Is this like the IR thermometers most people get?

That is a good deal. in the store they are $70. I was just there a few days ago. I just use the good ol' stovetop one. But it sure would be nice to have one of those.

Hi and Yes.
That's what I'm using and love it.
It can be a helpful learning and temp monitoring tool.

Yes mine is like that. But that's a great price. The one I have was allot more but my company bought it for me. I like it since I can take temp on the back wall, stove, ceiling, anywhere.

I use the stove top style as Jotul states them should be taken from one of the top four corners. Our stove is sitting on to of our hearth so I'm thinking I'd like to find a stove top type that somehow projects the temp in a beam of light to the ceiling so I can read it from across the room and don't have to get up to check the temp so often. The light could be controlled remotely, in case any inventors are out there reading this. Wishful thinking, I know! (This post is made tongue in cheek!)

Shari

check your home depot, I got a royobi one like this for $30, it reads three temps on the back display, the highest it read, the lowest and the average in big numbers, it also has a laser.

rowerwet said:

check your home depot, I got a royobi one like this for $30, it reads three temps on the back display, the highest it read, the lowest and the average in big numbers, it also has a laser.

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Definately find one that reads the max highs and lows . This is a nice feature if you are scanning for a hot or a cold spots even checking pipeing temps it works better . I got mine off the bay , I think it was around 40 .

I bought that same model at the local HF store for $30 a couple of months ago. If you hold the trigger down, it'll give you a continuous readout as you move it over different areas.

Yup . . . that's the one I bought as well . . . as Dan mentioned if you hold the trigger down and move the laser the temp readings will go up or down so you scan the stove from top to bottom, the surrounding walls, hearth, your cats and your wife and then tell her that she's hot. Bought mine for $30 . . . mostly as a way of reading wall temps, hearth temps and to double check the stove top temps -- and in the process I found out that my Condar thermometer was very accurate as this thermometer and the Condar were very close in readings.

53flyer said:

Thanks for the replies. Just to dbl check, if you aim it at the glass does it read the glass temp or will it show you what the inside (behind glass) temp is?

Also, I've seen some infrared temp readers but most that I've seen so far don't read high enough temps. Are the IR ones any better/worse and does anyone know of ones that read higher temps?

Thanks again.

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RE: First question . . . you know . . . I'm not really sure if it's measuring the heat from the glass or heat from the fire . . . reason being I am mostly concerned with the heat from the stove top as this is where I am supposed to measure the heat.

Second question . . . this IR gun should register plenty at temps plenty hot enough for you.

The Harbor Freight model will read up to 900-1,000 degrees F (I don't remember the exact number...it's available on their website). It was very consistent with my Condar magnetic stove-top thermometer. I believe most IR models state that they will read more accurately from a matte black surface that from a shiny, reflective surface, so I assume it is somewhat less accurate on the glass than on the stove top or flue.

P.S. It is on sale at the HF retail stores for another week or so for $29.99.

I found with metal pipes (I have an OPB) that I got a better idea of the actual temp if I put masking tape on the spots I wanted to measure, on metal or pex I got weird numbers, you may find that the IR is reading the fire not the glass temp with out a non reflective surface to read from. The tape also helped me know I was taking the temp at the same spots.

I'm planning to buy this. Are they any free shipping coupons?

As far as I know, you can either measure temperature by touching something (air touching mercury inside glass in an outdoor themometer, example) and measuring the expansion or contraction, or by measuring the radiation from the object. An IR thermometer reads the radiated light waves coming from the hot object. Because these are in the infrared wavelength, it's called an IR thermometer.

If there is some other way of measuring temperature remotely, I'm sure someone will tell us.

53flyer said:

firefighterjake said:

RE: First question . . . you know . . . I'm not really sure if it's measuring the heat from the glass or heat from the fire . . . reason being I am mostly concerned with the heat from the stove top as this is where I am supposed to measure the heat.

Second question . . . this IR gun should register plenty at temps plenty hot enough for you.

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Yes, this laser gun reads -4 to 968 °F. I didn't think ithat was an IR gun though. The IR thermometers I've found that I'm refering to as not going very high are ones like this:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?itemnumber=93984&Submit=Go (-27 to 482)

My question (from post 9) that you answered was inquiring as to if an IR thermometer is better than the gun I started this thread with. If you're saying that both (the one I originally posted and the one linked in this post) are IR thermometers then that means my Q in post 9, asking if one type was better than the other, was flawed.

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I'm just a dumb firefighter 53 . . . I've read and re-read this post and still don't know what you're saying here.

DanCorcoran said:

As far as I know, you can either measure temperature by touching something (air touching mercury inside glass in an outdoor themometer, example) and measuring the expansion or contraction, or by measuring the radiation from the object. An IR thermometer reads the radiated light waves coming from the hot object. Because these are in the infrared wavelength, it's called an IR thermometer.

If there is some other way of measuring temperature remotely, I'm sure someone will tell us.

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I know the answer to this one.

Way of measuring a temperature remotely . . . option C: You're sound asleep and your wife wakes you up to tell you it's cold since the fire has gone out in the stove and she's wondering if you can start another fire.

we need a "like" button on the hearth like Facebook has, that last post would have gotten tons!