Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Infrared thermometers

Sulaiman - 16-12-2018 at 03:54

I am considering buying a budget infrared thermometer
there is a bewildering choice, and specifications do no necessarily follow prices.
I think that I want;
<= -10oC to >= +350oC,
Callibratable
Cheap
Narrow field of view

A question for infrared thermometer users ... what features do you
- find essential ?
- wish you had?

Any personal recommendations ?

Ubya - 16-12-2018 at 04:18


i recently bought this kind of thermometer, i don't think can be calibrated (really wish i could). it's fine to tell meh it's hot or it's cold, but it's not precise at all, you can't really measure the temperature of bare shiny metal as it reflects IR, so you are really just measuring the sorrounding. i don't know if it's different for others that have my same IR thermomether, but again, it's not precise at all

i find essential:
-precision, even +-3°C would be acceptable...
-the possibility to calibrate the instrument
-the option of changing units (°C, °F or K)

wish i had the first 2 mentioned above

s-l500.jpg - 17kB

[Edited on 16-12-2018 by Ubya]

RogueRose - 16-12-2018 at 15:32

Quote: Originally posted by Ubya  

i recently bought this kind of thermometer, i don't think can be calibrated (really wish i could). it's fine to tell meh it's hot or it's cold, but it's not precise at all, you can't really measure the temperature of bare shiny metal as it reflects IR, so you are really just measuring the sorrounding. i don't know if it's different for others that have my same IR thermomether, but again, it's not precise at all

i find essential:
-precision, even +-3°C would be acceptable...
-the possibility to calibrate the instrument
-the option of changing units (°C, °F or K)

wish i had the first 2 mentioned above



[Edited on 16-12-2018 by Ubya]


I think I've used the same one that is pictured and it was pretty good from my experience. How much was that one?

Ubya - 17-12-2018 at 00:30

i won it as an ebay auction for about 7$

sodium_stearate - 17-12-2018 at 06:55

Those thermometers such as pictured work ok for
general purpose, fairly non-precision applications.

One example is they are pretty much standard
equipment aboard a steam locomotive. It is used
to monitor bearing temperature on rods and main
drivers.

It is plenty accurate enough for that.