KomelonPG85 8m by 25mm Metric Gripper Tape, Black

Nothing really innovative about this tape but the more I use it the more I like it. The rubber armor is thick and grippy; the belt clip clings like sin; the retract spring hauls the tape back with alacrity but no snapping at the end; the lock works perfectly with moderate pressure. The underside is blank, but the concave-side markings are bold and high-contrast, each 10 cm red, so it's easy to read even in dim light. No dopey inch marks allows the scale to use the full width of the blade, enhancing legibility. I can't point to any individual feature as being outstanding, but it's a a solid, capable tool that does its job well. Aside from the absence of underside printing (which is really handy), I can't complain.

I'm going to go ahead and give this 5 stars partly because it is a good value. This is a metric only tape measure (metric on both sides, no inches to be found). If you are a pro and use your tape every day this might not be durable enough for you. But I am more of a home-owner handy-man guy and my use is light duty. I have two of these and they are both still working fine after several years. I use them for wood working, making sheds and whatnot. I bought a second one so I can keep one in the house and one in the workshop.

I purchased this tape measure because I wanted one that only shows the metric scale. Most tape measures that have a metric scale available show both metric and SAE, with one being along each edge. So, you can run into occasions where the edge next to the object you’re measuring is not against the metric scale, or vice versa, so you need to flip the tape measure around. And that’s not always easy, or possible.Overall, using metric is more accurate, and easier to use, because the 8 meter tape measure is divided into centimeters, with each TEN centimeters shown in red. Then, each centimeter is divided into ten millimeters. So it’s very easy to get accurate and repeatable measurements. But the best part is not needing to deal with fractional measurements. No longer do I need to deal with the granularity of measurement in fractions of inches: 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32. Or, needing to divide a fractional measurement to find the midpoint, or a different point on the measured length. Now, it’s just Meters, Centimeters (100 CM in a Meter) and Millimeters (10 MM in a CM, and 1000 MM in a Meter). Much easier to deal with.Americans learned to hate the metric system because we spent time converting Metric to Imperial measurements, and had trouble remembering conversions. But if you just work in one system (Metric or Imperial), it is easy. And metric measurements are much easier to work with, and are more accurate.Also, for inside measurements, where you need to include the tape measure case in the measurement, the additional length is exactly 8 cm, although this is not listed anywhere on the case. The tape and case is fairly wide, so if you have small hands, it may be a bit of a challenge to handle. But it is very well made, and seems to be sturdy enough to hold up to heavy use.

I've gone metric! I'm tired of feet and fractions of inches when doing DIY projects. To help me with this I originally bought a metric on the bottom, imperial on the top tape measure but that was troublesome if I wanted to make a metric measurement on the top edge of the tape. That tape measure has since become my out and about device because even though my projects are metric I still have to buy in imperial.This Komelon is pure metric with millimeter and centimeter markings top and bottom. It is a solid chunk of thing (490g), not convenient for a typical pocket but also hard to lose. The tape will extend out full to the advertised 8m, and there is large warning to STOP after that, so there is plenty of warning before the mechanism is messed up. From the fully extended length the mechanism will draw back all but the last 1.5m of tape, but pushing in a bit will bring the mechanism back into play and draw the remaining tape.Checking the markings with calipers as far as I can tell the millimeter and centimeter markings are spot on. This tape numbers each centimeter from 1 (which along with 2 is hidden by the hooked tab) to 800. Every ten centimeters are marked in large red numbers all the way up to the 800 mark. Meters are not distinguished in any special way.All in all, I'm pleased with this purchase and highly recommend it! Join me, join the rest of the world, go metric!