Why use an IR Thermo Gun ??

I wonder how accurate they are? It disagrees with a couple of thermocoupled things I have.

BWA HA HA HA !!

I was just wondering if there was any truth to the "being anal" about my woodstove addiction......first it was the MM....then I built a crib to stack and cut my long splits a little shorter, the new Stihl MS290, and now the IR Gun...he just shakes his head and keeps asking "why do you need these".

Wife got one for me for Christmas, I use it to check the areas around the stove to insure that the stuff around the stove is far enough away (some of them is over 3 feet away and they still are warmer then room temp. I also use it to check stove pipe temps along with temps of the wall where the class A runs. I also use it tocheck general temps around the basement where the stove is located trying to find the warm/cold spots where more or less insulation is needed.

Best use for me is measuring relative stove temps on my insert, which has no good spot for a magnetic thermo anyway.

In other words, even if my IR gun is not super accurate, by using consistent aim and noting "normal" temps, I can tell when my stove is running too cold or hot. Shooting through the glass to measure firebox temps is notoriously inaccurate, for example, but if I'm careful I can get good info about relative changes in temp in there.

None of this so far has contradicted my eyeballs as far as safe, efficient operation goes, but it's nice to have some benchmarks.

And as others have said, there are a million other ways to play with this fun toy!

-dan

Can someone recommend an IR thermometer gun ? Amazon has a zillion. Thanks.

I just got the general brand heat seeker for about $40.00 with tax, at Lowes seems pretty nice to me but what do I know lol.....Just another fun toy to me that I probably didn't need.

I agree.

I agree too. I have heated with wood for nearly 40 years with nothing more than the cat thermometer, and it amuses me to see the way folks have their stoves all instrumented. OTOH, as an engineer, I think it's kinda cool.

I mainly want a thermometer to look for air leaks (in my house) and to figure out how much heat is radiating into the crawlspace from the foundation under my hearth.

because now u have "IR gun envy" )

First time I ever saw any sort if thermostat on a stove was on my Blaze King. Every other stove I used... If it was cold in the house/building, add more wood.
Even with the T Stat I don't pay much attention to it.

They have them on sale at harbor freight frequently for $25. Love mine.