Hands On: K40 RLS2 Radar/Laser Detector

Written by Ben

February 26, 2018

One too many speeding tickets on the Highway? Looking to get to work without slowing your drive down or having to get up earlier? Radar and Laser Detection company K40 Electronics has released their RLS2 Portable Radar/Laser Detector that comes with a great guarantee. K40 will refund you your money, 100 percent in the first 30 days if the RLS2 does not out perform the competition. They also have a 100 percent replacement guarantee if the RLS2 breaks or has a defect within the first year of ownership. To top that off, if you do happen to get a ticket within the first year of ownership, K40 will pay the fine, almost no questions asked. Only exception to this is in school zones, construction zones, and if the ticket is from a DUI.  Now that we have the benefits covered, lets check out the RLS2.

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When you register your RLS2 either online or with the included registration card, you can choose to have someone get in contact with you to extend the Ticket Free Guarantee to 2 years. 

The RLS2 is made for those families that have multiple cars, but don’t want to have to buy multiple units.  Included in the box is the Radar/Laser Detector, 2 Power Cables, One is for use in multiple cars, and the second is made for a more permanent mount in the primary car. Two extra fuses, Window mount with 3 suction cups, owners manual, and the registration car for your one year warranty and ticket protection.

The window mount uses the 3 suction cups. THis allows for easy mounting and removal when changing cars. While they suction cups make it easy to remove, over 400 miles of driving, the mount never dropped off the windshield. This was tested in both cold and hot weather. The mount held firm over the summer while inside car temps hit 100. Unfortunately, once the temp dropped below 0 degrees farenheit, the suction cups wouldn’t hold anymore.  Luckily, it wasn’t that cold for long so it was ok. 

The RLS2 slides onto the mount and is not held in place with any clips or buttons. The tab itself is long enough that the friction and length hold the radar detector secure, even during hard acceleration. 

The power cable for the primary vehicle is very long so you can run the wire hidden so it’s not out in the car where it could get caught on someones feet and either break the wire, or rip the detector off your windshield and break it. The second power cable is a coiled cable that plugs into your cigarette lighter. This allows you to easily move the detector between cars with ease. You can easily be protected in any car you drive or ride in.  

The K40 RLS2 is easy enough to use, that you  can technically use it straight out of the box without reading the instructions.

Lets take a look at all of the features that the RLS2 does have to offer you that you don’t want to miss out on.

If you don’t like reading manuals, K40 Electronics has a toll-free number where they will walk you through the setup process to get your detector set up to work its best in your vehicle and location. 

When you first turn the RLS2 on, you will notice that a calibration happens. This will rotate through all of the radar bands and make a unique tone for each band.  This lets both you and the unit know that the device is functioning properly.

Now you can see the dot matrix screen is lit up. On the left you can see the filter section. This lets you know if you are in City, Highway, or Filter mode.  Highway Mode detects all Radar and Laser at full power since you don’t have to worry as much about false activations on a highway. City Mode reduces the X Band detection by 50%. This helps cut down on false activations from non police sources.  Filter mode turns off X Band and reduces other Radar bands by 50 percent.

Next up is the brightness of the dot matrix display. You have a couple of options for the brightness. Using the Dim button, you can select Day, Dusk, Night, Auto and Off settings.  When you have the display off, you will still have all of your audio alerts for Laser and Radar.

The screen shows you multiple items. First off,on the left, it will show the Filter type that we covered earlier. The middle of the screen you will see the direction you are traveling. The right of the screen shows you the speed that you are traveling. During testing this was used in a vehicle with both digital and analog speedometer. The GPS Speed on the RLS2 was within 1MPH of what the vehicle showed. This is well within any allowances for wear in tires and gearing on the vehicle. 

Once the detector is activated, the screen will show you what type of radar or laser it has detected, as well as showing you the strength of the signal. 1 is a very weak signal, and 9 is the strongest. The audible alert also speeds up the stronger the signal gets.

If you don’t want audible alerts under a certain speed, the RLS2 is capable of turning off all audible alerts from anywhere between 5 MPH up too 75 MPH. You pick the setting that you are happy with. No being stuck with factory settings from K40 Electronics. 

If you happen to drive in an area that gives you false activations, you can use the Mark button. This lets the RLS2 remember that location and will not give you the audible alert anymore for that location. You will still get the visual alert. This is accomplished by the internal GPS. Using this, it remembers the mute marks via GPS points. 

If you travel on certain roadways with a set speed all the time or are taking a road trip and don’t want to have to keep looking down at your speedometer, you can use the RLS2 as your speed monitor. All you need to do is set the speed, and when you exceed what you set, the visual display will blink slow down as well as give you an audible alert. This works great if you don’t want to take your eyes off the roadway or use cruise control.

Overall I really liked the K40 Electronics RLS2 Radar and Laser Detector. It is easy to set up, offers lots of functions for both detection of laser and radar, safety, and comes with multiple power cables to use it in multiple cars. The only issue that might get some people is the price.  It is $399.99 from Amazon.com and Crutchfield. While this might seem a lot, since you can go to the big box stores and pick up one for $50 dollars, you don’t get the hassle free return policy or the Ticket Free Guarantee. You also won’t get two power cables or the options that are built into the RLS2.  Also, if you happen to get 2 tickets within the first year of ownership ( which you shouldn’t with this detector in use) the RLS2 will pay for itself.

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