NEIKO 20713A Digital Tachometer, Noncontact Laser Photo Sensor with 2.5 to 99,999 RPM Accuracy, RPM Gauge Marker with Batteries Included

Works awesome Used it to set the idle on our Mitsu

I bought this particular tachometer, because I own several tools made by Neiko, and they're quality tools. I used it to test my new 1.5kw spindle motor and vfd.It's important to use a small piece of the reflective tape on whatever you're testing. The tape wasn't sticking well to the spindle motor, because of the packing grease. Even after cleaning the collet chuck, it came off. So, I put a piece of non reflective tape on the chuck, and a small piece of the included reflective tape on top of it, and it's still holding.It was with the Neiko tachometer that I discovered that my new vfd display wasn't defaulted to rpms. That sounds like something that would be obvious, but my vfd reads out "r" before frequency, not rpms, so I thought r240 was 24000 rpms; it was a frequency of 240 (go figure). When I realized what was going on, I was able to correct the vfd programming so that it defaulted to rpm readout. I found that the vfd was correct to minus 35-50 rpms. The Neiko reading was rock solid, and consistent through 6 different spindle speeds. I didn't find a difference in reading based on distance from the source; the reading was the same whether taken 4" away, or 4' away.It came with a battery, which worked. But, I prefer a good alkaline battery over a mercury battery, so I'm storing it with a 9v alkaline. I do not store my battery operated tools with batteries inserted; I store the batteries with them, but not inserted.The storage pouch is nice. I'm storing the tachometer in the cnc table drawer. The neiko tachometer came with a zippered pouch, quite a bit of reflective tape (I'm only using about 3/16"), a 9v battery, and instructions.

Overall this is not a bad product considering the low price. As others have noted, installing the batteries is no easy task! I did not use the cheap carbon batteries provided, but used name brand alkaline batteries. It wasn’t easy to get them seated to the point where the battery cover could be properly closed. Also of note; the battery cover does not slide off, as stated, until a small screw is removed.The accuracy seems to be reasonable, although I doubt it is as accurate as the specs state.Unfortunately, there is nothing special about the reflective tape provided to attach to the shaft being measured. It’s just shiny, which means you cannot measure the RPMs of a shiny shaft! The instructions say to cover a shiny surface with black tape or paint it black!Luckily, on my lathe, the shaft just behind the chuck mount is black, so the shiny tape worked fine. See the attached photo. The chuck on my drill press also has a knurled black band on it. The problem is the tape provided won’t stick to it, so additional adhesive was needed.I had hoped that the reflective tape would be somewhat tuned to the internal laser so it would work on shiny shafts, but I guess that’s too much to expect from a product that sells for less than $30.

It works great very simple to use it seems to be pretty on point with where the RPMs should be at on the motors I have tested for the price and just to get an idea of where a motor stands at roughly I think it’s a great purchase would highly recommend very simple to use and the batteries actually last quite some time review is a little late but I bought this thing a while ago and it still running on the same ones and I have used it multiple times thank you everyone if you need a good tachometer and don’t wanna spend a bunch of money that’s a great road to go down and it doesn’t look cheap either it actually looks really nice and well-built so I was surprised I thought I might get some thing in the box when it arrives with that look like maybe a brick with the hole drilled into it may be a sticking out and possibly I don’t know a fox tail hanging off the end so you can see the turbulence of the motor turning as the fox tail goes back-and-forth and that is the way that I might’ve been counting my RPMs I have no idea I don’t even know where I came up with this thing that I’m talking about right now but anyways it works great try it thanks everyone highly recommend will buy again and it arrived fast

I was a little skeptical about this tachometer considering the price but after a fair amount of research this brand did get really good reviews so I decided to give it a try. I tested it against a fairly new JCB 4 cylinder diesel engine with Factory digital tachometer to see how accurate it was. I tested it at 1000, 1500, 1700, and 1800 rpms. and It was dead on across the board! I'm very impressed. The next time I need another diagnostic tool I will look to this brand to see what they have to offer.