The Best Tape Measure

A tape measure is the single most-used tool on a jobsite, and I’ve been using one on a daily basis for over 20 years. I spent 10 years in construction as a carpenter, foreman, and supervisor, and I've been writing about tools since 2007. I also completed a 3½-year full gut and remodel of my 100-year-old farmhouse, during which I had about 10 tape measures stashed all over the property (kitchen drawer, dresser drawer, mechanical room, laundry room, one in the truck, and half a dozen in my workshop).

For this guide, I read what few reliable articles I could find online (there aren’t many) and talked to two other tool experts: Clint DeBoer, editor of Pro Tool Reviews and the writer of a very thorough 12 tape measure showdown, and Mark Clement, licensed contractor and co-host of the MyFixitUpLife radio show.

After reading what we could, talking to our experts, and taking years of experience using tape measures into account, we found that the most important features of a tape measure are blade durability, case durability, tang (the metal hook at the end of the tape) size, stand-out, and ease of locking lever. Accuracy is important too, but all of the tapes we looked at fell within an acceptable margin of error. Both Clement and DeBoer warned against tapes loaded with additional features like pencil sharpeners. Clement summed things up: “Go simple. Keep it clean.”

For a tape to have a long, productive life, the most important factor is blade durability. As Clement said, “The blade of the tape measure almost always goes first.” That’s because over time, grit, dirt, and debris enter the tape through the mouth and grind against the blade as it gets extended and retracted over and over. DeBoer pointed out that the blade also rubs the point of entry every time it retracts. Most tapes have some sort of protective coating, but over time, it gets worn off. In an article in Tools of the Trade outlining the everyday carry tools for a professional framing crew, Tim Uhler explains, “When it’s wet (winter), [a Stanley FatMax] won’t last more than a month or so. Once enough mud and grit are pulled into the case, that’s it for the tape.” As a framer in the Pacific Northwest, he’s working in an extreme scenario, but the point is still taken.

Case durability is also important, but less so for a homeowner. Any quality tape can handle a normal 4-5-foot fall, and the heavy-duty construction ones, most outfitted with a rubbery padding, can go from four or five times that height. For my Popular Mechanics piece, I dropped a Stanley FatMax 25 feet onto asphalt and it only showed some scuff marks.¹

Another thing to look for is the design of the tang (the metal hook at the end of the tape). The most basic and easiest to use is a simple right-angled foot. The tang is riveted to the blade—but, surprisingly, it shouldn’t be riveted tightly. Instead, the tang needs to have a smooth back-and-forth movement so the tape will be accurate both on pull measurements, where you hook the tang over something like the edge of a board, and on push measurements, where you press the tang against an inside surface. The amount of movement should equal the thickness of the tang to ensure accuracy for both styles of measurement.²

Every tape has a slightly different tang, and both Clement and DeBoer warned against large ones. Clement used the term “headache” and DeBoer called them “unwieldy.” What happens is the tangs are so large that they catch on everything except what you actually want them to hook on—particularly the ones with top hooks that extend above the tape. The purpose of these is so you can send the tape underneath something (like a closed door) and then hook it from below. They’re useful in construction settings but are unnecessary for your everyday tasks.

Larger tangs can cause other problems as well. In Clement’s experience, “they tend to roll the tape over when you’re extending to hook something. It seems as though they literally catch the wind and the tape comes crashing down in a really thin heap of loud, flaccid steel.”

We also recommended avoiding magnetic tangs. Unless you’re working with steel studs or metallic electrical conduits, they’re a problem. First, the magnets are usually so powerful that they stick to everything, so don’t even try to take a measurement near your refrigerator. Secondly, they attract all manner of metal shavings, filings, and debris, making them difficult to keep clean. There is certainly a place for magnetic tapes, but the kitchen drawer is not it.

The stand-out of a tape is the distance that the blade can extend unsupported from the case and not collapse. In the industry it has become a bragging right to have the tape with the longest stand-out, with some tapes claiming to go as far as 13 feet. This mega distance can be helpful on a jobsite, but it’s really unnecessary for the home. Both DeBoer and Clement agreed that a tape measure that can stand out unsupported for 7-8 feet is more than enough for at-home use. While DeBoer doesn’t advocate always going for the longest stand-out, he also uses stand-out as a quality marker. “If your tape breaks downward at just 5-6 feet then it’s likely going to be a product that doesn’t last long in other areas as well.”

