Warming a digital scale?

They'll both do best when their temp is stabilized, which usually is thought of as 'warmed up'. Your idea of turning it on to warm before using is spot on, but I don't think a whole hour is necessary. 20 or 30 minutes should be alright. I think a heating pad is unnecessary. Too hot could cause its own set of issues.
Be aware that battery life can be reduced if they encounter freezing temps, so changing batts more often might be in order because low battery can cause issues too.

BTW, your idea of fairly cold and mine might be diffewretn.

MFInc said:

This could be the question of the day. It's fairly cold in the garage where I reload and no real way to heat it. I'm watching my digital scales not want to co operate and am assuming the cold is affecting them as I've read temp does. I know they need to warm up as well.

One scale is Battery powered with auto power off
Other powered through USB port into wall, I can disable the auto off which I do and turn on an hour before i use it so it can "warm" up.

Has anybody putting a heating pad under one and did it help? I have some pocket warmers laying around as well as an electric heating pad. Or do you think it would throw it off more?

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This is direct from my RCBS manual: "The scale should be stored and used at normal room temperature. It should never be stored in cold or freezing temperatures, which can damage the load cell. If the scale has been sitting at a cool temperature, remove it from the carton and allow it to sit at room temperature for about 20 to 30 minutes before using."

Be advised that cold can effect the LCD display also.

I warm my garage up to between 60 and 70 degrees using a propane top of tank heater and a 30 lb bottle of propane. It is cheap and effective.

When my garage is warm enough, I will let my scale sit with power on for an hour or more.

I bring my Chargemaster Lite into the kitchen, turn it on, and let it warm for 30 minutes. My wife is good about sharing her kitchen with me when I’m charging cases. Then I carry the loading blocks back to the garage ... carefully.

Legionnaire said:

I bring my Chargemaster Lite into the kitchen, turn it on, and let it warm for 30 minutes. My wife is good about sharing her kitchen with me when I’m charging cases. Then I carry the loading blocks back to the garage ... carefully.

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Equally as effective as my method. You ever drop a loading block?

splattergun said:

BTW, your idea of fairly cold and mine might be diffewretn.

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I don't know about you, but my idea of fairly cold for scale purposes is below 60. Below 50 is to darned cold to sit around in front of the reloading bench.

HowieG said:

Equally as effective as my method. You ever drop a loading block?

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Not yet!

MFInc said:

It is currently about 48F in my garage atm, Supposed to drop to 23 tonight. It's been in between 30-40F typically when I am on the bench.

I like that heater idea. Need to make more room though or stuff will melt lol...

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Just have room in front of it. Sides aren't much of a problem. If you want to move the air around and warm the space up faster, just put an electric fan behind it.

I would avoid storing your scale out there. LCD means Liquid Crystal Display. As in liquid that freezes. Not to mention the aforementioned load cell......

I leave my Chargemaster and D-Terminator plugged in and on at all times for over five years. They work when I want them to, regardless of being in a ~50° garage.

That's why i use a beam scale exclusivly. To me it's not worth the trouble with a dig. scale.

FWIW, solid state circuitry is less affected by temperature than older analog circuitry. The coldest my shop gets is in the low 40s and even if the ambient temp is in the 90s, I'll plug inn my digital scale for several minutes before I calibrate, zero then use the scale. (but my experience with digital scales leaves me not trusting any 100% and I check mine against my RCBS 5-10 or my Ohaus/Lyman D5 at least when setting powder measure and a few times during a reloading session)