A good set of digital vernier calipers make precisely measuring part sizes and gaps extremely straight-forward, making them an extremely valuable addition to your toolkit for your ride or hobby. Kincrome make a variety of digital vernier calipers – today we will be looking at the 150mm hardened stainless steel model, no. K11100 (eBay). The specs are:
- 0.01mm resolution
- Accuracy <100mm + or – 0.01mm
- Accuracy >100mm + or – 0.03mm
- Measuring speed of 1.5ms or better
- Working temperature range 0 to 40 degrees Celsius
- Working humidity range of less than 80%
- Storage temperature -10 to 60 degrees Celsius
- Auto power-off
- Powered by a CR2032 3V button cell battery
- Hardened stainless steel construction
- 12 month warranty
The calipers come in a blue plastic case:
The case is fairly sturdy, and quite well padded:
The foam is quite firm and molded to fit the calipers; it seems to do quite a good job of keeping them safe in the box. As they are a precision instrument it is recommended that you place them back in their padded box once you are finished using them. Also in the box you can see a user manual with tips on how to use the calipers:
and a spare battery:
Taking a closer look at the calipers now, you can see the LCD screen is quite easy to read:
Below it are two buttons, mm/in/F and ZERO:
The left button changes the reading from millimeters to inches or fractions of an inch, and the right button zeroes the reading at the current setting. On the other side of the LCD screen we have a dial for holding the calipers at the current position:
…and on the back we have two charts:
There is a little lip on the rule side:
…which pulls out to reveal the battery:
Battery holder fully removed:
The flipside of the battery holder has a small black plastic shield to prevent debris on the rule from being pushed into the device:
This model isn’t weather sealed (though some online stores advertise it as such) – you can see there’s no weather sealing on the battery compartment or around where it seats:
In this price range, though, that’s not really a common feature. Once you move the calipers they power on automatically, and here you can see switching between metric:
…inches:
…and fractions of an inch:
The other side of the calipers is used for measuring inside objects:
Here you can see there is a slight lip on the rule end of the calipers, allowing them to be placed over slight ridges which would otherwise prevent an accurate reading:
So, how do they stack up in use? Just as simple and easy to use as you might expect! Here is an example – measuring the thickness of a brake disc:
We did a quick comparison with a $25 house-brand set of digital calipers and came away happy that the Kincrome model held the values better; the cheaper set fluctuated ~0.07mm where the Kincrome set fluctuated 0.01mm on the same measurement of a piece of metal. It could have been bad luck with the cheaper set, but if we manage to get our hands on a third set of digital vernier calipers we’ll post back with a slightly more scientific comparison.
At around $78AU at your local hardware store it’s a reasonably priced set; there’s not many others in the same price range with more features, and none that we have found with more resolution. You can find a variety of sets for around $45 which have slightly less accuracy; typically 0.03mm across their 150mm range. $30-odd difference for 0.02mm stated accuracy <100mm is worth it in our books for the kind of work we do – if you don’t need to be that accurate, though, it could be worth looking at the lower ranges. 150mm is enough for many people’s needs; if you’re in the market for a set take a look at the maximum lengths that you’ll commonly be measuring, as you’ll save a fair bit of money – the 200mm Kincrome model in the same range is ~$140AU locally, and the 300mm ~$230. You can find them cheaper online, of course. The spare battery is a nice inclusion, though they’re quite cheap should you need more.
Overall, if you are in the market for a <$100 set of digital vernier calipers definitely give these Kincrome models a look – they’re reasonably priced, have good accuracy and are readily available. Check them out on eBay!