A large factor in stand-out is the width of the blade (wider blade typically means longer stand-out). Tape width generally ranges from ¾ inch up to 1¼ inch. Anything less than an inch, though, is going to be flimsy, while the fatter blades (those above the 1-inch mark) make for a much bulkier tool. In our testing, we found that the 1-inch blades were the easiest to use overall, even if it meant sacrificing some stand-out.

Some tapes have markings on the underside side of the tape as well as the top, but Clement sees this as a “solution without a problem.” For myself, in a decade of construction work, I don’t think I ever used or felt I needed markings on the back side of the tape. While researching for this piece, I didn’t include or exclude any tapes based on this feature. If it was there, great. If not, it won’t be missed.

As this map shows, the US is one of the only countries that doesn’t use the metric system. Still, we’re based in the US, so we only looked at tapes that use the standard imperial scale. A couple of the tapes, including the recommended PowerLock, are available with a dual metric scale, so if that’s what you’re looking for, you should be able to track one down easily enough.

We also didn’t spend much time looking at tapes with additional gizmos, gadgets, and added functions. There are tapes that will make a mark for you, have telescoping measuring rulers, and others with centering scales that show you the center point of any measurement.  But we agree with Clement’s opinion: “A tape measure is a beautifully simple machine … and should not be muddied up with stuff that other tools can do.” (We did, however, look at the FastCap tapes, which have pencil sharpeners and an erasable writing surface, due to their reputation in the construction industry. More thoughts on those in a bit.)

For length, we only looked at 25-foot tapes. Common lengths are 12, 16, 25, 30, and 35 feet. DeBoer said that he primarily uses a 16, but he feels safer knowing that he has a 25 close by. Clement said that a 25 is the way to go because there are times when it will come in handy. It’s not uncommon for a room in a house (or a hallway) to have a wall longer than 16 feet, and you might need to measure the square footage for painting or size up a potential hall runner. In short, it’s better to have the length and not need it than to need it and not have it.

For price, there really isn’t a huge range. My experience is that tapes below $8 or $10 aren’t worth the cheap plastic they’re made of, and no tape measure is worth more than $20. In DeBoer’s article, he looked at 12 different tapes with all but one between $8 and $20 (the $3 Pittsburgh Quikfind received a terrible review).

The largest portion of our tape measure testing consisted of using the tools as we completed a number of carpentry projects. From this general use, we got a sense of quality and handling—how easy the different tapes were to read, whether or not the tangs hooked on what we wanted them to, and how well the belt clips worked.

To check the durability of the blade itself and to simulate the destructive grinding that takes place once dirt and grit make their way into the case, we extended the tapes and dragged a piece of 60-grit sand paper, weighed down with 5 pounds of pressure, down the blade for a distance of 1 foot. We performed this three times with each tape. On some tapes the coating and printing came right off, but others held up admirably to the abrasion test.

We also tested the strength of the locking mechanism by locking each tape at 24 inches, dangling it from the tang, and bouncing it. When the lock is engaged, it should be strong enough to withstand that level of pulling and tugging. A lame blade lock can be intensely frustrating. If you’re hanging the tape in order to mark shelf heights or you have the blade locked at the right length to check a rug dimension in a few different rooms, you don’t want the lock to release and start retracting every time it gets bumped. Oftentimes, I’m taking a measurement on a horizontal surface like a tabletop and I lock the blade so I can work with both hands. In that situation, I want to be able to give the tape a tug to make sure it’s securely hooked.

Accuracy was a piece of the puzzle, but in reality just a very small piece. Taking a cue from DeBoer’s article in Pro Tool Reviews, we tested all of the tapes against a Lixer Tape Measure Calibrator, which checks the accuracy of both the pull and push measurements. Of the 16 tapes tested, only the FastCap Old Standby was off by as much as 1/32 inch. Ironically, that was also one of the only tapes that marked increments of 1/32. All of the other tapes were either perfect or off on one of the measurements by 1/64 inch or less—nothing most people would notice. Each one measured in standard 1/16-inch increments, so that wasn’t much of a distinction either.³

We also checked the stand-out of the tapes by extending each one to the breaking point four times and taking the average.

