Over at Amazon, they have a Komelon 25′ tape measure that’s equipped with a built-in LED worklight.
Komelon says that their 25′ tape measure is ultra compact, and with a case resembling the size of a standard 16′ tape measure.
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The tape measure has a white non-glare blade that is nylon-coated for durability.
As for the LED worklight, you might be wondering – where do the batteries go?
There’s a built-in USB charging port, implying that the tape measure has a built-in rechargeable battery.
According to Komelon’s spec sheet, a full battery charge will allow for 3 hours of continuous use. The LED has a 5-minute auto-shutoff.
Price: $20
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This isn’t the first tape measure with a built-in LED worklight – Milwaukee’s small 10′ keychain-sized tape measure also features a built-in light.
Here’s the question – is this something that you would use? Something that you might need?
Raymond
Personally I would like to see a laser measure along side the light. Then you could constantly check to see if the laser measurement was correct.
Tom D
Even a laser target would be nice, measurement would be pretty slick.
Frankly a light like that is only useful in a short distance (great on a drill when you’re arse over heels under a cabinet trying to find a screw) – not so great when trying to see something 10 feet away.
But now we’re one step closer to “I can’t measure this, I need to recharge and reboot the tape measure”!
David Zeller
I thought of the light as being more for reading the tape.
Jared
That was my thought too. More like the LED light on a drill – most people aren’t walking around with their drill to use as a flashlight.
I suppose the tape measure could be a bit different though because its more portable.
Stuart
Same, based on its position. I would hope it’s bright enough to double as an impromptu worklight as well.
Eric
Your wish is China’s command – https://www.amazon.com/LEXIVON-Distance-Measuring-Fractions-LX-201/dp/B07MP1JB2Z
Stuart
Or: https://toolguyd.com/general-tools-laser-tape-measure-review/
fred
Some of our guys liked Komelon Tapes – and we would buy some in bulk. One of my old inventories lists 25 – SLSS125’s that we bought for under $10 each. So my thought about Komelon was that they were decent inexpensive tapes that you would not cry about if they were lost or destroyed. This lighted one might be handy for those of us with 80 year old eyes that don’t work so well in dim light – but not sure its worth $20.
Randy
Fred. Get you eyes fixed! No reason to live another day with limited vision in low light. Either a simple lens replacement or PreLex which is a customized lens that corrects vision too. My wife just did it. Wore contacts since 18, then bifocal contacts. Now 20/15 & 20/12.5 No corrective eyewear required. Much brighter and colors more vivid. Before surgery, she was only off full clarity 2-3%. But, it still made a huge life changing difference. My sawmill buddy had his lenses replaced at age 89. Could not believe his new world. I swear he was so excited that he was sleeping with his eyes open.
John
Tape measures live a rough and tumble life to begin with, so I would be concerned about durability of the light. Yes, the light would be helpful in certain situations, but will Komelon warranty a functioning tape once the light fails? (The skeptic in me assumes this is a “when” not “if” situation.) It seems like they are adding a somewhat gimmicky feature and risking an increase in warranty claims with this design.
David Zeller
Presuming this is LED, I’ve had LED flashlights take decent abuse and survive. Their circuits are pretty simple and building them to take abuse isn’t that expensive. If Komelon didn’t skimp too much, they’ll probably be OK.
Steve
It’s existence doesn’t harm anything, it’s just one more option on the market for those that might find it useful. Why not?
Now, if they built in a PEZ dispenser… 🤔
Brad Justinen
The world needs more stainless steel measuring tapes
Jared
I think it’s a good idea. I don’t think I would need the light often – but say you’re crawling around in an attic taking measurements, wouldn’t it be nice to have the light built-in rather than shining a flashlight on your tape?
So basically: not NECESSARY, but a good idea and the implementation looks good.
Julian Tracy
what we need is a well made compact accurate 12-16’ tape measure for carpentry and woodworking.
All these bulky ass chunky 16-30’ tapes are near useless and huge overkill.
not a decent tape measure exists at any home center for my needs. Ended up picking up 7-8 new old stock Starret tapes at a tool outlet store…
William Adams
Agreed.
