Designed for espresso machines but versatile enough to use with pour-overs, the Felicita Arc is the most luxurious coffee scale I’ve ever used. Yes, the price reflects that luxury, but as soon as you lay eyes upon the beautiful device, you’ll understand why. This could be one of the best coffee scales I’ve ever tested.
The Felicita Arc is constructed from aluminum and is IPX5 rated, meaning it’s waterproof enough to withstand a low pressure stream of water. On top of that, the scale is weighty without being laborious, with carefully sealed and polished edges.
If you can wrap your head around the initially-confusing functions menu, this is a thoughtfully-designed, all-bases-covered coffee scale. Whether I'm using the Arc with one of the best coffee makers or the best espresso machines, it's versatile enough to give me precise readings.
I’d trust this coffee scale more than any others I’ve tested, given its reliable controls and automatic functions. But is it worth the eye-watering $110/£169 price tag? Find out in this Felicita Arc Coffee Scale review.
Felicita Arc Coffee Scale review: Cheat sheet
- Who is it for? Professional baristas or serious coffee lovers
- What does it cost? $110 at Amazon
- What does it do well? The automatic functions are fantastic, and it’s supremely reliable
- What do we wish it did better? I can’t lie, $110 is steep for a digital scale
Felicita Arc Coffee Scale review: Specs
Felicita Arc Coffee Scale review: Price & availability
The Felicita Arc Coffee Scale is available for $110 at Amazon U.S. and £169 at Amazon U.K, This is one of the priciest coffee scales I’ve ever used. The premium Timemore Black Mirror 2 is $59 and has a timer, accuracy up to 0.1g, and a waterproof dial surface. At the other end of the scale, the KitchenTour Coffee Scale is $29 and performs just as well — but it’s not waterproof.
Felicita Arc Coffee Scale review: Design & functions
The Felicita Arc is a premium scale, and boy, does it look it. The IPX5 aluminum body is water-resistant up to a low pressure stream of water, which means it should hold up in your daily coffee routine better than something with zero water protection, like the Maestri House Coffee Scale ($39) or the Hario V60 Drip Scale ($56).
As the Felicita Arc is just 5 inches long and half an inch thick, it's compact and easy to stow away between uses. While you might think the size makes it incompatible with bigger brewers like the Chemex, you can use it easily with box big brewers and espresso machines due to its stable pad.
The Felicita Arc has a huge range of functions. Accessing these functions relies on a range of confusing button-mashing, so don’t discard your instruction manual — you’ll need it. Once you wrap your head around the function menu, the range of settings makes this scale one of the most versatile and impressive ones I’ve ever seen.
The scale has standard taring and timing, but it also has auto-timing, auto-taring, and you can measure the total time of a shot including pre-infusion time. I found the auto-timing and auto-taring function to work a treat when pulling espresso and helped me perfect my extraction.
The Felicita Arc scale is compatible with the Felicita app. This app isn’t mandatory to work the scale, however it’s a nice feature considering the price of the scale. You can switch between ounces and grams in the app — you don’t seem to be able to do this via the scale itself. You can also toggle sound and voice announcements on the app and even view live weighing information from the scale.
I was blown away by the specs of the Felicita Arc Coffee Scale. The waterproofing is superior to that of any other coffee scale I’ve reviewed. The Subminimal Subscale ($49) is IPX4 rated, but has no timer, so isn’t recommended for serious espresso extraction. The Timemore Black Mirror Basic 2 is listed as ‘waterproof’ but has no IP rating, so there’s no concrete figures on its ability to withstand spills. I wouldn’t rinse the Felicita Arc under the sink, but it should be fine if water is splashed on it during the brewing process, and wiping down with a damp cloth will cause no issues.
Felicita Arc Coffee Scale review: Performance
As soon as I opened the Felicita Arc, I calibrated the scale using the included 100g (3.5 ounces) weight. I’m not sure if this is an error with the weight or the scale itself, but when I compared the same object’s weight on the Felicita Arc versus the KitchenTour scale, Hario V60 scale, and Timemore Black Mirror scale, the Felicita Arc was off by about 0.5g every time. Even so, it was consistent with itself.
As this scale is designed for espresso, I needed to test it with my KitchenAid Semi-Automatic Espresso Machine. I placed the Felicita Arc on the drip tray and placed my mug on top. As I’d activated the ‘triangle’ function (auto-tare and auto-time mode), it auto-tared when the mug was placed on top. As soon as the first drip of espresso touched the cup, the timer started, and as soon as the espresso finished, the timer beeped and stopped. I love that it beeps, as this was the only thing missing from my favorite affordable scale, the Maestri House scale ($39).
The Felicita Arc measures to 0.1g, making it a great device for precise, hands-free espresso brewing, and is reliable enough that you won’t need to triple-check that its automatic functions work.
Even though the Felicita Arc is made for espresso use, I wanted to test out its versatility, too. I switched it to ounces from grams using the Felicita app and weighed out 1 ounce of medium-coarse coffee in my Chemex. Using the timer, I bloomed the coffee for 32 seconds and then poured in 10 ounces of water. I let this brew for 1 minute, then added the second 10 more ounces of water for my third brew. This brewed four small cups of coffee and all my colleagues reported that their drinks were even more delicious than usual.
Felicita Arc Coffee Scale review: Storage & maintenance
As this is an IPX5 scale, cleaning is relatively easy. You can safely wipe up coffee spills without worrying about damaging the scale. At just 5 inches by 4 inches, this is a compact device you can easily slot inside your kitchen cupboard. And even if you decide to keep it out, it’s an attractive product that would look good on your kitchen counter.
The battery life lasts 20 hours, which might not sound a lot initially, but if you’re using this scale for a few minutes every day, this would easily last you over a year. When it does run out, you can charge it with the included USB-C cable.
If you need to recalibrate the scale, you can use the included 100g weight to do so. It’s very easy to do and takes mere seconds.
Felicita Arc Coffee Scale review: How does it compare?
In terms of weight comparison, the Felicita Arc was off by about 0.5g when directly compared to other scales. This could have been a result of an inaccurate calibration weight, but the Arc was always consistent with its own measurements: something that weighed 10g the first time, weighed 10g every time.
In terms of waterproofing, this is the best specification I’ve seen on a coffee scale. Only the Subminimal Subscale ($49) comes close with IPX4, but I doubt the efficacy of this scale due to its lack of timer. The other premium scale I liked was the Timemore Black Mirror Basic 2 ($59), which had a waterproof (although not IP-rated) surface and a live flow rate monitor. While the Arc has a much wider range of functions, it’s also $50 pricier than the Timemore.
If you want to save as much money as you can, I’d recommend the KitchenTour coffee scale ($29). It may not be waterproof or as aesthetically pleasing as the Arc, but it weighs and times just as well.
Felicita Arc Coffee Scale review: Verdict
This is a luxury scale with a luxury price to boot. If you want a really thorough, versatile scale, you want to dedicate time to mastering, this is the scale for you. But if you want something that literally just weighs coffee and times brewing, this might be overkill. The range of functions sometimes got in the way during testing: I would accidentally press it to go on auto mode but I wanted to manually start my timer, for example.
If you want a basic and/or cheap scale, this is not the one for you. You’d be better off with the $29 KitchenTour coffee scale, or if you want something basic but pretty, I’d recommend the $39 Maestri House scale. However, if you want to go all out with an investment to raise your coffee routine to the next level, the Felicita Arc is a great luxury option.