Finally, everyone has different hands, so in order to test general ergonomics I gave the top contenders to my wife and some other friends to play around with and considered their feedback.

The Stanley PowerLock is the best tape measure for a number of reasons. It has a durable blade, a functional tang, a solid stand-out, a strong locking lever, and a convenient belt hook. The PowerLock is a very basic tool and its pared-down simplicity makes it very light and easy to handle.

It’s one of the most inexpensive tapes that we looked at, as well as one of the best, combining quality and value. The other tapes, which cost more, all had failings—a poorly protected blade, a gigantic tang, a lame stand-out, or an impossible belt clip.

The most important characteristic of a superior tape measure is the durability of the blade. The Stanley blade is coated with a Mylar polyester film, which our testing proved to be superior to most of the other tapes. Remember, this is the key point in the durability and longevity of a tape measure. When we dragged the weighted sandpaper over the PowerLock, the coating showed some surface scratching, but the printing remained fully intact. On many of the other tapes, like the Johnsons and the FastCaps, the printing came off like we were erasing a pencil mark. The Stanley was in the small class of tapes that held up to this abuse.

We also found that the durability of the PowerLock’s blade extends beyond a resistance to grit and debris into kinking and general abuse as well. One of the projects we used the tapes on was measuring for 20 custom storm windows, a task consisting of seven measurements per window. For the diagonals, we planted the tang at the lower corner, extended the tapes, and then bent them over with a twist in order to read the upper corner. The PowerLock handled this repetitive bending and kinking with no problems, but we were surprised at how quickly this task worked over some of the tapes, like the Keson and the Tajimas, which quickly developed slight warps and wrinkles in the thin blades.

The tang on the PowerLock is minimal, but very effective. It was dead-on accurate when we tested it with the Lixer Calibrator, meaning both the push and pull measurement are right where they’re supposed to be. This indicates the quality of the tang as well as its relationship with the tape blade. In the PTR round-up, DeBoer writes, “believe it or not, we found the Stanley PowerLock to be the epitome of how a tang should move—forward and backwards with almost no lateral movement. Maybe that’s why the tape has been around for 50 years.” As we said above, all of the tapes are within what we feel to be the margin of error for accuracy. Still, using the PowerLock for a carpentry project, we were comforted knowing that it is 100 percent dead-on accurate.

The PowerLock has a blade stand-out of 7 feet, 10 inches, which is on the upper side of the limit indicated by Clement and DeBoer. This length is attained with the PowerLock’s 1-inch-wide blade and was the third furthest stand-out of the 1-inch tapes (the Milwaukee had 9 feet, 2 inches, and the Starrett has a bizarro-long 10 feet, 5 inches).

The locking lever is strong and easy to use, with a nice texture that prevents the thumb from slipping. You can easily lock the blade with one hand. Once locked, the tape didn’t budge as we bounced it on its own weight.

The belt hook is a standard but functional design. It has a nice spring to it and the flare at the end makes it easy to blindly hook on a back pocket.

Because of the 1-inch blade, the body of the PowerLock is a slim 1½ inches wide. It’s one of the taller tapes, with a classic “D” design, but it’s not unwieldy. In Clement’s review of it, he says, “No one will accuse me of having large hands and the PowerLock fits in my hand nicely.” He goes on, “The squatter, rounder topped tapes with wider (1¼ inch) blades feel too bulky. I can hold the [PowerLock] in my hand, pay out tape, and bend the tape—say for measuring across a floor or from floor to ceiling—in a fluid motion without having to readjust the tape in my hand.”

The people we asked to handle the tapes had similar experiences. A couple of them commented on how light the PowerLock was compared to the others, especially the 1¼-inch tapes (the PowerLock is 13¼ ounces, tied with the Keson for the lightest tape tested). The solid feel of the tool and the smooth locking lever were also noted as high points. Because the PowerLock has been the standard tape measure for so long (and the one that everyone’s dad owned) it seems to have become what people are comfortable and familiar with. “Yeah, it’s a tape measure … it’s what you expect,” one person said. Everyone thought that the 1¼-inch tapes were bulky and heavy. The Tajimas and FastCaps got high marks for their compact size, but they each have their own flaws that we’ll get to in a bit.

