It has a less than catchy name – “auto-tare auto-start timer mode” – but it’s super useful and reliable. Moving on, we’ll hold the power button once again to cycle to the next mode, which happens to be my favorite. That makes this an incredibly useful feature for those in a cafe or coffee cart that produce high volumes of drinks by significantly reducing the number of actions required. While we generally recommend starting the timer the moment water touches coffee you can account for that difference in timing after a few shots. Likewise, when you stop your shot it’ll automatically stop the timer. When the scale detects the slow increase in weight associated with the first drops of espresso, it will automatically start the timer. This is the auto-timer mode and it’s something you won’t find on most other scales. Handy, functional, but let’s be honest: a bit pedestrian.Ĭycling to the next setting by holding the power button, we see a new symbol appear. The timer on the left is started with a single tap of the power button and weight is displayed on the right. While design helps set Acaia apart, it’s the features that they’ve programmed into their scales that really seal the deal. An impressive feat for something that spends most of its time beneath what is essentially a boiling water faucet.Īll that aside it’s time to start digging into the software. Acaia stops short of saying “waterproof” but speaking from our experience, we’ve used these heavily for years and have yet to have one suffer from water damage. To put it in good light, we’ve “stress-tested” the numerous Lunars in our office over the years and even when dropped from counter-height they’ve only suffered superficial damage. The sleek aluminum shell is meant to last, too. Even better, Acaia includes a calibration weight with every Lunar so that you can keep it perfectly calibrated in perpetuity.

While they display weight down to the tenth of a gram, they’re built to be accurate down to the thousandth. It’s like the difference between using a phone that’s snappy and responsive versus one that lags through menus - the objective difference in time may be a second but the difference in feeling is massive.Īcaia also spends a lot of time ensuring their scales are extremely precise. When you’re making coffee multiple times a day, or hundreds, you want something that feels responsive and precise. This is a huge part of what makes Acaia’s product so popular among coffee hobbyists and professionals. But there’s a lot more beneath the sleek aluminum frame that puts the Lunar head and shoulders above the competition. At a glance, it’s easy to get an idea of why. The Acaia Lunar has long been our favorite espresso scale, and popular opinion suggests we’re not alone.

Slayer acaia lunar scale