Infra red thermometer

[trigolf]

Evening all,

I'm interested in buying an infra red thermometer,for general use. But a quick Google shows a wide price difference. Is it worth paying £20-£30 plus compared to one priced at £12.00?

[Chris A]

I bought a cheap one, perfectly adequate for my use as I didn't need anything that is hyper accurate.

[PeteH]

Ditto, I bought one off E-Bay £9 (ish). Use it to monitor the wood burner more than anyting. Even took my temperture during lock down when I supected I might have had covid😁 (false alarm). They are accurate enough for most purposes. Interestingly, I used it outside During the recent "hot" weather. 48C in one corner of the Conservatory, at 3.00pm. That`s a bit warm for Northern UK. My Grandson says they have seen 50+. (just north of Sydney). Those are the sort of Temp`s we only used to see in Ships Boiler rooms!.

Pete

[Badwolf]

Got mine from L!dl, where else. Works well but shiny surfaces confuse it, such as the underside of my galvanised metal shed roof.

[Colin Lindsay]

31 minutes ago, Badwolf said:

Got mine from L!dl, where else. Works well but shiny surfaces confuse it, such as the underside of my galvanised metal shed roof.

Why do you need to check the temperature of the underside of a roof? Or is it like my endoscope, which was newly purchased was stuck into all sorts of places, just to test? (Steady there, guys.... NO I DIDN'T)

[Badwolf]

I was just curious how hot the roof got as it was in direct sunshine. The answer was approx 55 degrees. Back to the old posts about cooking pasties on an engine!!

[ahebron]

Probably not an issue with our cars but the ratio of distance to size of temp reading circle can be an issue.
I found the more expensive ones have a narrower beam therefore more precise when used at a distance.

[PeteH]

Some place`s in the world have "Sidewalk" Egg Cooking "competitons" on very hot days!.

Pete

[Colin Lindsay]

The hotplate on my hob gets so hot sometimes you could cook an egg on it.

[KevinR]

1 hour ago, PeteH said:

Some place`s in the world have "Sidewalk" Egg Cooking "competitions" on very hot days!.

Pete

I was in Death Valley last summer (2021) on the day when the temperature reached 54C, and people were trying to cook eggs on tarmac and failing dismally.

The surface needs to be over 70C to get an egg cooking - and even then its more likely to just dry out than actually cook.

[John Harris]

I don't have one, but a friend of mine uses one when tuning twin carbs. He sets them and then double checks the temperature at the jet/needle intersection and insists that they must be with 1/2 degree of each other and that therefore ensure better accuracy/evenness of the mixture in each carb. ( airflow etc is all checked and even ). From the colour of the plugs they seem exceptionally even. 

Not tried it myself but am going to on my spitfire. 

 

Has anyone else done this ?

[Jeffds1360]

I bought this one the other day. I believe it will be useful for checking/tracing thermal loss from windows and doors etc.

[Chris A]

I wouldn't want to use one on our house in case it highlighted poorly insulated areas and I'd be obliged to do something about them. Ignorance is bliss - at times 😁

[Pete Lewis]

octopus energy  have some they loan out linked to the phone display works well 

but nothing conclusive from the exercise for me 

Pete

 

[Jeffds1360]

Hmmmm. From outside, my widows and door are 'hotter' than the brickwork

oh well, got to start somewhere!

[Colin Lindsay]

9 minutes ago, Jeffds1360 said:

Hmmmm. From outside, my widows and door are 'hotter' than the brickwork

oh well, got to start somewhere!

Nothing better than a hot widow.

[Jeffds1360]

Woops

[JohnD]

24 minutes ago, Colin Lindsay said:

Nothing better than a hot widow.

Yes, there is.  A Widow  who owns a pub.

[rlubikey]

17 hours ago, Colin Lindsay said:

Nothing better than a hot widow.

A French Widow?

[Pete Lewis]

last time i pointed anything at a hot widow i just got a slap

Pete

[Colin Lindsay]

20 hours ago, JohnD said:

Yes, there is.  A Widow  who owns a pub.

A hot widow with a cold beer?