A really nice additional feature of the PowerLock is that the tape case is marked for inside measurements. The body of the tape is exactly 3 inches long (which is printed right on the case), so if you’re measuring a room from wall to wall, you can extend the tape until the back of the case touches the wall and just add the 3 inches to what you read on the tape. About ⅔ of the tapes that we tested had this feature, but the Stanley was one of seven that kept this measurement to an easy-to-use 3 inches. Using the DeWalt, you have to add 3¼ inches and the Snap-on makes you add 3⅛ inches.

On the underside of the case, right where the tang sits, the PowerLock has a slightly loose piece of black plastic. This acts as a shock absorber when the tang comes slamming back into the case. A few of the other tools had something similar with varying degrees of success. The Johnson JobSite, Johnson Big J, and Keson tapes also had bumpers, but when they were pressed, they actually forced open the seam along the underside of the case. Better versions were found on the Starrett and Tajimas, but those tapes had other issues covered below. The Komelon, Lufkin, and Snap-on extend their ample rubber over-mold up to the nose of the tool so that it directly acts as a bumper. But again, those tools didn’t fare well in other categories.

Stuart Deutsch of ToolGuyd also reviewed the PowerLock and the only fault he had with it was that he felt the smooth design of the case and sweaty hands don’t mix too well. He ended by saying, “Overall, I highly recommend Stanley’s PowerLock tape measures, especially given that they’re cheap enough to replace if or when they’re dropped too many times.”

This last point he makes is worth emphasizing. At around $12, the Stanley PowerLock is one of the least expensive quality tapes on the market. DeBoer also picks up on the cost analysis in the PTR piece. His bottom line verdict: It’s “the affordable, no-frills standard.”

The PowerLock has a fairly typical warranty. It doesn’t cover any user wear and tear, but if there is something inherently wrong with the tool, they’ll give you a new one.

We need to note that Stanley sells another version of this tape measure that they refer to as the PowerLock with Blade Armor. We tested this model out too, and even though it sounds like it would be the superior tape, it pales in comparison to its more stable sibling. On the good side, the Blade Armor version has an “industrial thermo-plastic” coating over the first 3 inches of the tape, where the wear is the hardest. This is a nice touch, but we also found that it had one of the weaker blade locks of any tape we looked at. The tape started recoiling with even the slightest movement. While we liked the added blade durability, the loosey-goosey blade lock was too frustrating.

Last, with its long 50-plus-year history, the PowerLock is also something of an icon. And while we’re interested in performance here and not historical status, the fact that the PowerLock was good enough to be packed on the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission means that it’s probably good enough for your kitchen drawer.

We’ve continued using the PowerLock since 2015 and we’re still impressed. It has held up despite numerous drops, and we’ve occasionally checked it against the Lixer tape measure calibrator and it remains accurate.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

For all of this goodness, the PowerLock still has a couple slight flaws. First, the belt hook is a simple metal clip. This is a standard design on tape measures, and when clipped and unclipped repeatedly on a pocket, it starts to fray the fabric. However, this is only a concern if the tape is being used on a very regular basis.

As stated earlier, the PowerLock has been around for over 50 years and the one thing that has changed over time is the case. Somewhere along the way, most likely for cost reasons, Stanley stopped making them out of metal and started making them out of plastic. In our research, we found that many longtime users of the PowerLock wistfully long for the days of the metal case. The fact is that plastic cases are simply the norm these days, and they offer enough durability to get the job done. Of the tapes we tested, only the Johnson Big J had a significant amount of metal in the case and at no point did we get the sense of any significant added durability.

If you want a tape measure with a proven track record of durability, one that can withstand a true jobsite beatdown, we recommend the Stanley FatMax. Over the years it has replaced the PowerLock as the standard on jobsites. You don’t have to be in the building trades to need this tool, though—anyone doing demanding work at home, from renovating a room to cutting lumber for carpentry projects, will soon appreciate its tougher design. It’s big and heavy, though, making it harder than our pick to grip in a smaller hand, and that’s the main reason why it can feel like overkill for occasional measurements at home.

