Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

History: My Tanita died with an error code after working fine for 12 years. I always do my homework for anything. I wanted one with both feet and hand grips because I felt it could theoretically be more accurate. The reason I bought the Omron HBF-516B for $52.99 rather than the Tanita BC-558 at $349.99 is because the Tanita costs almost 7 times as much, and gyms are pretty happy with the Omron hand-held analyzer. The Tanita does more, but some of the additional features I would not want to have, for instance having separate body fat percentages for each limb, and some I would like to have, such as hydration, but it wasn't worth the price difference to me. After studying how BIA (Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis) works, and reading the reviews AND User's Manuals on almost 20 scales, I became convinced there is no way to beat the value of this scale at $52.99. You pay almost that for a good bathroom scale without BIA. My Experience: - If you can read, you can set up this scale. There is nothing complex about it. - Omron has the only user's manual of any of the scales that goes into depth on what the numbers mean. - The controls on the handle are very intuitive. You'll read the User's Manual only once. - For me, the weight and body composition is accurate compared to skin fold tests. If you read the section below I wrote, "Gold Standards of Body Composition Measurements", you know that any BIA scale is based on an approximation of an approximation. This model does use actual science for its calculations. It has both the feet and hand electrodes. - It does not have an Athlete Mode. Their hand-held only model does, so they know how to do it. My only thought is they left it out because they didn't think they needed it with the feet and hand electrodes. There are a few reviewers that disagree with this decision. - It does not have a body hydration measurement as is typical of the Tanitas. That might be useful to explain day-to-day weight variations but for me, I find the only time when my body is in a consistent state is after I get up in the morning, after I do my duty, and before I run and pump iron. I would guess my hydration would be pretty consistent in the morning as well since my weight is. - It works for big feet. Mine are size 10, and there is plenty more room on the scale. - It keeps history for 180 days, but you can only access one day ago, one week ago, 30 days ago, 60 days ago, 90 days ago, and 180 days ago. I read in another review, if you change the date, you do lose the data. - I like it that you can simply stab with your toe the large on button on the back edge of the scale to use it like a regular scale. Often not everyone in the household will be concerned with their body composition. - Many of the pictures show the cord hanging out with the handle on the top of the scale. The fact is it partially retracts into the base of the scale and the remainder automatically coils into place under the handle when you put the handle away. The handle firmly clips into the scale when in the storage position. - It comes with the batteries. You need nothing other than what comes with it. - If you remove the batteries you do not lose the history. - The display is not lighted, so the area you use it will need to have adequate lighting. - It requires a hard surface for accurate operation. - There are no data output capabilities for moving information to a computer. - I live in Michigan, and it took only 1 day UPS to get the scale even with super saver shipping. It came from Illinois. ********** My In Depth Research and Tests for those who want to know ********** The Theory: Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) is what body composition scales claim to use. Those three words, Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis can be used to define a multitude of methods ranging from complete hoax to actual science. I see some explaining how it works in terms of resistance. Resistance and impedance are not the same thing. Resistance measures opposition to current flow using a steady DC voltage source and is measured in ohms. Impedance measures opposition to an alternating wave of electrical energy where it is affected by many factors such as capacitance, amplitude, phase shift, reflectivity, etc., and the frequency can be varied to measure different distances from the electrodes. For a method to claim any usable BIA science, it cannot be based on resistance. One could stretch the definition of impedance to resistance for legal defense purposes by calling it impedance with zero phase angle, but that would not be the industry-wide meaning of the word impedance. BIA has the potential to be based on science that makes sense. Gold Standards of Body Composition Measurements: There is no expectation that BIA be any kind of "gold standard" test. In fact, during my research, I found there is no such thing as a single "gold standard" test. What is termed as a "good approximation" by is the results of the 4 compartment test. It uses multiple "gold standard" tests, none of which a gym would have due to cost, training, licensing, and insurance, and where it is unlikely that any single hospital would have what you would need to perform it. The best case scenario would be if they use data from the 4 compartment model tests to define how to calculate the values from BIA scale inputs. Thus, BIA is necessarily is an approximation based on an approximation. If you are looking for a device that gets it right across the spectrum of body types, I can say with certainty it doesn't exist at any price. If you want to understand this area in depth, and see the results of real statistical testing, Google: The Pitfalls of Body Fat "Measurement". After understanding these limitations, my expectation for a BIA scale is simply one that it uses valid science as a basis for its calculations, and that it was usable for my purposes. Other Reviews: Based on other reviews, it seems some scales use simply resistance just to see if you are actually barefoot, and then use your weight, sex, age, and tables to show you what the average is for someone meeting those parameters. One reviewer states the Athlete mode simply adjusted the fat percent measurement down by 5%. Other scales send a sine wave through your body of varying frequencies to measure the attenuation at different distances from the measuring electrodes. My Tests: Between the time I ordered it and received it, I had become quite skeptical of the value of my purchase. It was with almost diabolical glee I went about to prove it was mostly just a bunch of tables based on your inputs, such as weight, height, sex, and age, I began weighing myself and changing my age in 5 year increments between 20 and 60 years old. The glee quickly faded when discovered that the readings really didn't change hardly at all except for my biological age calculation. Moreover, the percent body fat pretty much agreed with my skin fold tests. Other reviews mentioned that when they use the handles, it adds 1.2 lbs. Being helpful, I commented to make sure the handle is on the scale when it goes through calibration after you turn it on. Also, make sure it's not on carpet because if the carpet touches the bottom, it removes some of the load from the load sensors that are using the feet of the scale to determine weight. After the scale arrived, I leveled my treadmill and placed the scale on it. (I did this so I could rig a method to vary my weight for tests.) I saw the same error, but also noted the handle doesn't weigh 1.2 lbs. At first I thought perhaps it had to do with my weight being shifted with my arms out, but it made no difference if my arms were down. It was not possible that anything could be touching the bottom of the scale because, like any other treadmill, it uses nothing but a thin rubber belt over the base. I exhausted a lot of theories. One that didn't make sense to even try, but actually fixed the error, was to move the scale to a painted concrete floor. I cringe to even include this because have no logical explanation of how it is possible for that change to make the difference, but I decided I'd better for the benefit of others to see if they see the same behavior.