In this article I will be reviewing the Klein Tools Digital Angle Gauge and Level 935DAG. As a full disclosure, Klein Tools was kind enough to send me a product sample of the digital angle gauge at no cost to me and as always I will provide my honest unbiased feedback. I am not paid or swayed in any way to give a positive review.
The Klein Tools Digital Angle Gauge is a neat little electronic tool to give you accurate angle readings on the spot. It’s very small and portable making it pocketable and it’s LCD display gives you instant angle readings on the fly. The LCD is also backlit at all times meaning it can easily be read in low light and the negative black background display means it should be easy to read outside in a bright day.
The bottom of the device is magnetic meaning it can stick to most metal surfaces and each side of the angle gauge has a groove that makes it easy to mount on pipes such as conduit.
The angle gauge also doubles as a level and when you reach 0 degrees on the display, you know the surface it’s resting on is level.
The operation is quite simple as there’s only two buttons with the left button being the power on/off button and to zero out the gauge (more on that in a moment) and the right button holds whatever info is on the screen which is convenient to hold an angle measurement and jot down even after it’s away from the surface.
The zero function is great function for calibrating saws like table saws and miter saws. This is because lets say you’re using a portable table saw and you’re out in the yard on a surface that’s not perfectly level and you want to tilt the blade to 45 degrees. This is simple as you just place the angle gauge on the table saw table surface which most likely won’t be at 0 degrees, no problem as the zero button takes care of this and will make whatever angle it’s on pretend it’s at a level zero degrees. Then you can stick the angle gauge on the side of the blade and tilt until the gauge says 45 degrees and the 45 degree angle will be relative to the table top surface.
As far as accuracy is concerned, I put it against my trusted Empire level by placing the Empire level on a level surface and getting the dial as centered as possible. Then I placed the Klein digital gauge on top of the Empire level and the Klein angle gauge showed 0.02 degrees which is pretty close. Under the same setup I tilted the Empire level until the Klein was at a perfect 0.00 degrees level. When the Klein was perfectly level, the bubble on the dial of the Empire was still within the two center lines but closer to the left line. Hard for me to tell which of the two is the more accurate level but they are both very close.
I also like that the display of the Klein shows a single flat line when it’s perfectly at 0.00 degrees level and the line turns into two lines at a pivot point as soon as the gauge reports anything over 0.00 degrees which lets you know in which direction the angle is favoring. I also liked that if the gauge is placed upside down, the display also auto compensates so the readings are right side up, in other words it rotates the readings so you don’t have to turn your head. This only works if the unit is upside down but not sideways. Also make sure the gauge is always standing up, if it ever gets tilted forward or backwards such as placing the gauge on it’s back, it will get an err (error) message.
Build quality is overall very good with a sturdy plastic used on the housing. My only complaint has to do with the material that covers the LCD display as it’s a very thin plastic film. I’m afraid that this plastic film will do very little to protect the display and might be prone to scratches. I feel that Klein should have went with a thick durable plastic lens instead. Plastic lenses can still scratch but at least I wouldn’t have to worry that the display would get damaged if the gauge landed on the corner of a hard object.
Overall the Klein Tools digital angle gauge is a very useful little tool for accurate angle readings on the spot. It works great for finding angles and a great tool for calibrating power saws like table and miter saws with it’s built in zero function. The grooves on the sides makes it perfect for placing on top of pipe like conduit. My only grip is the cheap and flimsy display film as it offers zero protection for the LCD display in the event of direct impact. Other than that, great tool and it’s priced right at $30.
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