Side by Side Comparison of: Franklin Sensors Inc. vs Zircon

This tool has pulled my a$$ out of the fire on a few occasions. Initially I bought it to find studs of course but I have found it very handy for other projects besides mounting things to walls. I also found it handy for finding rafters on a shingled roof for mounting solar panel racks. Also it is great for when you have to pull wire through walls and you have to identify any obstacles in your path, especially in older homes! It is very sensitive and accurate. I don't use it a lot, but when I do, it is usually a sticky situation and it saves time and money on the job. Its nice having ex ray vision readily available in my tool bag, so its a great tool to have in your arsenal. 5 stars!

I've been using this stud finder for a while now around the house and from the video you can probably tell that I've tried my fair share of stud finders before purchasing this one. Unlike other stud finders that work primarily by beeping at you, this one has a bright visual display of the stud's location and anyone can use it! No false negatives/positives.

Things you should know: A stud should be 3 lights (1.5"), if you get more lights than this, it might NOT BE A STUD! Be careful! If you aren't sure, check with a thin nail or look at surroundings to see if it could be something else (electrical outlets, odd plumbing, etc)

5/5 stars because this IS the boss of all other stud finders. I think I've used about 6 different stud finders just hoping that one would be different and simple to use. Well this one IS different because it IS simple to use. Your wife, mom, even grandmother could use it without any difficulty. Franklin sensors really knew what they were doing and I know this review seems like other reviews, but hopefully the video demonstration helps you guys see how this works vs other sensors. If this review helps you, let me know!

Like many reviewers here I have bought my share of wall sensors, hoping each time I would finally get one that actually does the job reliably, only to get disappointed whether it was a $10 gadget or a $150 'pro' model. No, I did not go all the way to the $800 Bosch D-Tect 150 detector, there are limits to everything.So I was really intrigued when I saw so many great reviews of this apparently very simple stud finder. And yes, after putting two batteries in it, I was able to scan a whole wall in 2 minutes. No calibration, no random results, it just works. Awesome. First time I am using a wall sensor that is actually useful for doing the job! 5 stars, clearly.One tiny issue though, which might or might not bother you: instructions state that you should use Alkaline batteries, and not rechargeable. I have stopped using non-rechargeable batteries a long time ago, so this is a bit disappointing. That said, a freshly charged set of NiMH AA batteries seem to be working mostly fine, so this is not a complete show-stopper, but I sure wish this tool had been designed to be compatible with rechargeable batteries from the start.

I grew up in a family of contractors. For us, a stud finder was a hammer and a finish nail we poked in the wall until we hit one. The other electronic stud finders gave too many false readings so they just gathered dust and we got really good at patching drywall.

My brother-in-law gave me a Franklin Sensors stud finder for Christmas this year. When I saw how many sensors it had I wondered why no one had thought of this before. Somewhat skeptical, I tried it out. It worked like a charm. It lights up right where the studs are.

Next time I visited my parents, I took my new stud finder over to show off my new toy. My dad and I tested it throughout the house. It worked on wood and metal studs. (We built the house so we knew what walls had wood or metal studs).

The hammer and finish nail approach works but if you aren't into fixing drywall just to hang a picture, I highly recommend the Franklin Sensors Stud Finder. Any other stud finder will just gather dust in my shop.

UPDATE 5/15/12 - I recently remodeled my kitchen and putting in new cabinets gave me the chance to put this stud finder to work. It was really helpful with finding studs and because of the many sensors, I could find and mark both edges of the stud.

There were a few times where I thought I was getting false readings. Once where I was putting in the sink cabinet but then I realized the stud finder detects density. I was getting a reading where I knew there wasn't a stud but I have copper vent pipes and it was right where I expected the vent pipe would be.

In another spot, it would light up like I had a stud but if I went above or below in the same area on the wall, it would not light up. Then I remembered that I patched a hole in the Sheetrock there and have a small piece of 2x4 in the wall to screw the patch to.

This Stud Finder exceeded my expectations. You still have to use your brain so you don't end up putting a screw in a vent pipe but I am happy with the ProSensor 710.

I think it would be nice to have a way to keep it on. The button works but sometimes it's awkward to hold it down. If there was a button but also a way to lock it down, I think that would be great.

