Customer Reviews

Stanley 77-188 S2 Laser Level Square

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I had borrowed a friend's for a hardwood floor project and found myself lost with only a tape measure. I end up with much more accurate marks and find it very helpful to be able to just beam a line down a 6' piece of wood vs fighting a tapemeasure & introducing more error. For $20 it's a steal. Curiously, the Bosch model that my local Home Depot started carrying (at twice the price) is IDENTICAL to this unit, only cast in blue/grey plastic vs yellow/black. Which is why I got mine from the 'zon.

Nice tool. Great price. Good if you are working indoors. If you need an outdoor one buy the Fat max series at double the price or do you layout early in the morning or later in the evening when the sun will not wash out the beams. Nice for getting a line across a sheet of plywood. Mark

PROS: I have used this several times to hang up painting, pictures, wall shelves, etc. The levels and 90 degree lasers really help line things up. It has a sort of protractor on it for angles. There is a model above this with more accurate lasers but it cost significantly more. I think this one should take care of most jobs around the house.

CONS: I kinda don't like the sticky putty stuff (to hold up device on its own on the wall). They work, but I don't know for how long. I am assuming at some point, they will lose their stickiness. Without the putty, it becomes a 2-person job for long distances. But that's not that big of a deal. It would be nice if it was a little smaller, but once again not a deal breaker.

Great if you need a straight line. Lasers are fairly bright, but you'll need to use a target most of the time to see the line clearly. Wish it had some sort of leveling feet for when you are using it as a square. Otherwise, well worth the price. Have not checked levels for accuracy.

Nice tool... simple to use... and at a great price! The only down side for this product is that if you are only wanting to use this for hanging pictures on a wall, you have to manually set the level "bubbles" to ensure the laser beam is level to the floor/ceiling. So if by chance you are off on the level the beam is off as well. It would be a "perfect" product if the laser beam was "floating" on a level that was always parallel to the ground.
For under $20 you can't go wrong. Also it is great for laying tile in both directions at once.

I laid out a room for ceramic tile with a laser that you have to turn to get the 90 degree reference lines. I spent over 1/2 hour to get then pretty accurate and almost square because of the laser I was using.

Then bought this tool.

The second room took less than 5 minutes and the lines were dead on square. Plus, I used it to check putting down the tile by lining up one laser on one grout line and checking the other grout line with the other laser.

Saves a lot of time and helps do a good job. Highly recommended and am glad I got it.

This is a great tool and real time saver. I had several dry mounted photos taken by my son and we wanted to create a gallery in a long hallway. I simply mounted the "Stanley Laser level" at the end of the hallway with the self stick adhesive, turned it on and started mounting the pictures with a removable self stick velcro tape from 3-M (also recommended). They are all level with varied heights since it was easy to see what I was doing. There were no marks left from the pliable adhesive provided with the level. I will find many uses for this "Nifty Tool"

I really like this product's concept and it's almost perfect, but not quite.

First, the good: The lasers are great and really do the job by dispersing into a line rather than a dot point like presentation laser pointers. This allows you to see a clear line (indoors) all the way along your surface. The unit is solid and well-built. Certain parts are rubberized, a nice touch. The sticky stuff on the back has worked well for me so far (though I don't know how many stickings/unstickings it will last and retain its tack).

Now the bad:

1. Mine wasn't level. That's pretty much a killer fault, failing at the device's main purpose. One of the bubble levels is accurate, but the other isn't. I'm able to compensate for the error but I had to do some tests to learn where the bubble is when it's actually level. Annoying, but I'll manage. This is presumably not a design problem, but a quality problem during the calibration stage (the manual says it's factory calibrated and shouldn't be field calibrated... too bad). If I had bought it from a store, I'd return it for a replacement, but it's too much of a hassle to return to Amazon.

2. It's too big. Unnecessarily. Much of the bulk appears to be empty plastic housing added for design aesthetic, such as curves and to convey solid/bulky/weighty/quality. I'm a less-is-more kind of guy, and this annoys me in principle, but the real cost comes from the excess space it consumes in my toolbox. If Stanley or a competitor made a "slimline" or "travel" version of this, I'd pitch this one in a heartbeat and go with the leaner version instead. That's the product that this should have been.

The laser level has been good for squaring my designs. It does not feel "cheap". The price is good. No complaints.

Like everyone else, I worry about the putty being able to hold the device to a wall, but have figured out a way to manage the problem by driving a target nail at the point I want to be level then shooting towards the side of the target nail with the laser. For example, if you know that you want siding to be level with the top of the windows, then drive the nail at the top of one of the windows on the wall and shoot the laser towards the side of the nail, marking level within arm's reach along the laser's red line. Next hook a chalk line to the nail you drove at the top of the window and pull it back to the mark you just made and snap it. Finally check the chalk line with a spirit level.