Electronic "tape measures"

[Lobster]

Has anybody tried one of these things - any use? Am thinking of this one, basically for measuring room sizes:

ThanksDavid

[Terry D]

The accuracy quoted is only +/- 0.5%, which is a possible error of up to

50mm in 10 metres.

Terry D.

[Andy Hall]

It doesn't give the principle of operation but it appears to be ultrasonic.

These aren't bad at accuracy under ideal conditions - i.e. at a distance from a flat surface with nothing else around. The problem is that that is seldom the situation and reflections confuse the readings.

If you were an estate agent wanting to do rough room measurements quickly, then fine, but not much good for accurate measuring for DIY work.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Malcolm Stewart]

If you want to measure seriously, you'd be better off with a laser "Disto" - accurate to 3mm or better, and you can see where the beam is going. But it's

10x your price.

[mrcheerful]

I bought a Stanley ultrasonic, but it was appalling to use and accuracy was rubbish. I realized that I couldn't afford something good. For the fun of having one and quick rough measures I bought an ultrasonic from Maplins, it was about thirty quid and is reasonably accurate in an estimating way. But if I need anything really accurate I use a tape.

mrcheerful

[Paul Mc Cann]

I confess I haven't bothered to follow your links as I tend to read this ng off line but I recently bought an electronic tape measure from axminster which worked on the ultra sonic principle (Be warned there are 'Laser' tape measures out there which use a laser beam to setablish a reference point but actually function via ultra sonics)

Basically, IMHO, the ultrasonic ones are fairly useless unless you are measuring totally empty rooms. The sound bounces off any and every thing which gives spurious readings.

I sent the one I got back to Axminster and bought a Leica laser version. Expensive but I have a commercial use for it and the ability to measure up a job single handed and work to reliable measurements can save us a lot of money.

Paul Mc Cann