Carpet Feet Accuracy

As far as I know, regardless you are using carpet feet or not, there will be no difference inaccuracy. The purpose of the carpet feet is to elevate the scale to avoid touching the button under. I have concluded that because I have a Body Cardio scale and it doesn't have a button under, so it is elevated in default, but still providing me an accurate value.

The larger surface area of the carpet feet helps to distribute the loading onto the carpet more evenly (as well as raising the device base clear of the pile as Raven has mentioned). It's essential that all of the load when you're weighing yourself goes evenly through the devices the feet attach to - essentially they're strain gauges and the scales just electronically convert their readings into a weight value.

It's a bit like how wearing snow shoes gives you better stability than regular shoes in snowy conditions because the load is spread evenly over a greater area. If you're using the scales on carpet you should attach the carpet feet. If you subsequently move it to s hard floor, you can leave the carpet feet attached and that won't affect accuracy at all.

If I move from carpet to hard floor, my weight goes UP a lot!

Also I have to weigh myself about 6 times, 10secs apart before it gives me the same reading 3 times. Then I take that as my weight.

Support told to reset my scale by weighing and then waiting 10 seconds to weigh again. However, I have had to do this daily and several times. 

Have just ordered a different scale!

What did Withings have say about solving these problems. You shouldn't get any change in weight going from a carpeted floor to hard floor unless the carpet pile was so long that the add on carpet feet weren't taking all the weight.
When support asked you to 'reset the scales by weighing' I don't understand what you mean - do you mean a factory reset on the scales where it wiped data from them and puts the software state of them back as if they'd never been used? That would involve pressing in and holding down the button on the base of the scales and following the procedure outlined on Withings Support website. The Cardio Body Scales (top of the range) don't even need carpet feet

No deep pile at all.

No factory reset.

The woman on the phone told me to weigh myself, then eigh myself again after 10 seconds to 'reset' the scale. Well i have to do this at 6 times each weigh in, maybe more. Certainly I gnore the first weigh as it is always about a kg heavier or m ore. After the 10 second waits, I eventually get the same weight 3 times in a row and take that as my weight, deleting all the others from the timeline.

The first weight being always a kg or more than the rest does concern me (and I can see why it concerns you too - the fact that it differs by that amount, not the actual value). Other than the odd getting off before the scales have had time to read all the data and having to redo it,  I've never tried multiple weigh-ins close together like this but now you've mentioned this, may do so just for testing purposes.

How does the Withings Support Technician explain the 1 kg (or more) variation and what is suggested to remedy this?

I have had no luck in getting a response. I feel rather silly now. I was just writing the review after having this scale a year and realised how stupid I was to just accept this issue. What brought it to head was a sudden drop in weight of 6kgs, over 4 days. Yes I swim 1 mile 3x a week and I low carb but still..

I have resolved the issue by buying a different scale of a different brand that had 115,000 buyers and 80% 5 star. I can see why. I am 7 kgs heavier on new one but at least it weighed me the same several times in a row.

(Just to boast, I had a serious head injury in 2014, took till 2019 to egt well again. I put on 168lbs. I have now lost 140 lbs, even taking into account this scale malfunction.)

Oh, I ought to have mentioned that what really got me suspicious this last week was my fat mass jumping up and down day to day by 5-7%. Not possible.

UPDATE: I just took off the carpet feet. I weighed myself on the floor with no carpet. Weight same each consecutive time AND same as new new scale. Only differences were  fat % etc

So glad to read that you've got to the bottom of the problem knitmansock. I'm sure if you report this directly using the Withings Tech Support website, they'll be very interested to learn about this!

Because each of the 4 legs is effectively a strain gauge, if any of the carpet feet aren't sufficiently rigid (perhaps cracked and flexing slightly as a result), that will indeed explain your predicament. In fairness this will apply with any of these strain gauge design scales if the parts that transmit the loads aren't extremely rigid. I noticed someone else in this community was recently asking how they could get hold of a (set of) carpet feet so perhaps these aren't made as robust as they could have been?

If only it were that simple. I must report that all the feet are in perfect order and perfectly attached, or rather were. I have of course removed them along with the sticky white material that kept them on.

Tomorrow morning I shall have to weigh myself using both machines and deciding which to use. At present I much prefer the app for the new scale.

Your handle makes me wonder if are indeed a Kiwi? I grew up in Oz. I would have loved to go to NZ but alas flying is a distinct fear now, when it used not to be, and besides I use a wh/chair. The logistics of going are just too much to contemplate. My friends/neighbours went for a 3 week driving tour and loved it. 

I would have driven to Frankfurt in May, a city my husband and I love, and then we were goin g to Barcelona in September, something I had hitherto decided was not possible. Covid put paid to both trips. I fear 2021 will not be different. I swear I will drive to see the Gaudi architecture no matter my body and the weeks of recovery!

Please help me understand how it can be anything other than the feet (or perhaps the adhesive pads holding them on) if with them there are problems but without, it works fine? Just because the carpet feet look fine and seem undamaged, isn't it possible that there may have been manufacturing problems (or some other reason) causing one or more to not be rigid enough? I'm not talking compressing like a sponge, even small amounts of flex could explain this.

A long time ago I hailed from NZ but have been in Scotland and The UK is home now. For those who don't know the kiwi is a flightless bird indigenous to NZ.

It definitely is the feet but I am not and engineer or the designer of the scale. They look perfectly fine to me. they still look brand new. They have never worked, I now realise. Why? I have no idea. For me taking the carpet off and weighing myself elsewhere works. It gives the same weight first time as the other scale does. I am happy with that.

It could be said I need not have bought the 2nd pair after all but had I not I would not know that my Withings scale works perfectly well on an uncarpeted floor.

I could tell you a tale that makes this example of not trying everything possible (whether or not its seen as right or wrong) look like small fry. In all, this is a good lesson that there can be strange weird and unexplained causes for our devices misbehaviour sometimes anc we should look at all options. It was a very good idea of yours knitmansock to try taking the carpetfeet off and test on a hard floor. The thought never crossed my mind (and I regret that)!

Needless to say that there are many things I have thought of after the fact that I wish I had thought of before the fact!

In this case though, had I thought to take the carpet feet off, and then weighed myself to find myself 1 stone heavier than I thought, I would have been horrified and still thought the scale was faulty. The new scale showed me I was a stone heavier and this prompted me to remove the carpet feet off the Withings. Only for that to confirm I was indeed heavier than I had been left to believe.

Thank goodness I am at the stage where I do not consider this any more than a disappointment and not something to wail and thrash about over!

Knitmansock
Thank you so much for this post.  I posted the same question, "Which is more accurate, carpet feet or none" on Withings Facebook page and no one answered.  My question to you is have you tried both carpet feet and none on a hard surface and seen which is more accurate?  I only use the scale on a hard surface.  Thanks.

If you are using a hard floor, then do not use the carpet feet. If you were planning on using them and then using a carpeted floor, don't!

I now have two scales. This one and now a different make. I use both on the same hard floor and both give me the same weight each time I use them. 

HOWEVER, I was 1 stone heavier than I believed I was. Yes, that is how far out the Withings scale was using it on a carpeted floor with carpet feet. You can imagine I was not at all happy.

Now though, I know the weight is accurate each time I use the scales. They both weigh me accurately with only a 0.2lb difference, which is negligible.

Thanks for the reply, Knitmansock.  That's exactly the answer I was looking for.

Reading this I want to remove the carpet feet from my new scale as I use the scale on a hard surface. Is it hard to remove the feet without damaging the scale? Thanks!