5
Spent $200 on a digital height gage. Regret it now.
Bought a nice Mitutoyo digital height gage about a year back. Thought it would save me time on setups. Turns out, the battery dies every other week if I leave it on. Plus it's too fancy for the rough work I do. I should've stuck with my old vernier. Anyone else find digital tools more hassle than help?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
susanb341mo ago
Oh man, I just read an article that said a lot of those fancy digital tools have problems with battery life and humidity. It's a shame because they look like they should make work easier, but then you end up fighting the tool instead of the job. Sometimes the old ways really are better.
4
mark_carr71mo ago
My dad worked at a shop that got bought out by a big hardware chain back in 2012, and they switched to brand new digital levels and laser measures across the whole crew. Within six months, three of the digital levels were dead because of condensation from just regular morning dew on job sites. The old bubble levels from the 90s still work fine to this day. It's not just battery life either it's the fact that these gadgets have circuit boards that don't like any moisture at all. You can't really field-fix them either you have to mail them in or throw them away. So yeah, sometimes the old ways really are better when your tool needs to survive the workday.
1
the_wesley1mo ago
@susanb34 you nailed it, fighting the tool instead of the job is exactly the problem. How many times did that battery die on you before you finally gave up on it?
1