Customer Reviews

Strait-Line 6041300CD Intersect 1/8-Inch at 15-Feet Self Leveling Crossed Line Laser

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

This is one very useful tool. It is great because you actually get to see where the lines intersect and because it projects lines and not just a dot on the wall. When placed on the floor, my unit will project lines on the floor and a short distance up the walls as well. All of that for a reasonable price. I have other lasers, but I like this one the best. I probably won't be using those other lasers much any more.

As one of the other reviewers has noted, the switch is hard to work. Mine was REALLY hard to work. I thought I would break the tool. I took out my Dremel mototool and cut part of the black switch off so I could apply more force. I'm 6'4" tall, weigh a lot, and don't have my nails done. The tool is shaped like a wedge of cheese cut from a big wheel of cheese. The back side is curved. I wish the back side was flat and perpendicular/parallel to the two laser lines it projects (when the lines are "locked"), so you could back the unit up to a finished wall and you would know that one of the projected lines was parallel and that the other line was perpendicular to the wall that the unit was backed up to. I know I can get around that with some additional measurements, but I can dream. I strongly recommend this tool for people who do floors. It is a cool tool.

I own several of the newest laser levels---the Ryobi, Straight Laser, etc. and now the Strait Line Intersect--

The intersect is by far the best of the bunch, the auto level has worked flawlessly thus far--even after a slip and fall from 8 1/2 feet up to the hard wood floor. Wish more time and thought was put into the latest tools such as this one

Oh, and by the way--it beats the pants off the other straight line laser levels offered too!!!!

THIS ONE IS TRUELY TOPS in my book

After reading the mixed reviews, I decided that it was worth taking a chance, given the low price and amazon's return policy. What I found was a tool that projected lines clearly and accurately, and it self leveled far better than I ever thought it would.

I've used traditional bubble levels, and levels with built in lasers that rely on the user positioning them using a bubble. With any of those, there is still a degree of error since it's a matter of judgment whether the bubble is exactly between the lines or in the middle of the circle.

This level merely requires being held against a wall, or mounted with adhesive. It doesn't matter if you hold it a few degrees off center because the lines will eventually come to rest exactly where they should.

It is designed to be against a wall with the switch facing toward you and the writing facing the correct way to read. Since the bottom part is curved, it is not designed to be used while placed on a surface. It's not surprising that one reviewer found things off by a few inches when used that way. It would fall over if properly oriented and point randomly if set down with the switch on the top.

The manufacturer says you will get 10 hours of use with four 1.5v alkaline batteries. Since four 1.2v NiMH rechargeable batteries would produce 4.8v instead of 6v, the reviewer who tried them got the results that should be expected.

A limitation is that you can't use this to check to see if your floor is level, nor could you project a line within the bottom inches of your wall. But the manufacturer tells you that up front. And you also can't sit it on a desk or a table that you want to level. But you wouldn't want a laser for that anyway.

UPDATE:

After using it regularly for about a year, it is still going strong. Despite its single switch simplicity, it has become clearer to me how easy it is for people to misuse. The "design flaw" is the lack of "this end up" labels and "level" and "square" switch labels instead of just lock and unlock ones. My teenage daughter completely misunderstood it. After I spent a few seconds showing her, she kicked me out of the room and successfully completed her first "do it yourself" project: mounting a full length mirror on a wall.

If you throw the switch the "wrong" way (for leveling), you will lock it (by design) and it will work to square things. If you want to project one beam against a line so you can get another one at 90 degrees to it, it can help with flooring but if you think you are using it as a level that way, you are going to get bad results.

When unlocked, the unit is essentially like a three way laser pointer hanging from a pendulum. If you let it rest, it will self center. If you turn it sideways, it will come to rest randomly. Think of it as an unwound grandfather clock with its pendulum pointing straight down, unless you lie the clock on its back.

The laser itself is class IIIA, with a frequency of about 635nm. With four AAA batteries it is capable of shining clearly and brightly for a long time. Class IIIb and above are banned in the US and many other countries, so other "red" lasers will NOT be brighter or project farther.

Ultimately, the tool must be designed to assume that the surface will be parallel to its beam, which is as strong and accurate as the law allows. Despite that, your wall might not be the same color or shape as someone else's, and minor differences in offset could make performance appear better or worse.

Sticking it to the wall is as necessary as it would be with a conventional level; it would leave your hands free. I had a set of laser balls that could not be used any other way, and had short battery life. With this product, it's very useful even if you never use the adhesive pads.

The bottom line is that the laser is the best in its class, the mechanism is as accurate as gravity itself, the batteries will keep it going for a long time, but the switch should have been designed better. You can use it properly with minimal training. But it's very easy to misuse and some surfaces will not allow it to project useful lines despite the accuracy of this tool.

UPDATE 2:

I gave mine away to a TV repairman who was impressed by it. I bought a new one and the switch has been redesigned and no longer looks like the one in the picture. I had no problems with it sticking or being difficult to use. If you find one as pictured (lines across the entire switch) then you have an old one that might cause problems unless you wear kitchen gloves. If it has the lines only running up to the middle, and decreasing in size, you have the newer one that does not have any problems with the switch being difficult. (updated 9/2009)

After reading the last 3 reviews I didn't know what to expect when I received my tool. 2 reviewers gave it 1 star and 1 reviewer gave it 5 stars. I then realized that the people that respond to the reviews are either very excited about the product or sorely disappointed. My review comes from a DIY'er in Atlanta that found the tool very helpful. It seemed to be level and plumb and didn't mare my drywall. I even dropped the unit on my hardwood floor and it still worked. It is made of cheap plastic and probably not a good choice for a professional but works very well for a DIY'er like myself.

