Bosch DLR165K Laser, Great but has some faults
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Great but has some faults
I’m in agreement with most in that this is a big time saver, especially when getting a tape measure between two surfaces is impractical e.g. crown molding. After several months of use I’ve found a few critical shortcomings.
I’ve received a couple of bogus measurements that were in the ballpark of the actual ones. While these could have been due to user error, I was careful to note the discrepancy and was able to reproduce it on one occasion. To be fair, the unit gets stored in my glove box, has been knocked around a bit and is not exactly in new condition. However, I would like it to either work or not work. Erroneous readings are not acceptable.
Another gripe about this device is that the beam does not shoot plumb up from the base of the laser. That is to say, if you just rest the case on a surface that is parallel to another, you’ll be measuring a distance that is angled slightly away from plumb. This can be especially frustrating when you set the unit down on a bottom plate and just never seem to hit the top plate only 8′ up without angling the unit a bit by hand.
Finally, as others have mentioned, the laser cannot be configured to read in inches and fractions only. e.g. 94-5/16 will read 7′10-5/16. Converting to inches in your head inevitably leads to cutting errors so the fix around this seems to be to switch to reading off your tape in feet & inches when you make your mark rather than the inches-only format that you are used to.
Still, the price is right. In my mind this makes it a great tool, especially for estimating. But, for that $100 board, you’d be wise to double-check that measurement with your tape.
Update (5/20/2012): This item is currently on sale here for the lowest price I’ve seen. I also found some auctions for this item here.
The featured review for this product, Bosch DLR165K Laser Distance Measuring Device Tools & Hardware, was written by D. Schmid.
The average rating for this item is out of 5 stars, according to 3 reviews.
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Tags: bosch, bosch laser rangefinder, bosch tools, distance estimators, distomat, diy great tool, dmi, edm, laser, laser measure, laser measuring, laser measuring device, laser measuring tool, laser tape, line lasers, measuring by laser, neat devise that can really save you some time, range finder, tape measures, tools
Posted on: April 22, 2010
Filed under: Reviews
Reviews (3)
J. Shinn
March 14th, 2010 at 11:22 pm
I Love Bosch, but they should have gone the extra yard.
This is another well-built and extremely accurate tool from Bosch.
A bright and easy to locate laser highlights your target, and with another touch of the button will supply measurements accurate to within 1/16th of an inch at 165 feet CONSISTENTLY; I personally tested the unit before trusting the readings.
Internal math functions for area, volume and even calculating height from a distance are all built in to the unit and work effortlessly.
The unit is solid, light and very manageable.
Now for the BAD NEWS… it only has 3 measurement formats available: metric, feet w/ decimals, and feet and inches w/ fractions. My industry deals in inches w/ fractions such as, 100 7/8″ - and the only two non-metric formats available from this unit would display this same measurement as either 8.4063′ or 8′ 4 7/8″ and would then require conversion.
This inconvenience may or may not effect everyone; however, the price of this unit will defintely continue to turn every head. The other laser units with this accuracy and quality are all over double the price of the DLR165K, making this unit affordable, if not perfect.
I’m very happy with mine.
busrey
March 24th, 2010 at 12:56 am
Great device
I do trim carpentry and build cabinets and needed something to give me fast accurate measurements for doing crown moldings and the Bosch delivered. It comes with a handy case that you can hang on your belt keeping it in reach. I use it for any measurement that would require me to bend the tape and try to guess what the reading would be or where the distance makes it difficult to accurately do with tape measure. It also has the ability to do continuous reading allowing you to aim at an object and move yourself forward or backward until you are the desired distance from the target object.
A steady hand does help but the uses are endless due to its ability to read off its front edge, a tripod mount hole, off its back edge, or its extendable rod. It would be a good idea to make sure the tape measure you use for transferring the measurements matches the rangefinder before starting a job. The only negative I have discovered is that a measurement in feet and fractions of an inch are stored in memory and then redisplayed in decimal forcing me to then convert the number back into fractions. That said the display holds my measurement long enough for me to get my molding, measure, and make the cut before the display shuts off. I have recommended this device to all my friends who do a lot of measurements on their job.
D. Schmid
April 7th, 2010 at 9:09 pm
Great but has some faults
Rated 3 stars.
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