Customer Reviews

PLS Laser PLS-60541 PLS 5 Laser Level Tool, Yellow

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(Full disclosure: This commentator still carries and uses a water level made from clear tubing and filled with water and food coloring for easy marking registration. The water level is the only leveling device this writer has ever owned that has never failed or needed batteries, required recalibration, or demanded delicate handling. The water level happily lives in a chopped up old Clorox bottle when it's not performing on the job.)

Time and technology marches on. I once worked with an old carpenter that owned a tilting-table, table-saw. With this tool, the arbor of the table saw stayed perfectly vertical and the table of the saw actually tilted in order to cut bevels - it was an amazing (and historical) piece of machinery but as you might imagine, difficult to use for anything but ninety degree cuts, showing first hand why the modern "tilting arbor" table saws became popular. Tools change, sometimes for the better.

Today it is hard to find a job where laser technology is not used extensively for leveling and plumbing operations, and for justifiable reasons; laser levelers are fast, efficient, and almost foolproof.

The Pacific Laser System PLS5 is a very handy device and quite accurate for many different types of work, especially where you need to project a plumb line from the floor to a ceiling, or project a level line beyond the distance that's comfortable even for a water level. The ninety degree projections offering instant square angles are quite handy as well, but the judicious tradesman will probably want to double check his layout work using the 3-4-5 formula or a similar Pythagorean method to ensure the laser layout was correct.

The Pacific Laser System's devices are not inexpensive compared with similar offerings, but they are well made and their claim to accuracy is greater than other products sold at home supply centers. Also worth noting is that a couple of builder's magazines have given Pacific Laser System's products excellent ratings in comparative reviews of stationary laser layout tools like the PLS5 (you can probably find these tool reviews available online).

If you are doing work that needs to be level or plumb, and right on the money, the PLS5 will save a lot of time and trouble; it is easy to set up and use. I like my PLS5, and I use it a lot, and in time I may even like it as much as my old water level.

This tool is the best layout laser I've used. The self-leveling feature (which is gravity-operated, not motorized) works quite well and the beam settles down very quickly, none of the see-sawing you get with a cheap unit.

The 5 beams make plate layout for an addition quick and painless (although a second floor target would be helpful). When we raised the addition walls, there was no fooling around with a spirit level - bump the floor stand against the bottom plate, pull the wall to where the dot hits the top plate, and nail the brace. Fast. Simple.

To my knowledge, this is the only 5 beam laser that uses a pulsed beam, meaning that it will work with a detector in an exterior application. That's the biggest reason for the price difference between the PLS and the Bosch or Stanley. We used it to set the corner pins for our most recent addition. Fast. Simple.

Would I buy this again? Without hesitation. (I can't believe how long I went without one.) I researched the different options quite a bit before taking the plunge on the PLS (the most expensive) and I am confident I made the right choice. I am a remodeling contractor and have an ever-growing list of what I can use this for. (Can light layout for a cathedral ceiling, top plate alignment, and on and on.)

Go for it. You won't be disappointed.

accurate and efficient. You can fire all your illegals and do it all yourself. I own this and a top-con rotary laser, I can set foundations up, plumb walls, all without anyone helping me, and do it efficiently.
If you are still using a level and strings, you are a caveman