Extech CG204 Coating Thickness Tester

Any car guy would be nuts to buy a high end sports car without a coating thickness tester (aka: paint meter) of some sort. This is the only way to know for sure if all the paint is original by testing the thickness. CarFax and AutoCheck may not report an accident, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. There are a ton of options out there, some cheaper than this and some much more expensive. The Extech works well, is easy to calibrate, has a few different mods of operation, etc. It's plenty accurate for this purpose and at approximately half the cost of the most well regarded competitor it's a deal. Would highly recommend.

Easy to use just need a screw driver to insert the batteries

It is off calibration samples by 5-30um right out the box. Even if you recalibrate it- next time it will be off again. It's impossible to reset everything to 0 by pressing Zero button. If you measure 2 different surfaces it will through off your AVG # and only way to reset AVG is to turn whole unit off. It was almost 200 USD when I bought it and they now dropped price $40. It's obviously not a good brand and unit considering how off it is and how they manipulate the price. I will be returning it back.

I am a licensed car appraiser, my company appraises about 3 thousand cars per year, I've used many paint meters throughout the years and decided to take a gamble on the Extech CG204 as my business is expanding and I am hiring about a dozen more field inspectors. I did not want to spend $750 on a paint meter and since I will be buying many, I wanted to give the cheap ones a shot.With that being said, it is with regret that I have to give this paint meter a 3 star rating.First, let me start with the Pros:-Cheap, actually about 25% the cost of the leading competitor in the field (my other meter)-Screen easy to read-Stores values (not very useful to me, but I can see the benefit)-Compact and easy to carry-Accurate when calibratedNow, my Cons:-Requires calibration after every usage. Let me elaborate, for some reason, the paint meter loses its calibration within 5 minutes of usage or after you turn it off.-Requires calibration when switching between ferrous to non-ferrous body panels-Will default to micro-meters after turning off (I prefer using mils as my unit of measurement)-Too many buttons-Confusing instructions and menus-Has a USB port but the software does not work on a Mac and it's hard to figure out-Does not seem very durableI measured thicknesses using my other meter and compared it to the Extech, they were within 1% of each other, this to me a is a good sign.The bottom line: if you have the time and patience to calibrate this unit every time and you're on a budget, go ahead and buy the extech. If you're a large wholesale buyer and need a tool that works in adverse conditions and will be accurate every single time sans-calibration, I suggest you look elsewhere. For me, the search continues.

Was not sure how much I would use it, but found many uses including coating thickness. You want to check the paint thickness on your car? Just about any coating which covers a ferrous or non-ferrous material can be measured. You can even use the test metals that come with the unit to lay anything within the meter range on top and get a very accurate reading. I had recently bought some small Ziplock parts storage bags and wanted to know the thickness. I placed the metal test plate in the bag and stretched it flat and measured the thickness. To my surprise, the 4mil bags were being measured at 3.8mil. Extremely accurate! The only thing that you must do to get this accuracy is do a calibration with the supplied test plates and thickness sheets. Once you do this, zero the meter before each use and you get very accurate readings. I would recommend this meter to anyone that wants or needs to check coating thickness for many applications.

I have been impressed with this for the cost. It stays in spec,works well. I a, a weekend warrior that details cars for fun. I had to get this after a "friend" to.d me his paint was all original. Whata mess. Don't touch any car u till I go over the car with this.

This unit was seen being used by an auto paint guru, Jason Rose @ Rupes in an Obsessed Garage episode called"Rupes Product Training: E9 - Machine Sanding Application" 25:30 mark. There are more expensive units out there and certainly some really cheap units out there. If you're doing this for a living or pretty serious about paint correction, this is a great unit for a reasonable price. And, Extech was great to deal with when I had questions about the unit. Highly recommending it.

I bought this unit and it said used but in very good condition and when I went to try it out the bottom piece that measures thickness got stuck on the inside position and i could not even try it. Also it looked like it was separated from the center somehow, Amazon quality control or whoever is in charge of checking this unit did not care or do a good job. They probably don’t look at stuff all it is, it’s a waste of time and headaches.