Vent: Why does nobody check their stud finder battery before starting?

Spent last Saturday hanging some heavy shelves in my living room. Third hole I drilled, the bit just spun free and I knew I hit a void. Turns out my stud finder was beeping at air gaps because the battery was dying. I pulled it out of the wall and patched it, but now I have three useless holes. Has anyone else had a stud finder lie to them because of low power?

2 comments

2 Comments

alice99113d agoTop Commenter

Ugh, that's the worst. I read somewhere that battery life on those things drops fast in cold weather, even just from sitting in a garage or basement. Could be you had a perfectly fine stud finder that just got zapped by the temperature. Good reminder to always test it on a known stud first before committing.

sean_martin4413d ago

Wait, is this really that big of a deal though? I've had my cheap stud finder sitting in a cold garage all winter and never noticed any issues. Unless it's some super fancy digital model, I feel like a basic one either works or it doesn't, temperature doesn't change that much. Battery life in cold is definitely a thing for phones and stuff, but for something that just beeps and lights up, the drain is probably negligible. Maybe the garage theory is right, but I'd still blame the tool itself before I'd blame a little temperature fluctuation. Kinda seems like overthinking it, but your mileage may vary.