Firecore 16-Foot Aluminum Grade Rod - 10ths 5 Sections Telescopic with Bubble Level-FLR500B

After 3 months of daily use I've come to these conclusions: Pros: 1) Its cheap: You can buy 3-4 of these compared to 1 good quality SECO fiberglass rod. Treat them as temporary. Great if your rods grow feet and walk off to join another trade. 2) Light and strong enough to hold its own weight fully extended out horizontal with reasonable/minimal deflection. Great for one person measuring & marking a set distance from a structure. Can use all day fully extended with no soreness. Would much rather pack this into the site than a Fiberglass rod. You barely notice you have it and it's more compact 4' sections are more packable in a backpack or stakebag. Cons: 1) Its cheap: you'll have to actually use it as a level rod and that's it. The lock buttons break pretty easily and repairs are exclusively tape...always include a roll of electric tape as your edc when using this rod. It's not a walking stick, a pole to lean on, a push pole or a catch/pike pole. It's a level rod. Thats it. It's design to be just good enough to not suck at being a level rod. 2) it's flimsy. You're not putting a 5/8" all thread on the end and using it as a makeshift rover pole. Banish the thought. Just looking at a R8/R12 header will break this thing. Conclusions: Light weight and just good enough to not suck at its specific task. If you expect the concrete crew is looking for a level rod; leave your $200 fiberglass rod at the house and let them steal this thing. It's good enough to get you through the day but crappy enough noone will steal it a second time. Read more

Nice grade stick, worth every penny. Sure glade it has the bubble level. Read more

pretty good decent quality. only issue is the level will fall out of the holder unless you put 1 wrap of electrical tape around the L bracket. Read more

A great value grade rod for home owners. The rod that I received was a little tight on the first section. There's no included manual, not a big deal, how hard is it to use a telescoping rod. Well, maybe I'm an idiot but due to the tight fit of the first section I extended the 2nd section to validate if it would work better. It slid out smoothly and locked into place. I couldn't work out how to retract it. I was pushing and pulling on the plastic connector to no avail. Turns out that there is a hole on the back side that has the button to retract the section. It wasn't visible as I hadn't extended the first section...doh. A little light weight oil on the tight section improved the friction on the tight fit. Read more

I will start with the total nitpicking. There is an awesome little level you can use if your measuring on a grade (i.e. steep driveway) that just kinda floats around in the bag. I have almost lost it a few times taking the firecore out of the bag usually drops out as you’re pulling out the measuring stick ( bag also very nice). I now have it twist tied to the firecore would have been awesome (for the price) to maybe have a separate little pocket on the case for the level. That said this thing is awesome. I needed a way to accurately measure many overhanging trees on a steep driveway in an attempt to drag my 37ft 5th wheel trailer onto our property. Being in CA it’s a major sin to do almost any cutting to the super old oak trees lining my drive. However I also didn’t want a branch tearing off with or both of the A/C units on the trailers roof. With a bit of mapping and measuring I guaranteed that I was removing only a minimal few little branches and got the trailer up the drive intact. I will find many more uses I am sure. Maybe I’ll start charging my friends and family as it has been borrowed multiple time. Read more

After looking around and reading many reviews on this product. I chose this for my laser. I'm not a contractor so I wasn't looking to spend hundreds on one..I only needed for basic usages around my property and this fit my needs perfectly. Price point was perfect. Very durable and I love it comes with a storage case. Read more

Quality built Read more

The media could not be loaded. I was surprised to find that in addition to 1/8s of an inch on one side, this Rod also has 10's of a foot on the other side. (Not a problem -- just surprised!) My only complaint is that there is no place in the carrying case for the bubble level. I used a rubber band to strap it to the top (narrow) part of the rod, and it fits in the carrying case fine. But rubber bands don't last very long, so it's not a great solution. Read more