Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is an extremely handy tool and has become a daily-use item on my belt. It is exceedingly accurate. The stated range is, shall we say, very optimistic. On a bright day I tried measuring the distance from the ground to the top of my chimney to see if a 32' ladder would make it and I couldn't get a measurement, a distance that turned out to be 29 feet. The same reading was not problematic on an overcast day. In bright outdoor conditions 30' is probably the realistic maximum my unit will read (and also about as far as I can make out the dot, so it becomes a moot point when working alone). Indoors it is much better. I have never tried measuring anything near 165' with it, but I will say that realistically this is totally unfeasible. No normal human could see the targeting dot at that range, nor hold the unit still enough to aim at anything specific at that range. The volume and square footage calculations are intuitive and super, super handy. It saves a ton of time for material estimation. Battery life is great, so far I use it a dozen times a day every day and have gone two months without changing the battery. Update: batteries went six months being used for about half an hour a day every day, and being stored in an unheated jobsite in the winter in Vermont. Impressive! After about a year the markings on the buttons on mine are wearing off, but otherwise the unit performs as it did when it was new. Though exceedingly handy, this tool is no substitute for a tape. It excels in measurements tapes are problematic for, especially measuring inside distances between two objects, and of course any measurement beyond the "stand out" limit of a tape. However, it's useless at measuring linear distance on flat surfaces where you have nothing to bounce the laser off of. The place where this comes up on a daily basis is measuring boards for cutting. The back edge of the unit, the zero point in measurement, is hard plastic with butyl rubber over-molding right against it and rounded corners. This makes it hard to precisely mark the back edge with a pencil, and you certainly wouldn't want to cut against it. I think Bosch could improve this design quite a lot for carpentry applications by fabricating the back zero point out of metal and getting the over-molding out of the way for easy, accurate marking and squaring-up to objects. Bosch includes a velcro belt loop that is too small to fit on tool belts, and the velcro on mine deteriorated to the point that it would just fall off when bumped after about a month of daily wear. My wife removed the velcro for me and sewed in a bit of webbing from the velcro loop edge to the bottom edge of the case, allowing me to get it on a tool belt and ditch the worn-out velcro. This has worked fine for a year now. I'm giving this 5 stars because it's an extremely handy tool and is well made, though the aforementioned shortcomings definitely do detract when using it in a construction role. Nonetheless, I'm pretty well hooked, and if I broke it tomorrow I would certainly replace it immediately. If you are using it for indoor applications where precise marking is not a concern and you're not wearing a tool belt, this is absolutely ideal. For estimating material needs quickly it's absolutely indispensable. **UPDATE** Just wanted to throw out that I have been running this unit for three years now. The markings on the buttons are totally gone and the pouch fell apart long ago. It fits perfectly in the small front pocket of my Diamondback Mazo (good riddance, silly velcro thing) and I long also memorized the buttons, so it's of no consequence. The tool still measures as new. 5 stars all the way, I can't believe this little thing has held up like it has.