Non-Contact Infrared Thermometer

[RobertN]

Ice bath will get you 0C. Short of using an calibrated Ice Point or Hot Point, slushy kind of ice water, or boiling water are two that are easy to use and cheap. Use a lot of T type TC's at work; a large drink cup full of chipped ice and water makes a good verification for 0C. Boiling water is 100C, +/- depending on elevations, mineral content etc. But most of that can be calculated for if you you know elevation and have a water analysys report.

Otherwise, for accurate measurements, it is $$$. We have some of the bleow at work. Very accurate, but they take tim to power-up and get to operating mode. A slushy glass of icewater is cheap and fast.

Ice Point Calibration Reference
Miniature Electronic Ice Point
Dry Block Probe Calibrator
Hot Point Dry Block Calibrator, Portable Design

Ice is hardly a known temperature.

 

[RickB]

Ice bath will get you 0C. Short of using an calibrated Ice Point or Hot Point, slushy kind of ice water, or boiling water are two that are easy to use and cheap. Use a lot of T type TC's at work; a large drink cup full of chipped ice and water makes a good verification for 0C. Boiling water is 100C, +/- depending on elevations, mineral content etc. But most of that can be calculated for if you you know elevation and have a water analysys report.

Otherwise, for accurate measurements, it is $$$. We have some of the bleow at work. Very accurate, but they take tim to power-up and get to operating mode. A slushy glass of icewater is cheap and fast.

Ice Point Calibration Reference
Miniature Electronic Ice Point
Dry Block Probe Calibrator
Hot Point Dry Block Calibrator, Portable Design

Well if Randall had said ice water rather than ice, maybe I would have understood his point. You shoot a block of ice with an IR thermometer, the results will vary dependent on the temperature the ice was stored at. Changes of state will occur at predictable temperatures , no question.

 

[RobertN]

Ya. definitely not ice

Interesting, I have never tried an IR gun on ice. I check T type TC's against ice bath. But, in actual use, I am most checking temps inside desktop PC that are running maximum thermal loads. Most temps I see are 25-50C. They just have to be very accurate. Everything is calibrated, has offsets for the T variation. Before publishing to customers, all the calibration information has to be in the report, with traceability to known NIST and ISO standards.

Might have to take the Fluke home and measure some ice just for giggles.

Well if Randall had said ice water rather than ice, maybe I would have understood his point. You shoot a block of ice with an IR thermometer, the results will vary dependent on the temperature the ice was stored at. Changes of state will occur at predictable temperatures , no question.

 

[dex3361]

I mostly use a Flir P620 on elctrical and mechanical equipment. I look for whats hot that shouldnt be. Emissivity is so easy to understand when it can be visualized.

 

[dex3361]

Well if Randall had said ice water rather than ice, maybe I would have understood his point. You shoot a block of ice with an IR thermometer, the results will vary dependent on the temperature the ice was stored at. Changes of state will occur at predictable temperatures , no question.

I would have explained if you had asked. I guess I post as few words as possible.

 

[DFB]

So the other day I had ordered this laser temp gun to inspect it first hand and put it thru some test motions. On paper the specs vs dollar value seem really decent

Amazon.com: WCI Professional High-Temperature IR Infrared Thermometer Laser Pointer Gun - Instant °C Or °F Measurements - Type K Input, 20 Point Memory, LCD Display And Alarm - For Electrical, HVAC, Automotive Diagnostics, Or Cooking Etc.: Home Impro

So heres what I got...reading the around the house showed the overall inside wall temps pretty much measuerd between 0.5- 1.5 degrees of each other interior or exterior standing between 3 and 8 ft with the higher heat flucuations I think, to radiated heat emitting from the few 75 watt table lamps that are turned on.

Next I stood 28- 30" away and shot with the laser dot the wall thermosat's plastic casing....At first the housing read about 1.5 degrees less than the digital thermost reading. The case was white so I put a piece of black tape on it. Twice the readout produced a .08 difference from the wall thermostat's digital readout, but I cant seem to duplicate that measurement again no matter what I try. Doesnt read much different than the wall now. Go figure that one. I know my thermostat itself is pretty accurate. I have a spring style thermometer mounted 25 feet across the room they read about 2 degrees different and that never varies.

So next what I really wanted to do was evaluate my under floor staple up radiant heat. I'm using 100ft loops 3/8 of black onyx tubing on a single zone fed by 1 inch copper manifolds, one for each side of the house. Scanning across the floor showed around 5-8 degree difference over the distance of each set loops and about a 10 degree range over the entire system.

But I really still needed something to gauge the infared meter against for accuracy so just after my system's mixing valve is the circulator pump and 18 inches beyond that there is a inline dial tempeture gauge so I know the actual outgoing water temp. Shot the pump housing for tempeture and bingo it was .07 degrees within the dial face reading. So overall I'm pretty happy with that.

Now what I didn't get....first off the tool advertised is shown as being blue and black in color red trigger and red and blue colored control buttons. But when I opened up the box and pulled it from the holster it was bright YELLOW! Not real deal breaker but certainly not at all as advertised. So once I got over that intial shock the next thing I realized was that the included battery was already installed but when it was powered up the low battery power icon immediately came on. Again not deal breaker (had to figure it come with cheap chinese battery anyhow...and I did all the test with my own 9v battery installed)

But the real ***kicker is the "white" back light for the digital display. It momentarily lit up when I first turned on the unit but that was it never came back on again even with a new battery.

All the other digital system controls were ok and it had the included k sensor

But UPS comes in the morning to pick it up

 

[Johnp33]

I have a couple of Craftsman infered temp guns, I am a HD mechanic and used them for a lot of things, Measuring above 400 degrees is a waist of money. and only applicable if you are measuring exhaust. I used them on road tests for hub and tire tempatures, brake drums, coolant tempatures, oil tempature, AC tempatures.
For $50.00 they were the best investment I ever made, I had an expensive one with the high temp readout and the laser, someone needed it more than I did.
I have had them for about ten years, and they still work great, I hold it about 4 inches from the item to be measured. If money is no object they make a camera and screen unit. I would love to have one. But I can live with the cheaper unit and buy beer!
Just a thought!

 

[DFB]

Just rematched my wall thermostat reading within .09 reading black tape on thermostat housing. Could be just the battery power even the one I used wasnt new but the operation manual also says sometimes the IR sensor needs time to cool down.

 

[DFB]

Here's a neat video on a 9V Porter Cable laser unit. Detects tempeture differences with color changes. It might have a decent spot out there the home improvement world. Also comes in 18v rechargable version too...I think one would really need that. Looks like those laser lights really eat up the power. Specs on the 9v unit only give a 1 hour rating for the battery!

Porter Cable Infrared Thermometer Review - YouTube

 

[RickB]

Here's a neat video on a 9V Porter Cable laser unit. Detects tempeture differences with color changes. It might have a decent spot out there the home improvement world. Also comes in 18v rechargable version too...I think one would really need that. Looks like those laser lights really eat up the power. Specs on the 9v unit only give a 1 hour rating for the battery!

Porter Cable Infrared Thermometer Review - YouTube

9V battery life really isn't an issue. Takes a lot of 2-5 second bursts to total 1 hour. I wouldn't want the bulk or weight of an 18V unit.