Review on American Weigh Industrial Precision Digital Scale: Accurate Measurements for Professional Use by Jerry Crist

TRAVEL HOME: I emailed American Weigh Scales in Georgia. Apparently they changed that scale since I bought my copy and the switch in the battery compartment disables HOLD. Function if you want to see continuous reading. A very helpful account manager named Kevin agreed to replace my old scale with the new version. Now I have useful scales. Thank you Kevin! The latest product guide is here (v3.0): www[dot]awscales[dot]com/hanging-scales/159-sr-20-digital-hanging-scale PART 3: I can't believe I have to do this AGAIN ! I have to revise my rating. Sarapapa's suggestion worked for a while, my scales seemed brand new. I flipped the switch in the battery compartment and the hold function was disabled. But recently, when the batteries died and I replaced them with new ones, the hold function returned. It was then that I remembered the true purpose of the little black switch in the battery compartment - CALIBRATION. The switch is "up", the power is "on" and the scale enters calibration mode. See your manual or this page: www[dot]americanweigh[dot]com/images/PDF/SR-Series_manual[dot]pdf Turn off the scale and the scale goes into weighing mode with a useless HOLD function! I've been playing around endlessly, now the HOLD function hasn't gone anywhere! In addition, the instructions indicate that this model, SR-5, is calibrated with a weight of 1 kg (not included). But when I press the "up" switch and go into calibration mode, my scale asks for a calibration weight of 5kg! Strange as 5kg is the maximum weight capacity of the scale. Excessive stress on these sensors can lead to breakage, so I was in no hurry to hang 5kg of chickpeas on my scale, but after endless fuss I saw no other way out. I finally calibrated the scale and it seems to be working fine, but the whole thing is very strange. And the useless HOLD function is back. Maybe Harry Potter moved into the house next door. I'm confused. I shouldn't have deleted the original review. (PART 1) As long as this scale has the HOLD function at all times, it is NOT PERMITTED. Chances are, unless you pay endless attention to it and resort to double and triple checking every time, you'll get different results every time you weigh the same item. If the object requires a bit of fiddling to hang from the hook, you will most likely find that the HOLD function locks onto the load before you have hung the entire load. I learned how to carefully pick up some weights and then zero the scale, REMOVE the weight and watch the NEGATIVE weight displayed and somehow average it out to get an approximate number. MUCH LUCK! PART 2: I'm revising my review based on Sarah Pap's wise comment, see below. Now I really like this scale! There is a way to disable the HOLD feature! Excellent! Thank you Sarah Pop! I have removed all my previous comments so future Amazon buyers can't go wrong. For the record: I couldn't figure out how to disable the HOLD feature. I contacted the manufacturer and they didn't know either. Oddly enough, the manufacturer apparently didn't know about the secret button. This is a great product. He was born again! Highly recommended!