Laser Infrared Digital Temperature Gun's

[Grandvewe]

Not sure if this has been mentioned before...
I have just bought myself a "Laser Infrared Digital Temperature Gun" off ebay for as little as $12
I was thinking the other day, why would you want to install temperature guages on everything you have eg, Boiler, still, fermenters etc, When you can use this gun and shoot it at any of these items to get instant and accurate readings for a fraction of the cost.

Again just thought id share a piece of equipment that I think all distillers should own.
Does anyone know of any issues with this way of temp measurement?

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Handheld-Non ... 089&_uhb=1

[blond.chap]

They're handy devices, but there are couple of issues I see with these things:
- The external temperature of a piece of equipment (RC, coolant line, etc) isn't necessarily the same as the internal vapour/water temperature
- I believe they rely on knowing the emissivity of the material that you're looking at, unless there's some automatic detection that I'm not aware of

It'd be handy for a general indication, but I don't imagine it will give a good level of accuracy in that 78-80 degC range.

[Phototropin]

I have a similar device that I use at work. You will have issues trying to measure reflective surfaces like SS boilers, if you use the default emmissivity of (usually) 0.95. You can adjust the emmissivity, but it's difficult to know the value you should use as e.g. "stainless" can vary alot due to surface treatment, polished vs non-polished, etc.

I have had some success measuring shiny hot-plate surfaces by sticking a piece of black card to the surface, and measuring that.

But they are pretty cool, you'll find yourself walking around measuring all kinds of stuff :)

[blond.chap]

Handy resource for you: http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/emissivity-coefficients-d_447.html

The emissivity will totally change the result, note that polished copper is about 0.04 and heavily oxidised copper is 0.78 (scale is 0-1), big difference.

[1 2many]

:handgestures-thumbdown: :handgestures-thumbdown:

[Grandvewe]

Thanks Phototropin and BlondeChap,
That is extremely useful info from both of you. I would have had no idea of the inaccuracies of different metals and reflective surfaces.

I own a highly polished FSD SS pot still so maybe if I stick a small piece of black duck tape in the areas I want readings from on my still, this may work?

And at the same time calibrate the temp gun to suit Sainless steel to offset the Emissivity coefficient by 0.075 than it would be fairly accurate?

[Sam.]

For $12 I would be wondering about the items accuracy to start with :think:

Try it on boiling water and see if it reads 100 :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[snapperhead]

I have one too, I have found that they are only good for reading temps off matt surfaces. Very handy to have all the same.

[Bushy]

Boily's use these things all the time. And yeah if it's somethin shiny you get a low wrong reading. But now I can look around and say it's because it's got a high emmisivity :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Love it. You learn somethin new every day. Unfortunately I seem to forget somethin every day as well. At least it's on par.

[Ryno]

Grandvewe I borrowed a good one from a mate. Didn't work because of all the reasons above. I tried the mat sticker and paint and still found there was about 3 degrees difference, so not sure which of those two methods is more accurate. That aside the biggest issue for me was getting the temp just above the RC. When this increases by about 3 degrees it is a sure sign your in starting in the tails. Unfortunately you cant tell that temperature from the surface because there is a lag in the change in temperature from the vapour inside to the stainless steel casing.

It is good for checking the temperature on your dogs nuts while he is sleeping though

[MacStill]

It is good for checking the temperature on your dogs nuts while he is sleeping though

Now that I do find interesting :-B

Is there much temp difference between AM & PM ?

And what's the maximum distance you can check this, I'd be able to check Zak's from 2km away if the temp gun was capable :laughing-rolling:

[crow]

sounds to me you jokers are pretty fucking hung up on temps. I found the back of my hand is a good indicator, if the column hot the stills running if its stone cold probably its not :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Kimbo]

It is good for checking the temperature on your dogs nuts while he is sleeping though

Hmmm! :think: Does that go for humidity detectors too?
Might have to try that one on the missus

[Grandvewe]

Thanks for ya info Ryno, very helpful knowledge.
I guess if nothing else, it will b useful for checking fermentation temp................and dog balls :teasing-nutkick: