I remember when I first tried a Microplane grater/zester on a lemon. I remember when I first tried cooking scrambled eggs with a silicone heat resistant spatula. I remember the first time I used a remote oven thermometer on a roast chicken. There was no going back. You put up with crappy kitchen equipment and gadgets and you don't even realize how lousy they are until you try something better. Meet my latest kitchen favorite, a digital kitchen scale--the Tanita KD-404.
I had a little kitchen scale I bought for a couple of dollars. It didn't work all that well but I'd grown accustomed to it. I never gave it a second thought. So when I was offered the chance to try out a new digital scale I figured, why not? I was not prepared to love it as much as I do.
First of all it has a wide surface meaning nothing will topple over when you try to weigh it and it's no problem to clean. It has a very clear digital display and you can easily switch between grams and ounces. It is thin, so it can be stored anywhere. It also also has a capacity of over six pounds. No more fussing over metric recipes, no more tipping over scale basket and no more dividing batches of ingredients because my old scale maxed out at one pound. Tanita makes larger capacity scales but I'm fine with this model. The Tanita KD 404 scale costs just under $50.
UPDATE: This scale died after a while and I found it hard to read when I had larger volumes to measure.