I hate dragging a small "typical" electric stud finder across the wall, they're narrow and keeping the button pressed down is a pain while moving it. This stud finder is easier to slide across the wall and faster. But pin-pointing the center of the stud is not as accurate. So if I'm planning to mount something heavy to a stud then I end up using the other kind of finder in order to get a true center. So it's a mixed bag... depending on what you need out of a stud finder. I'm perfectly ok with having a few around.

I've used various stud finders and this one seems to be accurate; you do tend to get some false positives at time but I use a magnetic little finder to confirm readings on the ProSensor. Overall, I would recommend.

This is a very good product for sensing studs and it works great - much faster and accurate than my Home Depot bought Zircon unit. However there is one issue that prevented 5 stars and that is the granularity in the sensors. As you can see the sensors are 1/2 inch or so apart and you will have about the same distance uncertainty in the edge detection of the studs. You can still find the center of a stud well enough for nailing and the edges also with some extrapolation. Using both this unit for fast and accurate detection and the Zircon for edges, I can be fairly certain in location. If I had my choice of only one unit, this is it. Going over a wall, the stud locations are obvious. This is something I can not say about the ZIRCON. Less obvious are the small areas of sensor activity that could be wires or pipes or who knows what. The unit does not detect AC but you will not find an AC cable between a stud and the wallboard ( at least you shouldn't, but who knows what some people will do?).

Doesn't do as good a job as I had hoped but it DOES do a hugely better job than the old el cheapo nail finder because it shows you were the studs are and then it's easy to find the nails (with a nail finder) by just moving up and down along that line. As advertised, it does not work on plaster-and-lathe walls, which is annoying but expected.

In particular, the nail-finder tells you nothing about the overall positioning of the stud and if the drywall installation happened to have a nail on one side of the stud, your positioning for driving a nail through the drywall could easily be too far on one side of the stud, whereas with this baby you can see pretty much where the edges of the stud are and you certainly can be more confident of knowing where the center is. I found some unexpected double studs and even a triple in one corner that I would have never known about with just a nail finder.

So ... a bit pricey but a good tool. I give it only 4 stars because of the price and the slightly inexact location of stud edges.

You DO, by the way, have to move it back and forth horizontally a few times to be sure you know where the stud edges are but that's not a big deal.

Expensive, but if you need to find multiple studs quickly, it's a very handy tool. But the tool isn't suitable in finding the exact center of the stud because the LED lamps are 1/2 inch apart. It will light up the nearest LED to the stud's edges, but it still is approximate. If you don't need to find the exact center, it works fine.

The reason I gave four stars instead of five is because it completely stopped working in 2 months. (No, it's not the battery. I put new ones). Now I will have to figure out how to return it since it's past Amazon's 30 day return policy on the item....

Update: I contacted Amazon and the maker for warranty service, and both responded promptly and courteously. The maker offered an option of either full refund or exchange with paid return shipping, along with an apology. For that they get my respect, and I am inclined to believe that I was just unlucky to get a 'lemon.' As mentioned, its performance was satisfactory.

Great product would recommend to this anyone.

For $50 its not as impressive as i thought from the reviews it malfunction on my drywall maybe it would be great for 1/2 in drywall and thiner but i have the type of drywall that will break your hand if you punch it and this does not work well on it at all.

Sometimes this thing works amazingly finding studs under 3/4 inch plywood. Other times you can't get it to pick up anything until you try 4 or 5 times even on drywall. I do like it for showing how wide the stud is, but the hit and miss on studs will drive you nuts. Even when you know they are there.

A little deceiving, though it will detect studs and metal it will work good on smooth surfaces but if it is tile, stucco or other rough surface it will give you a false reading. Yes it does detect density so any gaps or dips say grout lines will be detected. 3* is a fair rating seeing other detectors will work just as good, the top end detector are out of my price range so can't compare it with them.

I had already found the studs using nails prior to purchasing this product. I am hanging something pretty expensive in my garage so I purchased this to make absolutely sure I found the correct spot in the stud before hanging it.

For the most part it seemed to work pretty much as advertised. However there were a two locations where I new there was a stud and the unit didn't register the location. In one area it registered the stud in a slightly different location than where I had marked. I placed a nail where the unit indicated was the center of the stud and the nail went through the sheetrock without hitting anything. That somewhat lowered my confidence in the accuracy of the device.

