MAXUS Digital Pocket Scale, 500g x 0.01g: Weight, Price and Alternatives
The MAXUS Digital Pocket Scale, 500g x 0.01g is carried by Backcountry and listed on Amazon by size and configuration, so check the exact specification for the version you order.
The MAXUS Digital Pocket Scale, 500g x 0.01g is one of the verified picks in camp and accessories, with a published weight of Stays home and a listed price of $8.99. The cheapest possible upgrade to your gear list, because manufacturer weights are optimistic often enough to matter. Weigh everything once and your spreadsheet stops lying to you.
What is the MAXUS Digital Pocket Scale, 500g x 0.01g actually good at?
The cheapest possible upgrade to your gear list, because manufacturer weights are optimistic often enough to matter. Weigh everything once and your spreadsheet stops lying to you.
Small items are where gear lists quietly gain pounds. Nothing here changes a base weight on its own, and together they routinely account for three to four pounds of a traditional kit.
Why is there no single published weight?
A blank specification on this page is deliberate rather than a gap. There are two reasons an item on this site carries no single weight, and both of them are cases where quoting one number would be inventing precision that does not exist.
The first is made to order cottage gear. Quilts and several packs from small manufacturers are built individually, and the finished weight depends on the temperature rating, the fill power, the length, the width, the shell fabric and the options you choose. A 20 degree quilt in 950 fill down at a regular length weighs meaningfully less than the same quilt in 850 fill at a long length, and both are the same product name. The maker publishes a weight against a specific configuration on the order page, and that is the number to use once you have chosen yours.
The second is footwear and apparel sold by size. A published pair weight is measured at one reference size, usually a men's nine or a women's seven, and yours is probably not that. Shoes gain and lose roughly half an ounce per half size, which is enough to make a cross-brand comparison at the ounce level meaningless. It is also why most trail shoes have no single retail listing to link to: the listing is per size and per colour.
In both cases the honest thing is to check the specification for the exact configuration you are ordering, then weigh it yourself when it arrives and put the real number into the gear list builder. That is worth doing for everything on a gear list, not just for this item, because published figures run optimistic often enough that a thirty item list can drift by a pound.
How does it compare with the rest of the camp and accessories?
Every item below has been verified against the retailer listing, and every weight is the manufacturer's published figure for the configuration named. Sorted lightest first, so the trade between weight and everything else is visible in one pass.
| Model | Published weight | Listed price | Tier | Where to buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MAXUS Digital Pocket Scale, 500g x 0.01g | Stays home | $8.99 | Verified | Backcountry, Amazon |
| Sea to Summit Ultra-Sil Dry Bag, 13L | 1.4 oz | $32.95 | Verified | Backcountry, Amazon |
| Sea to Summit Aeros Ultralight Pillow, Regular | 2.1 oz | $34.96 | Verified | Backcountry, Amazon |
| MSR Mini Groundhog Tent Stakes, 6 Pack | 2.4 oz for six | $33.90 | Verified | Backcountry, Amazon |
| Kahtoola MICROspikes Traction System | 13 oz per pair | $89.95 | Verified | Backcountry, Amazon |
Where gear lists quietly gain pounds
Nothing in the accessory category changes a base weight on its own, and together these items routinely account for three to four pounds of a traditional kit. That is the trap: no single line looks worth auditing, so none of them get audited. The productive approach is to weigh the whole miscellaneous pile at once, then ask of each item when you last used it on trail rather than what it weighs. Items that have never come out of the pack across three trips are the cheapest weight on any gear list, because removing them costs nothing at all.
Who should skip it?
Anyone whose conditions sit well outside what this item is built for. Nothing here is a universal answer, and the honest failure mode of a gear list is not weight, it is a piece of kit that was chosen for a different trip than the one you are taking.
Going lighter must not mean going unprepared. Shelter adequate to the actual conditions, insulation, rain protection, water treatment and a way to call for help are fixed costs on any list. If a lighter version of this item means cutting into one of those, it is the wrong purchase however good the spec sheet looks. You are responsible for what you walk into, and the forecast is not the conditions.
Related reading
- Our full camp and accessories roundup, split into beginner, intermediate and expert tiers
- How to run a gear shakedown
- Ultralight packing checklist
- Gear list builder: see what this item does to your own base weight
- Base weight calculator
- Six complete example gear lists, every item priced and linked
- All verified gear specs, A to Z
Frequently asked questions
How much does the MAXUS Digital Pocket Scale, 500g x 0.01g weigh?
The manufacturer does not publish a single weight for this item in a form we can quote reliably, usually because it varies with the size or configuration you order. Check the specification on the retailer page for the exact version you are buying, and weigh it yourself once it arrives before you put a number into a gear list.
Is the MAXUS Digital Pocket Scale, 500g x 0.01g worth the money?
The cheapest possible upgrade to your gear list, because manufacturer weights are optimistic often enough to matter. Weigh everything once and your spreadsheet stops lying to you. At the listed $8.99 it sits toward the affordable end of its category, and prices move constantly, so confirm before you buy.
Where can you buy the MAXUS Digital Pocket Scale, 500g x 0.01g?
Backcountry carries this category and is the first link on this page, because it is where this audience shops and it pays us a higher commission than Amazon does. Amazon is the second button. Stock and pricing differ between the two often enough that checking both is worth the extra thirty seconds.
What does the MAXUS Digital Pocket Scale, 500g x 0.01g compete against?
On the same shelf: MSR Mini Groundhog Tent Stakes, 6 Pack, Sea to Summit Aeros Ultralight Pillow, Regular, Sea to Summit Ultra-Sil Dry Bag, 13L, Kahtoola MICROspikes Traction System. The comparison table on this page lines them up by published weight and price so the trade is visible rather than argued. Our full ranking of the category, split into beginner, intermediate and expert tiers, is in the roundup linked below.
Are the weights on this page measured or published?
Published. We compare manufacturer specifications and verified owner reviews, and we do not test gear in person or run a gear lab. Manufacturer weights are usually taken from the lightest size, without stuff sacks, stakes or guylines, so a real-world figure is often an ounce or two heavier. Weigh your own kit and put the real numbers into the gear list builder.
How we choose: we compare published manufacturer specifications, listed weights, and verified owner reviews across retailers. We do not test gear in person, and every weight quoted here is the manufacturer's figure unless we say otherwise, so weigh your own kit before you trust a total. Going lighter also means carrying less margin, so treat insulation, navigation, water treatment and an emergency plan as fixed costs rather than places to save grams.