A stud finder is nice for, properly, discovering studs you may’t see. Realizing the place your studs are is essential for hanging up heavy gadgets, like mirrors or mounts for flat-screen TVs.
Studs—the wood or steel beams that your drywall is hooked up to—are probably the most sturdy place to sink weight-bearing anchors into drywall to make sure your wall hangings don’t fall.
Some stud finders produce other options, too, like deep scanning and AC wire detection. This helps forestall you from hitting a pipe or wire when hanging one thing up—a mistake that may rapidly grow to be an costly one. That doesn’t imply that stud finders work like X-ray imaginative and prescient, although—there’s so much happening in partitions, and it may be laborious, regardless of advances in tech, for any machine to find out what’s a pipe and what’s a wire, as an example.
To check all of the options, we put a collection of the stud finders by their paces on a wall of our personal making and partitions in actual properties. We examined a number of choices to seek out the very best stud finders for dwelling and business use, whether or not you simply want a hand hanging up your new cabinets otherwise you’re hoping to keep away from injury whilst you work inside the drywall.
Greatest Stud Finders
What to Take into account
Magnetic Versus Digital Stud Finders
Magnetic stud finders work by waving the magnet alongside the wall till it catches on the fasteners that connect drywall to the studs. Since fasteners could also be spaced over a foot aside on a single stud, it might take longer to find one with a magnetic stud finder, however that is an inexpensive and easy choice.
Magnetic stud finders aren’t all the time probably the most correct, although—they depend on the fastener really being pushed into the stud. If the builder missed the stud, so will the magnetic stud finder. In business development, the place steel studs are normal, it’s possible you’ll discover magnetic stud finders extra helpful.
Most digital stud finders work by sending out a sign from a sensor inside, then studying the sign that bounces again. When the sign adjustments, the stud finder beeps or flashes to let you realize it’s discovered a stud.
Some additionally establish steel pipes or electrical wires. Essentially the most superior stud finders use know-how like ground-penetrating radar, which makes use of radar pulses to create a subsurface picture.
For many occasional dwelling makes use of, like hanging footage or lavatory mirrors, a magnetic stud finder does the trick. In the event you plan on hanging heavier gadgets or something that’ll bear weight, like a shelf or a motorcycle rack, you would possibly wish to get an digital stud finder to be sure to’re heading in the right direction.
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Stud finders have their jobs minimize out for them, given the various variables in wall supplies and development. Whilst you might get definitive ends in one case, you can be left scratching your head in one other. Take all the things with a grain of salt, and use the stud finder along with the position {of electrical} and plumbing fixtures to determine issues out. Scroll to the underside for extra recommendation on the way to get probably the most out of your stud finder.
How We Evaluated
For our evaluations, we constructed a four-by-eight-foot wall from widespread supplies: wooden and steel studs; drywall; copper, black, pex, and PVC pipes; and nonmetallic sheathed cable. Then, we scanned the wall with every of the stud finders.
All functioned as anticipated when it got here to detecting the studs, however we rapidly discovered that a few of them didn’t work as marketed. We additionally took the stud finders to 2 properties—one, a mid-1800s home with lath and plaster, and the opposite, a Seventies tract home—for real-world testing.
We discovered a number of stud finders that labored nice, and used our DIY and carpentry experience right here at Widespread Mechanics to find out which stud finders have been greatest for varied makes use of. We additionally advocate just a few that we haven’t had an opportunity to check out but, however that we expect are promising based mostly on product specs and person evaluations.
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BEST OVERALL
Bosch GMS120 Stud Finder
BEST OVERALL
Bosch GMS120 Stud Finder
Key Specs
Weight17.7 ouncesMaterialPlastic, metalDimensions6.5 x 10.25 x 3 in.
Bosch’s GMS120 is rather more than a stud finder (although it did find the facilities inside an eighth of an inch). It may additionally detect stay AC wiring, steel objects, plastic pipes full of water, and even rebar in concrete. This Bosch unit has audible tones, an illuminated ring across the sensor space, and an LCD display screen—and all three work in live performance, guiding you to what you’re scanning for.
