I’ve been using a digital scale to weigh myself every morning for years, decades really, as I think I bought my first one, well, it was decades ago.

A few months ago I decided that my current scale, which I’ve had for well over ten years, probably going on close to twenty, was getting a bit long in the tooth, and as it didn’t automatically send my weight to my computing devices, perhaps it was time to get a new one.

Which I did.

The Etekcity Smart Scale model ESF-551.

It sends my weight via Bluetooth to my iPhone where, well, I never got around to actually doing anything with it there, if truth be told. I still keep manually entering my weight into my Numbers spreadsheet every morning like I have for years. One of these days, I told myself, I’d look into automating the process, but it was simple enough for now.

The nifty thing about the new scale was that there was no on/off button to press with my toe. Simply step on the thing, and it would sense that I was there, it would say “Hi”, and then show me my weight. Step off, and a few seconds later the weight would disappear, after it was sent to my iPhone, where I didn’t do anything with it. I just kept on entering the weight manually into my spreadsheet.

One day the scale no loner said “Hi” but instead said “Lo”. I didn’t need an owner’s manual to figure out that the batteries which had come with the scale, had run low, and it was time to replace them. I opened the battery compartment on the bottom, saw there were three AAA batteries, so I replaced them with three spankin’ new Duracell batteries that I had on hand. I closed the battery compartment, set the scale upright and got back on it.

And nothing.

No “Hi”. No nothing!

It looked like the scale was broken after only a few months. I worked myself into high dudgeon, and mentally prepared the scathing review I would leave for Etekcity scale.

But just in case, I decide to troubleshoot, so I went in search of the manual. I couldn’t find the printed copy, so I tried to find the online copy. Etekcity does not make that simple. I spent more time than I should have had to trying to find the blasted thing, and cursed some more.

Eventually I found a copy, however, and turned to the troubleshooting tips.

The only thing that even vaguely applied to my situation was to check the batteries.

But I had put brand new batteries from Duracell into the thing. That couldn’t be the problem, could it?

To be absolutely certain, and to be perfectly fair to Etekcity, because as you know, I am nothing but fair, I mean that’s practically my middle name, I decided to try another three batteries from the same package.

To my surprise, the scale worked flawlessly after inserting the second set of batteries.

I threw the first set of batteries into the trash, mentally cursed Duracell, and added a battery tester to my shopping cart.