ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Infrared Tester

Can someone recommend a good infrared tester. I saw one on ebay for $39.00 but wasn't sure about the quality.

Frank:
Guess nobody has any comments. I have an 'old' unit I bought about 12 years + ago. It's still functioning, was made in England, & darned if I can remember the name.

It was 8-900.00 back then.

There's quite a few in the trade mag ads, and there may even be one or two on the home page.

John

I'd comment but I have no idea what an infrared tester does?? Temperature?

Frank, assuming you mean an infra-red thermometer. I bought one for my Renault tractor badge project, -20 to 270C, c/w a laser pointer, for £38 [us$75] on the internet. Lots of features, F/C, auto shut off, accuracy +/- 2.5%, backlight. I am very pleased with it.
Unmarked brand, [ probably chinese], unfortunately, but very accurate, at least at low known temperatures [ pan of boiling water, wife, dog's nose!]. Problem is measuring hot shiny metal surfaces where the low emisivity of the metal fools the receiver, but that apart, easy to use, small, neat and still working. If buying on the www, which gives you massive choice and allows you to browsw exactly what you need, I avoid co.s using Paypal or similar. I got caught once. I always plumb for those having direct Mastercard/Amex etc.. Just my preference to avoid the guy running a business out of his spare room, where he has no stock and you wait for ever and a day for delivery.

Alan

I wanted to use it to detect potential "hot spots" in junction boxes. http://www.inspect-ny.com/aluminum/aluminum.htm

I bought one for $30 at Harbor "Fright".
It does seem to work OK.

I got mine at Grainger to test hot spots in panels ...and to find heat duct that my drywall sub covered up
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/itemDetailsRender.shtml?ItemId=1613596656

To solve this problem place a piece of masking tape on the metal where you want to measure.Works really well as long as the temp of the metal is not extremely high.

Fluke makes a good one roughly same price of the grainger item above. (Also sold there for ~$105 - but I have seen them for less at the supply house. ~$85-$90) And after you own one you'll be surprised how often you'll use it if you do any service work. Loose connections in track lighting, overhead service drops, busswork, breakers, terminations. Resistance and or arching mean heat, and being able to detect a rise in heat could mean finding it quick or going 'round in circles for a while guessing. If you don't do a lot of service work or troubleshooting - you might not find much use for it. But one of these lower end units wont break the bank.

I am surprised nobody recommended the webstore for this site. There is a selection of them there.