The ring turns pink when over a stud, whereas the display screen offers live-wire alerts and shows a bull’s-eye to point the stud’s heart. Although the GMS120 didn’t discover wiring in our wall, it did choose it up pretty precisely within the check homes.
This Hart Skilled stud finder is likely one of the greatest values on this record, if not for its 9 sensors, then for no calibration required. This machine can immediately discover wooden and steel studs, and a number of LEDs detect and monitor the place objects are so customers may be cautious of wires, pipes, and stay wires. Every object is tracked with lights that transfer with the machine as you glide it in opposition to a wall, with pink indicating studs and yellow exhibiting stay wires.
The show reveals the complete width of objects with a max depth of 1.5 inches, and a built-in pencil holder makes marking issues straightforward. Whereas we haven’t had the possibility to check this ourselves, varied shoppers say this Hart machine is likely one of the greatest stud finders they’ve used, rivaling premium choices with its 9 sensors. It may’t detect studs in plaster partitions, however at its value, it’s a stable worth purchase with lots to supply.
Most Reasonably priced
Craftsman Hello-Vis Stud Sensor
Most Reasonably priced
Craftsman Hello-Vis Stud Sensor
Key Specs
Weight1.76 ouncesMaterialPlasticDimensions7.28 x 4.09 x 1.34 in.
In the event you solely have to discover a stud, Craftsman’s Hello-Vis Stud Sensor does precisely that. It’s easy and efficient, designed to find the sides of wooden and steel studs. Urgent the button on the facet, we slid it slowly alongside the wall, keeping track of the indicator. When it lit up, we have been on the fringe of a stud. That indicator stayed on till we handed the opposite edge, then we slid the unit again over the stud to substantiate and mark the sides earlier than pinpointing the middle. The device persistently discovered studs below drywall as much as three-quarters of an inch thick in our testing.
Most Moveable
The StudBuddy Magnetic Stud Finder
Most Moveable
The StudBuddy Magnetic Stud Finder
Key Specs
Weight1.6 ouncesMaterialPlasticDimensions5.75 x 1 x 1.25 in.
For locating studs, issues don’t get a lot less complicated than the StudBuddy. Utilizing it, we effortlessly situated nails, screws, or steel studs by sliding it in an “S” sample, backwards and forwards on a wall. Two sturdy neodymium magnets brought on the StudBuddy to snap to ferrous fasteners or studs once we acquired inside about three-quarters of an inch of them.
Sliding it up or down rapidly confirmed extra hits, and the situation and course of studs. We discovered it labored even higher on steel studs as a result of fewer affirmation “hits” have been required. The StudBuddy may additionally find different ferrous metals within the wall, like ductwork or electrical packing containers—so scanning to substantiate stud orientation is necessary.
DeWalt’s DW0150 persistently discovered stud facilities, finding each wooden and steel equally properly by each 1⁄2- and three⁄4-inch drywall. An alert within the type of an LED arrow pointed towards the studs, and we discovered that touring over the stud after which again till the DW0150 picked up the middle was practically 100% correct.
(We give DeWalt kudos, too, for together with a window within the heart, which made marking stud facilities with a pencil straightforward.) The machine additionally detects AC wiring—it was dependable by a 1⁄2 inch of drywall however solely intermittent below the three⁄4-inch selection.
BEST CENTER-FINDER
Zircon MultiScanner A200 Wall Scanner
BEST CENTER-FINDER
Zircon MultiScanner A200 Wall Scanner
Key Specs
Weight12.3 ouncesMaterialPlasticDimensions9.13 x 6.34 x 3.7 in. (package deal dimensions)
Zircon’s A200 is a strong wall scanner with three scan modes. In our testing, it discovered the studs, iron and copper pipes, and stay AC electrical wires in our wall. It was additionally very dependable and correct, detecting studs and indicating their facilities by projecting a pink arrow on the wall. After we handed over stay wires, the display screen displayed an icon indicating the wires had electrical energy operating by them.
Whereas utilizing it in devoted metal-scan mode, we discovered it straightforward to distinguish between steel plumbing pipes and wooden studs. It was a bit of trickier if steel studs have been current, however realizing the stud spacing helped us type issues out.
