Thermal Imager in my future - Anyone have any experience?

[peakbagger]

I have an IR thermometer but looking at a thermal Imager for heat loss work. There is quite a range in resolutions and prices out there. The Flir equipment appears to be the benchmark. There are offshore rigs for far less but my guess is reliability is marginal and service unobtainable. 320 by 240 looks to be a reasonable resolution but a step up in price. The SEEK products are pretty interesting but when I bought one of the compact smart phone plug in units when they first came out it was incompatible with my old phone and definitely not industrial duty as it would be easy to damage. They now have a unit with an integrated display that looks a lot more robust. I can buy several for the price of Flir with equivalent resolution. The SEEKs are US built.

Anyone have any experience or opinions?

 

[coolidge]

I use the Flir Pro for my smartphone. Simple to use, compact and shows you what you need to know.

 

[Solarguy3500]

The Cat S62 Pro phone has a FLIR camera built in. The phone costs $650.

(broken link removed)

I have the earlier version of the phone the S61 and I really like it. If you're going to be doing a lot of work with thermal imaging, you might want a purpose built camera, but for casual use the one on the Cat phone is fine.

 

[woodgeek]

No relevant experience, just played around with the FLIRs from work.

But I would say that my experience with Asian made electronics (fitting a research lab with lots of lasers and sensors, etc) is that they work at least as long as domestic, at a fraction of the price. I mostly just buy the cheapest thing available (with decent sales volume).

 

[begreen]

A FLIR GEn3 camera for iPhone or Android is about $200. Not hi-res, but will indicate the leaks and hot spots.

 

[semipro]

The standalone Flir unit I've used has a visual sensor also and the ability to fuse the visual and IR images.
I find this very helpful as sometimes is very hard to tell exactly what's going on using only the IR imagery.

 

[Stearn786]

I've been contemplating the Harbor Freight thermal imager but I haven't used one. I might bite the bullet and try one soon tho.

 

[trx250r87]

I have the FLIR1 Pro for Android (USB-C) that attaches to smartphone. It's a decent tool but not something I would want to use for work or extended periods of time. The battery does not last long and when attached to a phone makes for an awkward and clumsy feel. Something with a comfortable pistol grip would be best in my opinion.

Eric

 

[peakbagger]

The standalone Flir unit I've used has a visual sensor also and the ability to fuse the visual and IR images.
I find this very helpful as sometimes is very hard to tell exactly what's going on using only the IR imagery.

Flir has the patented MXR imagery which seems to get high marks for functionality. In general, Flir seems to own the pro market and knows it. SEEK is the newcomer, great ideas, great price but the execution seems to be bit spotty.

 

[rickwai]

I want to get one, but I have not figured how to justify the cost. I do inground swimming pool service. If I could figure out how it could be useful for work it would be a no brainer