Customer Reviews

Black & Decker BDL170 Bullseye Auto-Leveling Laser With AnglePro

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

For thirty years I have been a General Contractor. This is the third (tool box) laser I have brought to hopefully make my life easier, yet I have not found any of these small units to be as advertised. (I say "tool box" because I do own some very expensive "large" self leveling laser units for excavation and construction that are very good)

AUTO leveling! FAT CHANCE! Not even close. Yes, it does have a sight gage in the front that gives you "an indication" of where level might be.

This too was very poorly designed. HARD TO READ. There is no actual mark to show THE LEVEL POINT or really where you are on the gage, only a series of hash marks. These marks are not balanced from one side to the other either. (There is an odd downward line intersecting the gage at 14 degrees right, which serves no purpose. This may be a manufacturing flaw, if so strike three.) You are left to guess where in these hash marks you should place this very poorly designed alignment mark to be set at level. As this mark is not within the gage itself, it is totally subjective.

I found I still had to measure the distance to the floor in several locations to see how level I was, and I wasn't! (This only works if the floor is level.)

ANGLE PRO, MAYBE! An angle is what you get! Look elsewhere. This is a waste.

The mounting pin is a problem to keep out to mount it and has no relevance to the laser height you are trying to achieve. I had thought maybe its pendulum style mount would work as a plumb-bob to level it but no such luck!

I have both the BDL170 and the BDL310. They are both lovely because you don't need to rely on a bubble level to get the tool level. Instead, level is automatic. The big difference between the two is that the BDL310 does both horizontal and vertical at the SAME TIME. That has saved me a huge amount of time. Just search for BDL310 and compare for yourself.

[...]

I recently purchased this unit to establish straight level lines around the perimeter of a living room. The self leveling feature makes this very easy. There is no need to fuss over getting the unit perfectly leveled as the projected laser line will adjust accordingly.

In those cases where you want a straight line between two known points, not necessarily a horizontal level or vertical plumb line, the self leveling feature can be turned off.

The built-in protractor can be useful for establishing various line angles from the horizontal.

I am very pleased with the BDL170.

To answer the first reviewers question it has a attachement device with a little pin to punch it into the wall. If you don't mind pinholes here and there.

More importantly I have two complaints. First, the centerpoint of the horizonal level is not well marked. It should have a big red line not a little black one like all the rest. But I see why they didn't mark it well. When I hang the level on the wall a movement of less than one line thickness makes a huge difference on whether the line is acutally even with the floor or not. I am reduced to standing back and looking at the line and the floor and saying, "Yep, that looks good." I coulda done that myself and saved the 20 bucks.

If I give it a little nod to usefulness it does give you a dependably straight line across the wall from one point. This can be useful but buy a used one or on sale. Wait till B & D has discontinued it and you can buy it in the bargin basket with all the other, "almost good enough" stuff B & D does.

While the auto leveling feature works fine (checked with a 4' level and a water level at 34'), the AnglePro function is off by about 3 degrees (at 8 feet it's off by 4") which is plainly visible just by eye.

I haven't decided if I'm going to return it or take it apart and see if I can adjust it. Also as already mentioned in another review, the center mark is very hard to see. I might try to paint it with thinned out model paint (if I don't return the unit).

There are two "on" positions, one is automode and the other is manual mode. In automode, the laser inside balances itself without respect to the outside case. In manual mode, the laser is locked to the scale that is backlit.

Automode seems to work ok, not exactly perfect but ok for hanging things on the wall I guess. But the scale on the manual mode is certainly off by a large amount, and they don't give you a zeroing capability.

The interface is setup such that the backlight for the degree wheel is completely off when in automode. Backlight comes on in manual mode, but they might have well saved the $ on the lamp because it will just irritate you by how poorly its zeroed.

B&D should consider adding the capability to zero out the manual mode, or remove the manual mode.

This product worked for a couple of projects without a problem. I set it in storage for a couple of months before I used it again. It was not abused during this time, just sat in the protective box that it was shipped in.

Then I pulled it out to set the lines for a counter top I installed in my wife's craft room. I lined everything up, drilled the holes in the wall, and put the counter top on. Then I stood back to look at my work...and it didn't look right. It seemed just a little off. I put a marble on the counter, and it immediately rolled off. I went out to my shed, pulled out a trusty bubble level and set it on the counter. The bubble confirmed the marble, and I had to tear apart all my work, patch all my holes, and start over.

In disbelief, I put the auto-leveling laser up on a flat wall and drew a line and compared it with the bubble level. It was off just a little, but just a little is just enough. I'm really sad, because when this worked well, there was nothing quicker or easier.

If you are looking for a versatile tool, keep looking. The auto-level seems to work ok but the calibration for manually leveling is *way* off. There is no zero notation but if you center between the +/-15* marks you are nearly 10* off.
The wall mounting device is a joke as well. First of all the quick mounting pin snapped off the first time I tried to stick it in sheetrock(before I had even put much pressure on it) and the magnet it uses to hold the level is barely strong enough under the best conditions. Trying to rotate the level usually results in it falling off the wall.
Many small design bits are not well thought out. It feels like the designers never tried their own product. Maybe if B&D does a couple revisions they can make this a useful part of a layout kit but it isn't nearly there yet.
R

I purchased this from Home Depot, and I'm glad I did....because I'm going to return it. The gripes have to with the what others have mentioned.

When switching the laser between the two sides, a straight line is not level. One side appears to be higher than the other.

The aparatus to attach to the wall is good in theory, but does not lock the leveler from being able to rotate once attached (by magnet).

it's a pretty cool tool once you get it down. the only thing i dont like is the fact it leaves a hole in the wall every time. but beyond that it pretty cool