In its defense, it's possible the nail went directly between the two beams that were joined together (not likely though). There are other units cheaper than this one. I paid the added cost hoping it would give me even more confidence that I was in the exact right location. Didn't really get that absolute confidence. Keep in mind that I am in no way and "handy" person so this could totally be an incompetence issue.

READ BELOW BEFORE YOU TEST THIS ON YOUR PAINTED WALL (especially if the sheen is flat)...

This is a brilliant idea. It does what it is supposed to do and does it well. That would normally get 5 stars from me.

The execution of the idea, however, really blew it on a very simple detail. The back of this stud finder, the side that you slide along the wall, has two black teflon strips on it. These are used instead of the fuzzy fabric that most stud finders include. The problem is that those strips leave marks on your painted wall.

The whole point of using a stud finder is to minimize drywall damage. If I'm going to have to break out the paint roller anyway, I don't need a stud finder. I can just nail into the wall until I find a stud and then patch and paint my misses.

So minus 2 stars for a giant duh on behalf of the manufacturer. I would take more off, except that it is pretty easy to remedy this yourself. You can put a paper towel in between it and the wall, or (and I haven't tried this yet to see if it effects the operation of the device) cut some velcro strips (the soft side) to adhere to the back of it.

Still getting the hang of it, just fiddled with it a bit. But will update when used a bit more time.

Purchased from Home Depot for locating studs behind tiled walls of shower. I wanted to install a grab bar. The HD800 was inaccurate/could not get a clear reading on vertical studs. I specifically bought this since it advertised it could find studs behind tile. Seems to work fine on regular drywall surfaces.

Got this as a xmas gift. Was excited to try it as my 10 year old stud finder just wasn't cutting it anymore. Bought a new 9 v Duracell battery. Used it on a 3/4" thick drywall to find a stud to hang some shelving units. Held the unit against the wall, pushed the button, waited for 3 sec and moved the unit slowly to the right with only one hand holding the device. Indicated a stud was found but must have been a narrow one (less than 1 inch wide). Continued to move to the right another 3-4 inches. Then moved the unit to the left retracing the path it had already taken. Didn't find the same stud. Tried this numerous times. Still didn't reliably find the stud. But where it did indicate a stud was located I hammered a nail into the region (NO STUD). Tried it in several locations where it indicated a stud was found. NO STUD.I read the instructions, and used a thin piece of cardboard thinking this would help. It didn't. Considering how much this thing cost it ought to work a lot better than NOT AT ALL!!! Sorry Zircon, but this thing is as useful as a glass hammer.Updated Feb 20, 2016: Zircon left feedback to my original post to call them which I did. They gave me some suggestions which seemed to help to reliably find a stud. Note, the wall I am scanning is not smooth drywall, but has a textured or orange-peel effect. That may be part of the problem. Nevertheless, it is too bad that these additional instructions aren't included with the product packaging. One other note. After you place the tools next to the wall and turn on the power it is supposed to 'beep' according to the instructions on the back of the tool. Mine doesn't. And if you turn it on and the 'arrow' symbol appears, you have placed the tool on top of a stud. This occurs not matter where the tool is placed. So I am changing my star rating to a '3' and will once again call Zircon for further help.

Nothing special. It isn't magic. It works adequately on simple interior walls finished with 1/2 inch drywall. It gives false readings on walls made of plaster, walls with wiring inside, walls with pipes inside, walls with varying thicknesses of drywall, and walls containing foil insulation. The array of LED's is handy. Aside from that, it's no better than any other cheap (or expensive) ultrasonic stud sensor.

UPDATE: This product failed after about 3 months of use; it started giving bogus readings and incorrectly flashing lights. Franklin Sensors replaced it under warranty.

UPDATE 2: The sensor failed completely in early 2017. All in all, it lasted 3.5 years. This is a poor return on a $50 investment. Buy something different.

Not very good for plaster walls pre-1960. I bought this thinking this might be better than other stud finders for plaster walls. I was wrong. Testing it showed it was totally useless on my walls. I wish they would have been more open that the results are inconclusive/inaccurate for plaster walls. It does say on instructions that it will probably not work well for plaster walls pre-1960. It's in the instructions...but too late...you already bought it.