My favourite is a vintage Lufkin Mezurall 2″ case for which I found a N.O.S. 10 ft. tape (though the case is marked for 12 ft.) — narrow, so not as much reach length as I’d want sometimes, but I can always get out a 25 ft. Stanley for that.
James
Need to try out some Tajima’s https://www.tajimatool.com/product_category/mrgt/ I use the GS-16BW it has the perfect spring tension, tip, and tip guard. What I don’t like is the lanyard mount.
I know some shops that order the HL-16BW by the case. I have tapes everywhere in the shop. You can also get metric or standard/metric combo.
Koko The Talking Ape
$23?!?! Ouch! My Stanley Powerlock is $8. Is the Tajima three times better?
Koko The Talking Ape
I use an ancient 16′ Stanley Powerlock. One of those wouldn’t work for you?
I did read a tip from some old-timers, which is to always use the same measure for a given project. It’s that old precision vs. accuracy thing. If a drawer fits tightly, then who cares if it isn’t exactly 20″ wide or whatever?
I suppose with enough physical measures like story sticks, jigs or templates, calipers, and even a few combination squares, you might not need to actually measure things very often. You can often eyeball a good width for a table for example, as long as you stick to that width once you settle on one, and story sticks and other tools can do that for you.
Steve L
Don’t know how many tapes I have. Too many. Also have the Bosch GLM 20 laser measure which is backlit for use in the dark. I would buy that (Amazon has it at $30) again instead of dropping $20 on another tape measure. Laser measure is more accurate, a lot easier to use for bigger measurements, and goes to 65 feet.
Nathan
Can’t the tape be made to glow. that would help.
(no that’s a joke by the way)
There are lots of not useful tools, this seems to have some application.
Honestly in that sort of situation I’m probably using a headlamp anyway.
Jared
That would be tough no? Most of the time the blade is kept rolled-up inside the tape measure so it wouldn’t have a chance to absorb light to glow in the dark. Then when it comes out, it is most often just the first few feet.
Are you going to fully extend your tape and lay it out in the sun before use? 😛
Stuart
There are two ways to that.
Fluorescent – a UV light source is needed to create a glowing effect. If you need a light source, you might as well just use a white light.
Phosphorescence – if the blade is coated with a glow in the dark material, it would have to be extended to be charged via external light, or lightly charged as it is pulled from the case. If you have a light charging the glow surface, you might as well just use a white light for reading a blade without special glow coatings.
There are also tritium vials or composite coatings, but there’s a cost factor and also regulations complexities due to the radioactivity.
Koko The Talking Ape
I imagine you could use luminescent bacteria or something, somehow embedded in the tape. So instead of recharging your tape measure, you could just feed it a little sugar water! Wouldn’t that be special!
Stuart
Or a tape measure where you have a large capacitor that gets charged up by a small generator motor connected to the retraction mechanism. Pulling the tape out would charge the capacitor and then power the LED light.
Koko The Talking Ape
That was my exact idea in a lower comment. 😀 Or the generator could operate when the tape is retracted, so it’s easy to pull out but retracts more slowly. That might be a feature! I’ve pinched a finger when I wasn’t paying attention.
taras
Or integrate tritium into the blade’s “paint”. It’ll glow for a decade
Nathan
so it was meant as a joke there. Funnier in my head I suspect.
regardless I was going more for a roll up OLED screen. you know like you see in some of the new product demos and the new age folding smartphones.
I think LG presented a roll up OLED screen last year. Anyway no not practical in any fashion. Wasn’t meant to be, sorry for the rabbit hole.
Although you know a tape with a digital readout wouldn’t be so bad. . . . . . .
Chris S
I think you should add a photo of the light/tape in use.
Some people think this is meant for walking around as a flashlight…
I’m assuming that is a green on/off button next to the port.
Based on 3 hours of battery life and a 5 minute auto-off, this might not make it through a day in certain scenarios. I’m picturing running conduit in a plant on a lift above the highbays where lighting can get dim. That’s 36 times I can forget to turn it off before it’s dead (granted that is a harsh case). Battery life will decrease over its lifespan, so dead by lunch might be a very real thing if you use it enough.
