Not sure if I am overheating at low speed and stop lights or if temp gauge is bad.
I would like recommendations for a reliable IR temp gun.
Thanls
Larry

 

You can spend as much as you like on stuff like this . If you need one that says Fluke on it be prepared to step up . All you really need is available at any hardware store from $ 30 on up .

 

Mine is a cheap version that I picked up at Harbor Freight years ago and it's always been spot on. Very handy to have laying around.

 

A Fluke is top of the line. If you are going to use it often, it is worth the money.
I use a Harbor Freight also and it seems to be pretty accurate.

Ron

 

I use one that I bought at Home Depot. Commercial Electric is the name, I think it's their house brand. $30 and it's accurate.

 

go with Harbor freight it's only 20.00 if you catch a sale, refrigeration techs use them and when they start to malfunction they throw them away. Good to determine if you have more of a drop from the furnace to the outlets ( lets you know weather your unit is up to par.

 

When my sons house was finally finished we notice there was no AC/heat register in one of the rooms, they covered the duct up it up with sheetrock. Didn’t know how they were going to find the duct! Builder came in, turned the AC down, then used a temp gun to find the cold spot. Problem solved!

 

Unless you're doing super high end work, buy a cheap disposable gun and throw it away when it quits working.

Easy function test:

Shoot it into the refrigerator - it should read in the low 30s but above 32F.

Shoot it at a pot of boiling water and it should read 212 (at sea level).

That's all the function tests you need. If it doesn't read those temps close enough, get a new one.

 

I guess I am the contrarian. I would recommend an IR gun by Raytek or Fluke. Reytek is the company that pioneered the IR gun technology. They were purchased by Fluke some years back, so Fluke IR guns are likely Raytek. I always recommend purchasing quality diagnostic shop tools, as they delivery better results.

Larry

EDIT: Here is a comparison I did for another CF member awhile back. FWIW.

IR Temperature Guns Comparison





Name D:S Accuracy Range Cost







Fluke 561 12:1 1% -40 to1022 F 200





Raytek ST20 12:1 1% -25 to 999 F 200





Fluke 62 Max 10:1 1-1/2% -22 to 932 F 100







Klein IR10 20:1 1-1/2% -40 to 1200 F 90











My IR gun is 30:1 1% -25 to 1100 F 350

Raytek ST60.

This gun is now

listed as ST61.









D:S is distance to spot, and is a measure of gun power and accuracy. A 12:1 ratio means when you are 12 inches away from the item you are measuring the spot you are measuring is 1 inch in diameter. So to measure an item you are generally 6-12 inches away……which produces a ½ inch to 1 inch target zone. For a 30:1 gun you can be a lot further away and still get the same precision and accuracy.



Fluke purchased Raytek about 10 years ago, so all the Fluke guns are really Raytek guns. But they also still sell under the Raytek Brand as well. Raytek introduced the IR gun technology to the market many years ago. My older gun was made in the USA. Not certain anymore.



Listed in order of my recommendations to you. Klein Brand is not known to me personally, but they have sold industrial tools for over 150 years and have an excellent reputation. So gun is probably a good one for the price.

 

I just went through the same thing a couple of weeks ago, The temp gauge went all the way waiting in line for a few minutes at getting something to eat. The car appeared to be fine. Even after I got back on the road the gauge only went back down to about 210F. I bought a IR from Amazon from Eketcity for$18. Sure enough it measured 30 degrees less that the gauge so I replaced the sending unit from one from Lectric Ltd for $25.00. All seems ok now. From what I understend, the higher the engine temp, the more inaccurate these sending units are.

 

I buy cheap ones and they last between a few years and forever.

 

This is what I just purchased. I'll let everybody know the result.
Larry

 

I'm another contrarian and may be considered a nitpicker but I used IR guns in engineering work years ago and we would never use one that did not allow for adjusting for emissivity. For those unfamiliar, every material and surface finish has a different emissivity, meaning they emit a different heat signature. Most cheap guns use a default setting around.9 which is good enough for most circumstances but not that accurate when you're trying to compare temps on different places. A radiator hose is going to be very close to a 0.9 but a polished thermostat housing is not. If you're only looking for relative readings on the same surface, cheap ones are certainly adequate.

More info here for any that are interested.
https://www.thermoworks.com/emissivity_table

 

I was an Infrared System Engineer, so I know all about balckbodies and emissivity. I bought a "cheap" IR gun on Amazon five years ago and it's still doing great. Within a few degrees at worst, not that I have anything accurate over 212. It's within a degree at freezing and boiling, and I have been very surprised at the accuracy when looking at different materials, such as the polished aluminum radiator and black rubber hose. I expected significant errors, but the reading were all within a small range.

I don't use this for knowing the exact temperature of something to within a degree. I use it to know about what the temperature is. I would say it is more accurate than any analog temperature gauge I have ever seen on a car, so seeing that my upper radiator hose is 195 and the lower is 163, I know everything is working and the temperatures are within a few degrees of that. If this was engineering where wee needed absolute accuracy, I would not hesitate to get the fancier ones. But for automotive use anything within 5 degrees is good enough, and I thing every possible IR thermometer you buy will work for that.

They are also very repeatable. So if you use it on your radiator or tire, and then check again, you should see the same number within a degree. This can be useful if you want to check tire temperatures across the tread after a session on the track, see if there is a dead spot on your radiator, or check your A/C output at each vent. But you also have to know that the LASER spot is not really what you are measuring since the cone gets wide quickly. If you need an accurate location, you need to be really really close. Otherwise you are measuring the temperature across a few inches or even feet (at a distance).

In my home I've used this to calibrate my oven (it's off by about 25 degrees at some points), and to double-check my Sous Vide bath temperature. The last time I used it was to diagnose my Chevelle. It felt down on power and sounded rough. A quick scan of each header tube and it was easy to see that one cylinder was not firing. I pulled the plug, saw it was fouled, and put in a clean one. Fired up the engine and all tubes were back to 500 plus degrees.