Dropped $400 on a digital level that beeps at me like a smoke detector

Bought a fancy Hilti digital level thinking it would save time on rail installs, but the thing keeps beeping every time I breathe near it. Anyone else ditch the high-tech stuff and just go back to a basic torpedo level?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_drew9h ago

You ever notice how the high-tech stuff adds problems instead of fixing them? That Hilti level probably has a gyroscope that gets confused by vibrations from a passing truck down the street... I switched back to a cheap 6-inch torpedo with a magnetic strip and haven't looked back. The thing just sits there and tells you if something's level without beeping at you like you're breaking into Fort Knox. Plus when you drop it off a ladder you're out twenty bucks instead of four hundred.

shane_wilson4h ago

I read somewhere that aerospace engineers still use bubble levels for final checks on satellite components because the electronic stuff drifts too much over time. That pretty much sums it up for me. If it's good enough for stuff going into space, it's good enough for my kitchen backsplash. The fancy digital tools just give you another thing to fail when you're in a hurry.