You may remember when I was complaining about losing all my tape measures and Vince ordered a dozen foreign tape measures. I said “I don’t want the ones made in China” and he said “Where do you think they’re all made?” He was right.
The ones from China arrived today.
The top one is right. I opened one to check it, because I check every tape measure before I use it (I count my pills from the pharmacy too). As soon as I saw it, I knew it was way off. When they’re pulled out exactly straight, the bottom one is 3/8″ longer than 1″. I can see being a smidgen off but that’s huge.
The weird thing is the centimeter side is spot on. I could keep them and use them because most patterns also have cm measurements but I’d get confused and screw up a project so he’ll either send them back or I’ll toss them.
Valerie Zagami says
Oh my imagine if you did not test them!!
Rebecca in SoCal says
That is really bad!! I’ve often seen recommendations to compare quilting rulers, but I don’t think they’re ever that far off. Imagine how oversized a sweater would be if you measured with that!
If you were stuck with them and wanted to use them for the metric side, you could take a black marker and put a big mark on the inches side, but that would still be dangerous.
pattilynn9 says
Re: counting pills. I do that too…just recently I only got 60 pills when I should have gotten 90. I’m very cautious with my meds. Makes me wonder how many mistakes they make we never know about??
Wander says
I wonder if your tape measure is for Chinese inch or cun. A cun is about 1.3 inches. Maybe save for Chinese knitting patterns =)
Nelle Coursey says
WOW that is strange!! Never thought of looking at this! I better check mine too!
poodlegirls says
We had that problem in Taiwan. There is a Taiwan inch and if I remember correctly a little bigger than ours. We were decorating the American club for the Christmas dance. We were using tape neasures from one of thr husbands tool boxes. You guessed it, both tapes were in it. Big discussion as to why some window panels were 10 inches longer than others when both were cut at the 70 inch mark!!
Joyce says
If I would use one of those to take my hip and waist measurements I would think I had gotten smaller! (Which would be a good thing.) Unfortunately it wouldn’t be correct! 🙁
montanaclarks says
My bargain hunter ordered some small, short levels from eBay one time. We used one of the levels to make sure our RV was level. I would tell Mike after he said it was level according to the device that “no it’s NOT level, the bathroom door won’t stay closed.” Well, he tried using one of those levels in some construction project the other day and discovered NONE of the ones he bought were actually level at all!!
Judy Laquidara says
It made me laugh but it isn’t funny. Think how serious it could be if we cannot trust anything – safety equipment, medical devices. We do laugh about levels and tape measures but this really isn’t funny.
Deb McCleary says
Oh my, now I have to get all of mine out to check, just purchased two new from Hobby Lobby (cuz they were pink!).
Judy Laquidara says
My guess is those we buy from reputable businesses are probably accurate.
dezertsuz says
That’s amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever noticed that, but I usually use the metal ones from the hardware store.