Comments on: Finds: Infrared Thermometers (Temp Guns) http://toolmonger.com/2006/09/10/finds-infrared-thermometers-temp-guns/ All tools. All the time. Your source for news, information, and reviews of hand tools, power tools, and tools of all kinds. Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:35:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: Myself http://toolmonger.com/2006/09/10/finds-infrared-thermometers-temp-guns/#comment-1178 Myself Sat, 16 Sep 2006 11:58:18 +0000 http://toolmonger.com/2006/09/10/finds-infrared-thermometers-temp-guns/#comment-1178 About a year ago, I dropped my dad's Raytek MT2, and the LCD cracked as it hit carpet from 4 feet up. Not the durability I'd expect from an eighty-dollar unit, but whatever. I owed him a replacement, so I spent an evening on the internet researching the options. I liked the feature set and price range of the Pro Exotics Tempgun line, so I ordered a PE-2 for him and a PE-1 for me. They're both great little units, I use mine constantly while working on computers. It's incredibly handy to be able to take temperature readings of heatsinks, chipsets, hard drives, and fan blades (which tells you the temperature of the air moving past the fan, of course) as fast as you can push the button. I'll say that again, for emphasis: For me, the instantaneous reading is more important than the non-contact aspect of an infrared thermometer. I'm impatient, and it's simply awesome to wield a point-and-know thermometer. Whatever brand you settle on, I'm sure you'll get addicted to this aspect. Being non-contact also makes them handy in the kitchen, by the way. Jab-type thermometers are still useful for internal measurements, but if you just need to know the surface temp of a slab of beef, or a pot of stew, infrared can't be beat. Other infrared games include measuring the temperature of the sky (ask a physicist about this), or putting a cheap unit into lock mode and rubber-banding it to your car's mirror pointing down, for instantaneous road surface measurements. Apparently reptile owners use them for checking basking temperatures too, which is how an exotic pet company ended up in the instrumentation business. Oh, and if you get a Tempgun PE-2, spring for the case, too. Otherwise the buttons get pushed in storage and you go through batteries like candy. About a year ago, I dropped my dad’s Raytek MT2, and the LCD cracked as it hit carpet from 4 feet up. Not the durability I’d expect from an eighty-dollar unit, but whatever. I owed him a replacement, so I spent an evening on the internet researching the options.

I liked the feature set and price range of the Pro Exotics Tempgun line, so I ordered a PE-2 for him and a PE-1 for me. They’re both great little units, I use mine constantly while working on computers. It’s incredibly handy to be able to take temperature readings of heatsinks, chipsets, hard drives, and fan blades (which tells you the temperature of the air moving past the fan, of course) as fast as you can push the button.

I’ll say that again, for emphasis: For me, the instantaneous reading is more important than the non-contact aspect of an infrared thermometer. I’m impatient, and it’s simply awesome to wield a point-and-know thermometer. Whatever brand you settle on, I’m sure you’ll get addicted to this aspect.

Being non-contact also makes them handy in the kitchen, by the way. Jab-type thermometers are still useful for internal measurements, but if you just need to know the surface temp of a slab of beef, or a pot of stew, infrared can’t be beat. Other infrared games include measuring the temperature of the sky (ask a physicist about this), or putting a cheap unit into lock mode and rubber-banding it to your car’s mirror pointing down, for instantaneous road surface measurements. Apparently reptile owners use them for checking basking temperatures too, which is how an exotic pet company ended up in the instrumentation business.

Oh, and if you get a Tempgun PE-2, spring for the case, too. Otherwise the buttons get pushed in storage and you go through batteries like candy.

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