Anybody here have experience with non-contact laser aimed
IR themometers? What did you like or dislike? Are they
any good at the low end price range?
Yes, I have one. Bought it to balance the radiators in a new
central heating system, for which it is excellent. Next use
was to go round the house finding thermal leaks, i.e cold
spots inside or hot spots on the outside, and fix the thermal
insulation. Useful for checking the temperature of fridge,
freezer, oven, which it does instantly without waiting for
any settling time. You can measure your body temperature
(point it in your mouth, under your arm, etc). Pointing it
out through an open window will give you the outside ground
temperature. Pointing it up to a cloud gives you the air
temperature at cloud height (-50C is typical in winter,
even when well above freezing at ground level).
Actually, it's quite a nice toy all round. If you get bored
with the temperature sensing part, you can play with the
laser pointer, e.g. have the cat chasing the red dot around
the floor. I would imagine it could be quite educational
for children, but I would avoid one with a laser pointer
in this case.
There's just one thing they are completely useless for, and
that's measuring the temperature of bare copper, because it
behaves like a mirror in the infra-red. You may recall that
I originally bought it to measure flow and return radiator
temperatures in a new central heating system, i.e. bare
copper pipes;-) This is easily solved in this case by
painting the pipe, sticking a bit of tape on it, or pointing
the thermometer to the enamelled pipe stub on the radiator.
I also bought one for my dad who likes gadgets like this.
He has used it when cooking, e.g. to check that a cassorole
is reheated enough before serving (and found it wasn't the
first time he used it for this).