I have used the ProSensor 710 for about a year now, and I find that it works well when you are using it to locate 2x4 studs behind drywall (gypsum board).

However it does not work with 1/2 inch thick plywood. It shows false stud locations and frequently misses the actual studs. I suspect this is due to a combination of the ProSensor's less sensitive sensor array and the fact that plywood is of course wood itself, so the sensor is confused.

Summary:

Pro: If you are mainly using this for hanging pictures, it will work fine. The display is very straight-forward and it is easy to visualize where the stud is.

Con: If you are working with plywood walls or lattice boards this device isn't sensitive enough. I would suggest the Zircon i520 stud finder instead.

I use stud sensors frequently, and I bought this after reading a LOT of the hype. The problem is-it's great on a sheet of drywall on studs, which is not most walls where I live. As soon as you add sheer-wall, dual-layer drywall, lathe-plaster, it is useless. I read up on this thing, and I was convinced that the multi-sensor technology was the advantage this sensor had over the others. It is supposed to scan 1.5" deep. This 1.5" MUST be drywall only. 1 3/8 (3/4 sheer w 5/8 drywall) was more than it could handle.

It's definitely a great concept buck lacks a little in execution. The materials aren't great and I'm not sure how long it will last in a tool box but that's a different issue. My problem with this is that while almost 100% accurate that there's something behind the drywall, there's no indication as to what. I'm a contractor and currently finishing a house so I tested it on a few walls I have photos of and know what's there. A little common sense and experience can go a long way in deciphering the readings but sometimes it just doesn't work that way.

As an example, an 1 1/2" drain/vent from a bathroom sink looks the same as a stud (and no, it's not always obvious where they are. If the pipe is run sideways at all for any reason you wouldn't know where it is). There's also the issue of a wire along a stud. Now 4 lights light up, so is it a stud or a pipe? In bathrooms where there are multiple windows the spacing rules go out the window as jack studs intrude at every window and should there be a stud within an inch or two yet another false 8 light reading where really there's a space between.

Bottom line is I'm still using it as a test because I like the concept but my old Stanley is more accurate, and includes the detection of a/c current.

Disregarding some of the very few negative reviews, I decided to purchase this product. It worked flawlessly, and was the best stud finder I owned... for about 4 months (the warranty only lasts for 3).

After this, despite having done -literally nothing- to it between now and the last time I used it (and keeping it stored in an indoor climate controlled environment), it's now completely dead. Buyer beware- it would seem that there are quality control issues with this product, which is shameful given its price.

Maybe I got a bad one, but it's very flaky and it can be hard to get a reading. My other stud finder, the one with a single light, is much more reliable. And this thing EATS batteries. I've had to replace batteries twice and I just got it. I think it must be draining them all the time rather than just during use.

Worked OK for awhile, then busted like all electronic stud finders.
Super strong magnets work much, much better and they never wear out or need batteries!

Bought in September 6, used for one day. Worked great! Tried to use it to hang new tv in December and it no longer works. First I thought "it needs fresh batteries". Replaced batteries and still, no cigar.
Tested both old and new batteries, and they are both fully charged. The device no longer works.Very disappointed.

This is a great idea, and a nice design, but it inconsistently finds studs and leaves black marks on my wall.

I live in a New York City apartment with wooden studs and standard drywall. I've run this device over my wall slowly, from side to side, and it is able to find studs occasionally: on some passes, it finds them and tracks them, and on other passes, it doesn't find any studs at all. I've done this numerous times over the span of a couple of days, to the same result; I really wanted this to work, but unfortunately, it does not. Using a cheap $8 magnetic stud finder was a far better and more consistent experience for me.

Super unreliable. You 'locate' a stud then try to double check and its in a different place. Confidence killed. Going in the bin.

It is not working well. (Maybe that one I bought was a defect product.) It is totally not able to find a stud.

Don't bother with this. It doesn't work. No matter how many times you can run it across known stud locations, it changes readings.This just doesn't work at all. It can only be described as abhorrent garbage.

This is a kids toy. It can't be real. It works sure. But randomly.Insane how expensive this kids toy is. According to this I have 79 studs in wall, zero in another. Most expensive kids toy I ever bought my kid.