Dealmonger: A Non-Contact Infrared Thermometer For $30
By Stephen Cooke
If you visit Cyberguys.com and enter the keycode INFRARED today you can get this Infrared Thermometer for $30 (regularly $70). It measures in both Celsius and Fahrenheit with a temperature range of -4 to 608˚F. We can’t begin to tell you how handy these are to have around. We’ve used them for everything from checking grill temperator to determining how much water’s in a steel barrel.
Non-contact Infrared Thermometer [Cyberguys]
Infrared Thermometers [Google Product Search]
April 20th, 2007 at 9:55 am
how do you use this item to check how much waters in a steel barrel?
April 20th, 2007 at 10:31 am
Because the outside air temperature hasn’t remained perfectly constant for the last week, the water inside is probably a different temperature.
The top portion of the steel, with no water behind it, will track the air temperature pretty closely. The bottom, with the water acting as thermal mass, will not. There’ll be a fairly sharp dividing line where the top of the water is.
Hold down the trigger, or put the tempgun in “lock” mode, and move it slowly up or down the side of the barrel. Where you see the temp jump, you’ve found the line.
April 20th, 2007 at 10:38 am
http://www.nationalinfrared.com/images/infrared_tank_level_detection.jpg shows the side of a tank viewed through an infrared thermal camera. Your infrared thermometer is a one-pixel camera.
I should also point out that the Pro Exotics PE-1 (my personal favorite non-contact infrared thermometer) is regularly available for $25, and the Mini is up for $15 on a fairly regular basis. Both of these have a 1:1 distance-to-spot ratio, which means they won’t measure as narrow a spot as the $30 model here, but being keychain sized is awful nice.
The Mini was posted here on January 29th 2007, and there was a longer infrared thermometer article on September 10, 2006.
April 20th, 2007 at 11:16 am
This is awesome. I’m buying it as we speak.
April 20th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Jeff: Nate hit it dead on — and the effect is even more pronounced when the water just came out of the hose (from the cold ground).
April 20th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
Thanks for the tip. I just bought one to help me weatherize my house and to detect temperatures in the kiln.
April 20th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
FYI: It is $40 not $30.
April 21st, 2007 at 7:10 am
These have always looked cool to me, but I haven’t had a good use to justify picking one up. I’m definitely getting one now just to check the smoker.
November 29th, 2007 at 10:50 am
HELP I have this and I cannot get the battery compartment open! There’s nothing in the instruction guide about it. I know this is silly.