In deep-scan mode, the A200 didn’t choose up PVC pipes within the wall except they’d water in them. We have been capable of differentiate between pipes and studs by toggling between stud scan and deep scan. And the A200 offered all this data on its illuminated display screen.
Most Versatile
Craftsman CMHT77623 Stud Finder
Most Versatile
Craftsman CMHT77623 Stud Finder
Key Specs
Weight5.6 ouncesMaterialPlasticDimensions5.88 x 0.3 x 9.25 in.
Craftsman’s center-finding unit has LEDs to point scan standing and information you to the middle of the stud—orange ones gentle up once you’re over the stud, and pink ones point out once you hit the middle. Scanning slowly in a single course, previous the middle, after which again acquired us correct outcomes over 1⁄2- and three⁄4-inch drywall.
The AC-detection mode was obscure, indicating an space three to 4 inches extensive when it picked up the wiring. However repeated passes allowed us to find out the wiring’s path. In normal scan mode, the Craftsman situated some copper pipe, which was odd, however the pipe was too slender to be a stud and the machine by no means registered a middle.
Equally, it detected black pipe in steel mode. (Observe that though it situated the pipes, the stud finder couldn’t, nor was it designed to, establish them as such.) Nonetheless, these readings may help you establish different objects within the wall it’s possible you’ll wish to watch out round.
Stud-Discovering Ideas from Our Knowledgeable, Bradley Ford
Most studs are spaced at 16-inch intervals—discover one, and the subsequent stud must be about that very same distance in both course. Adjustments in spacing normally occur close to the ends of partitions or doorways and home windows.
In case your stud finder appears to be selecting issues up between the studs, it may very well be detecting steel or plastic plumbing elements, electrical packing containers or wiring, or steel ductwork. To fight this, scan above and beneath the purpose to make sure it continues to the ground or ceiling. If it doesn’t, it may very well be one thing aside from a stud.
Electrical wires normally run vertically on the facet of a stud and generally horizontally between retailers. If there are lighting fixtures, switches, and retailers on a wall, you may make an informed guess as to the place the wires may be.
Take note of the place the kitchen and loos are, too—water provide and waste pipes for the second ground are sometimes present in partitions on the primary ground, beneath sinks, tubs, or showers. (Professional tip: In case your basement is unfinished, you may go down there to see the place the pipes go up on the ceiling.)
Listed here are just a few different ideas for locating studs each single time.
Don’t contact the wall with both hand whereas utilizing a stud finder—this could alter its readings.Some stud finders have to calibrate earlier than scanning, so begin away from switches, retailers, or lighting fixtures.Apply some painter’s tape over the realm you wish to scan. It’ll provide you with a floor on which to mark your findings with out having to write down on the wall.If you detect studs, objects, or stay wires, mark them with a pencil or tape.Freshly painted partitions could also be troublesome to scan for just a few weeks as a result of moisture within the paint.
Kevin Cortez is an editor for Runner’s World, Bicycling, and Widespread Mechanics masking evaluations. A tradition and product journalist for over ten years, he’s an professional in males’s type, know-how, gaming, espresso, e-bikes, mountain climbing, gear, and all issues open air. He most lately labored because the Model Editor for Reviewed, a prime product suggestion website owned by USA TODAY. He additionally helped with the launch of WSJ’s Purchase Facet commerce vertical, and has lined the music and podcast industries for Mass Attraction, Genius, Vulture, Leafly, Enter, and The A.V. Membership. Equally obsessed with leisure as he’s his penmanship, Kevin dedicates his spare time to graphic novels, birding, making chilly brew, and taking lengthy, meandering walks.
Brad Ford has spent most of his life utilizing instruments to repair, construct, or make issues. Rising up he labored on a farm, the place he realized to weld, restore, and paint gear. From the farm he went to work at a traditional automotive seller, repairing and servicing Rolls Royces, Bentleys, and Jaguars. Right this moment, when he is not testing instruments or writing for Widespread Mechanics, he is busy maintaining with the tasks at his previous farmhouse in japanese Pennsylvania.
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