Walabot DIY 2 – Visual Stud Finder & Wall Scanner for Drywall. Detects Wood & Metal Studs, Plastic & Metal Pipes, Live & Non-Live Wires

Walabot is a great step forward from the previous generation of stud finders. It is easy to use and precise. It is really helpful that it distinguishes between studs and wires/pipes. Much less guesswork and more confidence in punching holes through drywall.

This thing is pretty cool. I won’t say it’s perfect because it’s not, and the calibration every single time is a little annoying but I suppose it’s a small price to pay for getting it right the first time and not busting multiple holes in the Sheetrock. But like I said, it’s not 100%. There are places in my house I know there’s a stud that won’t show up on the screen. Suppose it could be user error but who knows. Overall pretty happy with the product and would recommend if you need to find studs on a regular basis.

I really wanted this to work but sadly it does not. The sales hype for this product made it sound like it would detect items (studs, wires, pipes, etc.) in the wall and then display an image on the screen depicting what item(s) were detected. It also touted the ease of use and the accuracy and laid out lots of 'sales' talking-points that made it sound better than sliced bread. All of these boastful sales talking points are completely false and unfounded. The main problems for me is that for the unit to work it has to be (REQUIRED) connected to the Wi-Fi. What if the house you are working in does not have Wi-Fi or even electricity hooked up? What if the person you are doing the job for doesn't want your device connected to their wi-fi? Beside that the unit has to be calibrated almost every time it is removed from contact with the wall. Calibrating takes a minute or two and wastes a lot of time. It will only work with single-layer new-ish drywall so if the wall you are trying to detect studs in is older or if the walls are a little thicker then you are just out of luck. Conclusion: This Walabot unit is a neat idea IF they ever get one to work like the hype says but in it's current state of development it should not be considered for serious use by either professionals (like by people who do construction work) or even weekend DIYers. It doesn't work well enough to be useful just frustrating. Don't buy one of these.

Very easy to use

Won't complain as it beats the hell out of a regular stud finder however it does seem a little finicky when identifying electrical wiring next to stud. Always seems to favor the stud and has difficulty distinguishing between the two. That said I bought used/open box. And judging by the back it received a mild to moderate amount of use before resale. May just be mine but judging by other reviews on Amazon it seems to be a regular occurrence. I work as an electrician and so my intent when purchasing this is to use it in advance of panel changes to identify any cross-sectional framing members above or below existing panel in order to mitigate audibles in the field. After testing I can say with certainty that this will work perfectly for that function. However for someone who's expecting a more accurate and detailed reading for whatever reason. I believe Wolabot has more premium editions available

Excellent

As a stud, wire, and pipe finder, it's great. If, and that's a big if, you can get it on, connected and calibrated it'll wow whoever is watching you do your work. It basically takes raw scanner data and draws a visual representation of a stud or pipe. The bad news is that the user interface is annoying and you'll spend more time connecting and calibrating than actually finding studs. Last time I clocked it at 4 minutes connecting, failing, reconnecting, calibrating, and 30 seconds finding the stud. Whipping out an old "dumb" stud finder is literally five times faster. I don't fully blame the manufacturer here, iOS does seem pretty difficult to work with in general, I know this from other smart device installation headaches I've had.The problem with the wifi is two fold. For one, the device broadcasts its own WiFi network. iPhone doesn't like staying connected to WiFi networks that aren't able to access the internet. This means that whenever there's a delay in connecting, which is almost always, iPhone will interrupt you with a prompt to keep trying or try another network. It will also just straight disconnect without prompting. I would love to see an improved version of this product with a Bluetooth or some other means of directly connecting to your phone, even a magsafe ring and cable would be better.The other issue is with the calibration. I don't mind having to calibrate every time, what's really, truly, oh so very annoying is the fact that it makes you go through the calibration tutorial every single time. Somehow, the app remembers that you paired to the same device before, but seems to think you forgot how to calibrate. Please, please, please update the app so I can tick a box that says "I know how to calibrate stop making me click through 5 tutorial screens every time I open the app."

Finally a way to safely mount things on the wall without missing the stud. Usually you can find studs with the old stud finder but this gives you a sure spot to hit the center of the studs.