I’m torn…on the one hand a light sounds really useful and being rechargeable is a definite plus (unlike the button cells in the Milwaukee linked).
On the other hand, 3 hours means it’s a small battery to begin with and remembering to charge a tape measure every day during heavy use is a burden. Not to mention the micro USB port is not reinforced, so the first bump/tumble/yank and it will probably be toast.
I like the concept, but I think it needs to be refined.
Frank D
Could be handy, to take some measurements in attics, basements, working late hours trying to finish something … but it is not universal (no metric).
Stacey Jones
This is a feature I wouldn’t pay extra for but would cause me to choose this model ig nothing else is cheaper… It doesn’t appear to detract from the normal function.
Mike (the other one)
Might help with measuring in low light conditions, but a headlamp could accomplish the same thing.
No one wants inaccurate measurements in the dark.
Mike C.
Every Komelon tape we’ve had in the shop died an early death. Never again!
Koko The Talking Ape
I do have trouble reading tape measures in weak light, so a light might be handy. On the other hand, a headlamp will do the same, and will also illuminate anything else you’re looking at. It also won’t dazzle your eyes, doesn’t cost too much, is often adjustable for brightness, can be far brighter (I’m assuming) than this tape measure, comes in both rechargeable or replaceable-battery versions, and is often very durable besides.
I do think it would be cool if the battery were recharged either by your pulling the tape out or letting the spring retract it, or both. A tiny dynamo might also act like a brake so it doesn’t retract too fast. Having to recharge my tape measure is a deal-breaker.
JoeM
Said it on Facebook, I’ll say it here.
I would prefer if the tape was highly reflective in specific light conditions, or glowed in its entirety. By the time you need a tape that needs a light on it, it’s the tape itself that needs to be visible. So, in these cases it would be greatly adventageous to have the markings, or the tape body paint, fluoresce under a specific type of light. Either UV, or IR come to mind. So you can send the end of the tape into whatever dark corner you need to send it, then turn on a flashlight that only lights up the numbers, or lights up the tape body itself so you can check to see if you are where you need it to be. If you can confirm all that, then just read the reading in the dark, from wherever you’re standing. This solves the “Old Eyes” argument as well, as it would light up only what your eyes absolutely NEED to see.
I would prefer that than an unreliable, UNREPLACEABLE, battery that powers an LED without a guarantee it will reach all the way to the end of where it needs to be read.
This LED idea is just that… an Idea. Not a particularly good one, but we are moving in the approximate direction to solve certain tight-space measuring and inspecting needs. Plumbing, Electrical, Server Placement, Fire Inspection… There’s a whole host of reasons for a light-up tape. But, it has to be a guaranteed useful, replaceable, and even DISPOSABLE product to be worth marketing. We’re past the days when gimmicks alone are enough to snag a market. We have too much information at our fingertips, and there’s too many of us who have seen the bad ideas go REALLY bad to not call these gimmicks out on their false advertising. And we’re on this site along side so many generations of these kinds of experienced users, that the inexperienced users are easily shielded from getting caught in these traps.
So I say False… It’s NOT needed. But someone has to pick up this idea and refine it until it serves the promised purpose.
Jay
It seemed a bit gimmicky but for $15 I bought one (same price as the non-led tapes on amazon). I don’t measure much in the dark but it is handy knowing I have effectively a small flashlight on me just in case.
I also use their quick draw belt clip so I only use komelon tape measures. I run a portable sawmill (Woodmizer LT40 super) so I used to wear out my belt or pants pockets constantly measuring logs and lumber. The belt clip just about changed my life and works way better than the spider tool holster or magnogrip.
I’ve also learned to completely avoid their self lock tapes. Any pine pitch or mud and the tape is done. Twice I’ve killed them in a day. My last Gripper went a few months before the tape started to tear around the 16″ mark (coincidentally about my average log diameter). Unfortunately the self lock tapes are the ones most stores carry, which is how I ended up with an led tape measure off amazon.
I don’t beat it up at work but I do feel kind of cool walking around home depot with it.