Mosh tipped me off that the Extech IRT25 infrared thermometer, which was just under $10 in June, has dropped in price to $5.28 at Amazon. (Thanks, Mosh!)
(It’s an add-on item, which means it needs to be added to a qualifying order over $25. That’s Amazon’s way of spreading shipping fees across multiple items to keep the price on this low.)
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I bought one in June, to see if it was junky or a good value. It’s fairly accurate and easy to use. I don’t know if I could recommend it for anyone looking for a serious instrument, but it should be okay for more casual users who don’t need high accuracy or high reliability. In other words, it’s probably okay for DIYers who don’t yet own any IR thermometer, but I wouldn’t use it for critical work.
Just over $5 for a name-brand IR thermometer? If I didn’t buy one in June at $10, I’d definitely buy one now. I own a Fluke IR thermometer, and I wouldn’t give it up for anything. This isn’t a stand-in for my Fluke, I see it more as an entry-level IR thermometer for someone who might otherwise be enticed by the very many off-brand tools available at Amazon and elsewhere.
Actually, I can’t find any IR thermometer cheaper than this one, at least not on Amazon.
$5.28 seems like a heck of a good bargain.
Buy Now(via Amazon)
Has anyone bought one and not been satisfied with it?
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If you need a better pro-grade tool, I can heartily recommend the Fluke 62 Max Plus.
Hilton
Yes I bought one for $9.95 in July. I don’t use mine that often but it’s good to have around.
csroc
I wish I had seen this yesterday, I just placed an order with Amazon that I could have added this to!
I’ve been in need of a new one since my old one, probably from Harbor Freight but I don’t recall, basically turned in to a 9V pistol gripped beeping laser cat toy. I’ll say that the beeping is very useful for getting our younger cat to come running when we’re looking for him. Bonus points awarded for how high you can make him jump up a wall chasing the laser.
Late Night
What are common applications for this thermometer?
Stuart
A non-contact thermometer can give you temperature readings quickly, and it also offers minimum and maximum readings.
Do you have an air leak around a window? How hot is the water heater flue? How hot is the car hood? What’s the temperature of items in the refrigerator? Freezer?
A non-contact infrared thermometer gives you a temperature reading where it might be difficult, impractical, or slow to use a contact-thermometer such as a thermocouple.
A device like this gives you the average temperature gathered from a “spot,” with the spot size being 1:12 meaning that it will measure the temperature of a 1″ diameter spot at a distance of 12″. At 5 feet, the spot size would have a 5″ radius.
CyrilJ
Quite useful in the kitchen too. For example, for making yogurt at home. 110 degree milk gives perfect yogurt. My wife likes her tea at 165 degrees while I prefer 150. For shallow frying, add fish when the oil is at 350 degrees. We use it while making some fermented rice breads too. The blended batter is allowed to cool down to 110 or 105 degrees before yeast is added. Yeast will die if the temp is too high.
Koko the Talking Ape
Absolutely. It is also useful for calibrating your oven.
Koko the Talking Ape
I got one. I tested it on boiling water, and it was just one degree off. Good enough for me! I haven’t figured out the hold or min/max functions, but I likely won’t need them.
Framer joe
Flukes are one of the best…. For this $6 tool it’s good for the kids to play withand learn something.
Stuart
Not really; chances are that most kids will play with the laser pointer more than anything.
fred
Buy them an FLIR (Extech’s big brother company) thermal imager and let them really have fun.
I was in Tallinn again this summer – and was tempted to stop at the factory and see if they gave tours – but my wife had better ideas on how we might spend our time.
TonyT
Factory tours are great – Will Hodges (of TactileTurn) visited both the DMG Mori factory in Italy AND Damasteel in Sweden on his honeymoon! (DMG Mori makes very nice CNC lathes, and Damasteel makes, well, Damascus steel).
Stuart
I tried that – once. I’ve found that there are few adults I’d trust with my Flir thermal imaging camera, let alone kids.
fred
My tongue was way out in my cheek when I made that suggestion.
Many years – in the run-up before Christmas – you see some piece on TV about some really expensive kids toy – usually a scaled-down race car selling for $10k or more. So for those folks with money to burn why not a thermal imaging camera as long as they protect the little ones from any associated hazards.
Redcastle
Fred
Other than yet again being jealous of the lower costs of products in the USA your comment about factory doors reminded me Huf Haus in Germany is well worth a visit to see 21st Century system building. There is a rumour that the trailer which accompanies the delivery lorries contains a provisions section along with all the fixings and hardware including a supply of the local beer. While my personal preference is for pre 1914 property if I had to buy a modern house this is the type I would want. If they do not have a presence in the USA it is an opportunity missed.
Vic
Dose the laser hurt kids eyes ?
Stuart
Lasers hurt everyone’s eyes.
Mike
I bought one last year for around $5, didn’t last 3 months of occasional use.
Hilton
In a way that’s a good thing. It’s so cheap that hopefully by the time it breaks you’ve used it enough times to work out what you really want in such a device. Then go buy the proper one. Maybe it’s a Fluke or a Etekcity.
Mike
It was just an impulse buy, my real non-contact thermo is a Raytek.
Ryan Jacob
Too bad it’s just an add-on item. I was going to buy it! Don’t have anything else to buy from Amazon at the moment.
Gordon
Mine arrived today. I messed around with it a bit. One annoying feature is that when you have the Min/Max feature selected, it will only do one or the other. Basically you tell it “I want to know the max of the reading” then do your reading. I expected it to take the reading, then be able to tell me the min and max of that reading. Minor annoyance that isn’t explained well in the manual. But I can’t complain at $5.
DT
$6.53 as of 10/29/18 at 1 PM