The FatMax is more expensive than the PowerLock, but that additional cost gets you a wider blade with a longer stand-out and a rubber overmold that provides greater protection as you’re watching it fall out of your second story window while measuring for a new air-conditioning window unit.

I’ve personally had a lot of experience using this tape and can attest to its brute durability. I’ve seen it go off scaffolding, down stairs and off roofs. As mentioned in the How we picked section, for the Popular Mechanics article, I tossed one from a height of 25 feet and as I wrote then, “the FatMax showed only scuff marks. We actually heard it laughing at us.” DeBoer, in the PTR roundup called the FatMax “the rugged ubiquitous tape to beat.”

Durability isn’t the only thing the FatMax offers. It also has a wider tape (1¼”) and a greater stand-out (we got 11 foot, 3 inches). The tape is covered with the same coating that encases the PowerLock, but it also has the additional “industrial thermoplastic” covering over the first 4½ inches.

The FatMax has a top-hooking tang. While this was a feature that took many other tapes out of consideration, the tang on the FatMax is designed differently. Compared to most of the 1¼” tapes, the tang on the FatMax is small. In other words, it’s perfectly manageable. On the sides at the top of the tang are two slight horns that stick up above the concave side of the tape. These can be used to hook something from underneath. The horns are small enough so that you really don’t notice them during normal use and they don’t get hooked on things you don’t want them to.

The trade-off for all of this goodness is weight and bulk. The FatMax tips the scales at 1 pound, 2¼ ounces, the heaviest of the tapes we looked at. The chubby case is nearly two inches wide and it fills up any hand that is holding it. If you’re more concerned about the tool being comfortable to hold and use (rather than durability), we’d steer you back to our pick instead of this.

For this guide, we only looked at tapes with traditional locking buttons. Some companies make tape measures with auto-locking features that automatically hold the tape in place once it is extended. A button, located where the normal toggle would be, retracts the tape. In the PTR piece, DeBoer explains them by saying, “people either love or hate auto-locking tapes.” As long as your tape has a smooth, easy-to-use locking switch, an automatic locking tape is really unnecessary. Also, if you use a standard tape and you’re looking for a quick hold on the blade, it is very easy to “auto-lock” it by shifting your forefinger forward until it rests against the bottom of the tape. It makes sense to just learn that little trick and then have the full range of tape motion if you need it.

If you need a longer tape measure, depending on your needs, it may be worth investing in a 100-foot tape measure like this Komelon. These are not spring-loaded auto-retracting tapes like their smaller cousins. Rather, they work on a spool system like a fishing rod. Any time you consistently need long measurements, one of these can save you a tremendous amount of time. If (say) you’re planning an addition and want to mark out the proposed dimensions in the grass, or you’re measuring the perimeter of your property for a fencing project, the added length makes these much easier to use than incrementally measuring with a 25-foot tape.

Another category of measuring tools is the laser distance measurers. These tools, some as small as a pack of cards, shoot a laser point and give the distance on a little screen. There are very basic models similar to the now-discontinued Bosch DLR130K that can do distance and calculate area and volume, but others, like the Stanley TLM330, can even figure out a distance through triangulation. If it can read the distance between you and the house and you and the second-story window (for example), it can tell you how high the window is off the ground. But as cool as they sound, they can only measure areas that have a positive edge (like a room). Because the laser needs to hit a surface in order to take a measurement, you can’t really use one to figure the length of a tabletop or a board. If you’re interested in more on these tools, Tools of the Trade has a nice round-up of the pro models, choosing the Bosch GLM 80 as their overall favorite.

We tested two new tapes from Milwaukee: the 25 ft. Stud Tape Measure and the 25 ft Compact Tape Measure. Unfortunately, neither one measured up to the success of the General Contractor Tape Measure. The Milwaukee Stud is gigantic and simply too massive to easily handle and grip. The Compact Tape Measure is a perfect size, but the blade lock is really difficult and we often had to use two hands to operate it.