This level was a nice gift for a few moments, but soon failed. It is made of cheap plastic, more reminiscent of a $3 dollar toy than a $50 tool. It has a sliding plastic switch that allows you to turn the laser on, and select whether or not you want the laser to be fixed or auto-leveling. This switch is linked to some sort of electric connection and a mechanical linkage within the device - which jammed after the first use. Now the laser is stuck in the fixed, on, position. Useless to me now.

I am returning it, and will not request another. I assume there are more reputable tool makers that make a similar device that is better designed and constructed.

I would not recommend this product. Better to pay more and have something that will last.

I have used this for close to a year now.... It some of the problems I have read in the other reviews like the switch being a pain.... and the lines getting lighter..... But both were curable ...the switch ...cured by taking off the "decorative knob" and just using the original slide switch.... sometimes the marketing guys get TOO fancy.... and the changing of intensity was cured by just cleaning the contacts on the battery compartment.... We searched all over for a 90 degree intersect with one line extending both ways and it is virtually impossible to find in the pro area or DIY area.... many 90 intersect with one line meeting another at right angles but not a perpendicular on a line. My last one got damaged when it fell from a scaffold and tried to buy another and no one had any left..... found it again here on Amazon and ordered two...just in case

Ron Sauro
NWAA Labs
www.nwaalabs.com

This product works as advertised....no more crooked shelves for me! As a woman who struggles with home repairs any kind of help I can adopt is wonderful and when it works this well, it is welcomed.

First off, I understand the confusion some people have had with the two modes (locked and unlocked) of this product, and I understand how to use it properly; this review is not tainted by that misunderstanding. Secondly, you should understand that this product projects three laser lines simultaneously, in the shape of an upside-down "T" - one line out horizontally to each side, and one line vertically upwards. You can temporarily mount it to the wall with 3M command strips and set it to autolevel, or you can lock that mechanism so it doesn't wiggle and place it on the ground to mark straight lines for laying tile or flooring.

I purchased a new unit in factory packaging. The first thing I noticed upon firing it up is that the horizontal line was not actually straight. I set it down in locked mode on my hardwood floor (long, straight, parallel lines), and adjusted it so that one of the horizontal lines perfectly overlaid the lines of the floor. Looking down the other side, however, the beam was seriously off. I measured it as deviating by 3 inches (the width of the planks) at a distance of 82.5 inches from the source - a deviation of 2.08 degrees.

Next I put it into unlocked (autoleveling) mode and stuck it to the garage wall with a command adhesive strip and tapped it with my finger to make sure it got the chance to auto-level (and I saw it swing a little left and right and settle where it was happy). I marked out the starting point and several points along the three directions of the beam on the wall (hence doing this in the garage). Then I took a normal four foot bubble level (something like this although a significantly cheaper basic version) and marked out level points to the left, right, and vertical above the intersection point. I marked arbitrary crosses on each of those level lines and measured their distance back to the main intersection, and the deviation to the laser line at that distance. On the right, the beam was low by 13/32" at 46 + 15/32" out from the intersection. On the vertical, it was left of level by 7/16" at 47". And on the left, it was low by a whopping 1 + 1/4" at 45 + 29/32". (Yes, it was low on both the right and the left sides, since those two lines are off from each other by 2 degrees as mentioned above.) If you extrapolate those deviations out to 15 feet (where the manufacturer advertises it should be accurate within 1/8 of an inch), the error I observed would grow to 1.6 inches, 1.7 inches, and 4.9 inches respectively. That's an atrocious 13 to 40 times worse than the advertised accuracy.

If you do a little more math, you'll see that the vertical line is at least very close to being centered against the horizontal lines - each angle that should be 90 degrees is almost exactly 91 degrees instead. Then on top of that problem, the autolevel tilts about half a degree to the left.

Even if you only wanted to use this device in locked mode to lay tile or flooring, it wouldn't be very useful because the angles are off. Combined with the apparently miscalibrated autolevel, it's almost completely useless (unless you want to shoot a straight line in one direction).

Since lots of other people appear to love it, perhaps I just have a defective unit. I've contacted the marketplace seller, and if they choose to send me another unit I will update this review after checking it out.

UPDATE:
The marketplace seller preferred to refund my purchase rather than replace the defective item. I may buy another instance of this device, but don't hold your breath for another review update.

I really don't see how reviewers can compare this laser level to similar "professional" ones.

After reading some of the raving reviews and seeing that the level was available real cheap, I decided it was worth a try; I thought I'd use it to help level some joists while refinishing my attic.

Unfortunately, the laser beam is very weak. It's never very bright, and rapidly fades away from the center. So while it may be visible out to ten feet (the product claims 20), you only get a visible line on either side of the center cross for a few degrees. Just a few feet of projected line seems functionally equivalent to a point.

In fact, I can't even see using it to hang pictures. A single picture is easy enough with a vial level, and this laser level won't project a long enough line to use for a wall full of frames.

As other reviewers have suggested, if you need a laser level (to make snapping chalk lines a one-person job, for example), you're much better off spending real money to get a real level to project either a line or a few points at right angles to each other.

level is dead on. lines do blur a bit once you move farther away (10ft or so) but only by a few mm.

will only level on a wall, if you're placing it on the ground (ie tile work) the level function doesn't work. Switch it to the locked position.

having the intersection point is very helpful.

the unit seems big but with the included strips hangs to any surface well.

I don't recommend it, but my unit survived a 20 ft fall onto concrete floor.