I highly recommend purchasing this stud finder, even if you don't have various projects around the house. My father used to be the person who would accurately install my house accessories. He always did things by the book and I was "that" DIY person that randomly nailed things into my wall without having a stud finder. Yep, totally guilty! After my father passed away, he wasn't there to make sure my wall ornaments or accessories were leveled, strongly held/properly supported and safely nailed and drilled into walls. After fighting my walls (haha) for not letting me install my heavy as heck curtain rod without falling, I said, "Okay dad, you win! I'll finally give in and get a stud finder and make you stop rolling over in your grave." I searched Amazon for quite sometime in hopes of finding something that was affordable, good quality, and accurate and stumbled upon this little gem after going through various stud finders and reviews. It came quickly, brand new, and worked perfectly. It took a few seconds to recognize where the studs and wires were and were not. And um....as you can see in the photo, I finally hung up my curtains correctly and they are holding up strong. What are those big dots within the record circle you ask? My many failed attempts of drilling into the wall only to hit God knows what and fail at my project. Now I can lay under my curtains without worrying that they are going to collapse on my head and send me straight to the afterlife, ha, ha! The adjustable depth and various options for inquiring about what exists behind the wall is great and the arrows easily point you in the direction of where you can safely drill. As I said, it's an easy and efficient drill that does its job without complicating life or frustrating you in the process. Even if youre just planning on hanging up something as simple as picture frames, trust me, this will save you time and ensure that you actually hung them properly and that they are secure. Hope this review helped anyone who needs it!

This "Stud Sensor" is as good as any other Stud Sensor and better than most. It "is" able to find studs behind drywall and it does warn of electrical lines. (What I cannot judge the is metal stud setting because I do not have metal studs.) What it simply cannot do well is: find studs behind plaster walls. Be it the half inch setting, the 1 inch setting, or the 1.5 inch setting, the sensor does not give confidence to use a fastener in a given spot. I was most certainly hoping this stud sensor could do exactly that. It cannot. I suspect the technology is just not available for my particular needs such as plaster walls, a very precise task. (My 35 year old Craftsman stud senor cannot handle plaster walls either.) Instead I get these ghost images telling me that I have studs every 6 inches or so. For me, stud sensor are getting better, but they just aren't there yet. It is a very nice stud sensor. It just doesn't solve my needs any better than my old Craftsman. For me it would be a 3.5 star but I will give it a 4 star because they did so well on drywall.

This stud finder is the first one I've owned that actually works well. It is very good at finding studs and the ability to detect A/C power lines is a very nice bonus. If your walls are quite thick or if there is stuff like paneling in the way (I have paneling), you may have to play with the stud size option and move pretty slowly. It will, however, find your studs reliably and the "center" detection appears to be spot-on.

Don't believe the marketing for this product; it simply doesn't find any studs. You are better off tapping on your wall to find a solid sound, then measuring in 16" increments to find other studs. This device is ineffective.

Update: I was using it wrong. My fault! It seems to be pretty effective, when used properly. I'm a dum-dum!

Once you get used to how to use it, it works very well & is spot on with metal, wood, etc.