Stanley has a 25-foot auto-locking version of our upgrade pick FatMax with a unique tang-extension system. A detachable piece turns the standard FatMax tang into a much larger one. According to the press release, “[users] can connect the over-sized hook attachment for framing applications or remove it for standard applications.” Although the tool likely has the FatMax’s durability, the added cost and the unusual tang put it out of the consideration here.

The Starrett Exact Plus might have been our pick if not for its sheer bulk. With its ergonomic locking lever and durable blade coating, it was a contender, but the fact that it’s as tall as the PowerLock and as wide as the chunky FatMax made it difficult for smaller hands to grasp and use comfortably. It’s also on the pricey side for a 1-inch tape. A big-pawed carpenter on a jobsite, though, could find a lot to like about this one.

The Keson was a nice compact unit, but had its failings. As mentioned earlier, when I pressed on the Keson’s tang bumper, the seam at the bottom of the case opened up a little.

Two out of the three Johnson tapes I looked at—the Professional’s Choice and JobSite—had weak blade locks, and the third, the Johnson’s Big J, had a massive tang and a fairly stiff locking toggle. None of the Johnson tapes performed well in the abrasion test.

The Komelon also had an over-engineered protective case and was the most futuristic-looking tape we found. The tang was very large and had a vertical piece that could hook from underneath. Both the knobby rubber over-mold and the huge end clip made this one tricky to use compared to simpler models.

We liked the Lufkin for its blade durability and bright orange coloring (I can’t start to explain how many tape measures I’ve lost over the years), but the lanyard attachment made the tape a little too bulky for my liking, at least for around-the-house use. The Control Series moniker comes from a cutaway on the underside of the tape, right up at the mouth, that exposes the bottom of the tape as it moves in and out of the case. The theory is that you can easily press a finger against the tape to control how fast it retracts as well as brake it and hold it at a certain length. I’m neither here nor there on this one. It’s an interesting feature, but as mentioned earlier, most people familiar with tape measures unconsciously do this already just by sliding their index finger forward and braking the blade at the mouth of the case instead.

The FastCap tapes that we tested, the Old Standby and Lefty/Righty, have a similar feature, but it’s a button at the bottom of the case rather than a cutaway. I actually found it more difficult to press the button and maintain pressure on it than to just slide my finger forward and stop the tape the way everyone else does. Along with the button-stop system, blade durability was a weak point for the FastCap, as was the thumb-operated belt clip (it works like a snack bag clip and is tedious to use). Also, one of the FastCaps was off 1/32 inch in the accuracy test, and the blades of both tapes barely made it across the 7-foot mark when I tested stand-out.

The most successful feature of the FastCaps is the erasable writing surface that sits on the side of the tape. It’s nice to have the option to jot down some measurements, particularly for the carpenter. The onboard pencil sharpener is also a nice touch, again, for the carpenter—but probably not useful to the home user.

FastCap tapes are available with a variety of marking styles, from the standard 1/16 scale to the Lefty/Righty explained above. They also sell tapes that have no rigidity in the blade, so they lay flat on your workpiece. For the most part, these oddballs are geared to the trades.

The Johnson Big J has a locking switch that is so stiff it literally take two hands to operate.

The two Tajima tapes, the G-25 and the GP-25 were nearly identical, despite the price difference. They were both comfortable to use, and our test group liked their size, but the blade durability was subpar, with both tapes showing wear and slight kinks after some standard use. One handling issue that we had with these tapes is that the over-mold extends down from the case and covers the sides of the tang. This means that you can’t pull the tang out by coming at it from the side. Instead, you need to pull it straight out. Of all the tapes tested, the GP-25 was the most expensive, but it only housed a 1-inch blade. From what we could tell, in most ways it’s identical to the G-25 (same blade, same size, same tang, almost the same locking switch), so it appears that the additional cost is because of the spaced-out over-mold aesthetic.

A lot of the other wide-blade tapes were taken out of the running because of their massive tangs. Nearly all of the Kobalts, and many others had this issue.

We didn’t consider any Craftsman tape measures because, well, they’re no longer made. For some reason, the company gave them up. But they seem to have been replaced on the shelves by Stanleys.