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Antony Worrall Thompson Autograph Digital Scales
by i_am_joy I bought these Antony Worrall Thompson digital scales some time ago after they were recommended to me by a friend, I can only assume she doesn't like me as much as I like her due to the fact that the scales definitely have more 'cons' than 'pros'! If I remember correctly I paid around £18 for them in Woolworths, nowadays I ... would imagine they would cost significantly less due to the influx of digital scales on the market. These scales will measure in both metric and imperial units, it's very easy to switch between the two by pressing the easily accessed 'Mode' button on the front of the scales. The other two buttons you will see on the front of the scales are a responsive On/Off button and a zeroing button for use when you want to weigh two or more items in the same bowl, for cooking and the like. The buttons have a slightly rubbery feel and are well encased within the body of the scales, I mention this as a previous set of digital scales I owned had a fairly wide gap between the button and the base unit which was obviously full of crumbs and flour within a couple of uses - and an absolute nightmare to clean! Aesthetically these scales are a delight; the silvered body looks clean and modern and they look as fresh as the day I bought them. There has been no scuffing to the body of the scales and the tempered glass weighing plate is remarkably scratch resistant, considering I am a heavy user of any scales I own I must admit these have kept their looks extremely well. There is, however, a fatal flaw - one which has led me to purchase another set of scales to replace these. This is the fact that the display is located underneath the weighing plate; of course this isn't a problem if I'm simply weighing, say, a small piece of cheese or an apple as I can simply lay that on the glass itself and read the display through the glass. The problem occurs when I am using a bowl to measure ingredients for baking, or perhaps cooked noodles and other such foodstuffs. In this instance the bowl will either partially or completely cover the display, meaning I have to stoop and contort my body just to read the numbers beneath. This is not ideal, in fact it's not even acceptable considering the rather high price of the scales and the 'celebrity endorsement'. If this weren't bad enough, I have another irritating issue with the scales. Gosh, they are turning into as big an irritant as the gurning man himself! This is the fact that the automatic shut off is far too quick. When I first bought them I thought this was a very good feature, the idea being that the scales will switch themselves off after use to preserve the batteries. The problem is the fact that these switch off almost immediately after you have added your items to be weighed onto the plate, making the 'Zero' function somewhat redundant as there simply is not the time to press the button and add another item. I'm certainly not an ill-prepared cook; I ensure all my ingredients are to hand before beginning a recipe and don't dally in the kitchen, yet after measuring my 400g of flour I am hard pushed to put my hand on the caster sugar and add that to the bowl before the scales decide I've had time enough and switch themselves off. Many a time this has caused me to either need to swap bowls or simply throw away perfectly good ingredients as I have not been able to keep track of the weights used. As far as accuracy is concerned, these scales are fine. They're more than fine actually, they're perfect. As well as measuring ingredients for cooking I also use them to weigh the occasional parcel so I can accurately calculate postage costs for Ebay. Using these scales I have never been caught out and had to 'top up' the postage upon taking the parcels to the post office, the weight results being spot on when weighed both here and at the point of posting. The scales work through two Lithium Cell batteries, fortunately I have not had to change these since owning the scales as I believe this type of battery is rather more expensive than your standard AA battery. This probably means the automatic shut off function is doing its job as until now I hadn't realised the scales were working off the same batteries as was provided when they were new. It's still extremely irritating though. I don't recommend them, I simply can't. Yes, they may be very accurate but so are the majority of digital scales available these days so this isn't particularly a plus point relating to this specific model. The strange situation of the display panel coupled with the fact that I cannot trust the scales to stay on when I need them to means they merit no more than one solitary Dooyoo star - as even the plus points pale into insignificance when compared with the two very irritating problems. Read the complete review |
Antony Worrall Thompson Kitchen Appliance |
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1 review Brand: Anthony Worrall Thompson / Kitchen Appliance / Electronic Scales |
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6 reviews Kitchen Appliance / Kitchen Scales - Easy read digital display. Metric and imperial scale. Auto zero. Auto shut off. 5kg max weight. |
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| Antony Worrall Thompson Kitchen Appliance Recommendations 1 | ||
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