Brewing espresso at home is an art and a science. Using a scale for home espresso is essential for consistency and precision, which leads to a better understanding of your own preferences! But of course, if you’re reading a blog about the Rhino Dosing Scale, surely you’re already acquainted with the need for a scale in your espresso workflow. If you’re on the fence about using a scale at all in your espresso, please read THIS BLOG by our Head of Coffee, Phil, to convince you why it’s one of the best investments you’ll make into your home espresso set-up!
Review: The Rhino Dosing Scales - Simplicity in a small package
The Rhino Dosing Scale is exactly what its name suggests, a coffee dosing scale. For the price, this is an accurate LITTLE scale, lacking any niceties of a built for purpose espresso scale.
An extremely compact form factor
The Rhino dosing scale is built and sold for one job, single dosing your beans for a perfect brew. Because of this, it is arguably too small for an all round espresso scale.
The small size is the most limiting factor, but it also brings a share of benefits. While the scale surface area is only 69mm square, the integrated cover/dosing tray can raise and widen this up to about 110mm x 76mm and raise the top lip a further 20mm from the table surface.
This compact nature will allow the scale to fit under any espresso machine and will allow only 1 cup to nestle under the spout. With the cover/dosing tray expanding the surface, a portafilter can be balanced and tared on the weighing surface, with some effort.
Accuracy and responsiveness
The accuracy of the Rhino dosing scale is excellent, with a readability of 0.1 - 0.2g and a 1kg capacity. Anymore really wouldn’t make sense given the unit's dimensions.
The reaction time to weight change leaves something to be desired. There’s somewhat of a delay in initial measurements reading on the display. This would be fine for dosing into the tray and measuring a tared cup away from the machine. This wouldn’t be great for manual brews with the cup on the scale under the portafilter as the delayed reading would hinder shot timing.
Key features for a simple workflow
This scale is bare-bones, what you see is what you get. No-frills! Whether or not this is positive, I’ll leave it up to you. Nothing automatic, just a load cell and a screen, which is perfect for the espresso minimalist.
No modes, no automatic taring and other ‘helpful’ features you might find yourself fighting, just an honest scale that does what it should, tell you how heavy your coffee is.
There is no thermal or water protection on this scale. Hot cups and splashes could have catastrophic repercussions. Using the integrated cover/dosing case could help mitigate thermal effects on the scale, but that will also limit the cups compatible.
I cannot attest to the longevity of this scale for espresso. It would likely work well as a backup, in case of emergency. I'm not sure if I’d rely on it as a daily driver. That being said, it is extremely versatile and would work in a pinch for its price.
Powered by two ever reliable AAA batteries, charge time is a non issue as long as you’ve got a couple batts lying around to hot swap and keep on brewing.
The case/cover does an adequate job covering the buttons and weighing plate, making sure it won’t turn on in your pocket, where it easily fits.
Read more about other essential equipment for your home coffee setup.
Final thoughts
The Rhino dosing scale is great for its purpose, not so much as an espresso all-rounder. In a pinch it’ll do everything you need, weigh your beans for a single dose and measure out your extraction. For $35, the accuracy and portability are massive highlights. If you don’t care for measuring flow rates, manually stopping extractions to weight and fitting larger mugs, this might be the scale for you. If not, this is likely best suited to remain a dosing scale, and you can always pull it from your pocket in a pinch if your other espresso scales batteries have died.
P&R’s score:
- Price/Value - 7/10
- Form Factor - 5/10
- Features - 4/10
- Overall - 5.3/10
