Non contact thermometer

[reefertech]

Im curious if many of you consider non contact infared thermometer guns reliable for calculating superheat etc.

[chemi-cool]

NO,

If you look carefully' you will notice that the digits don't stop moving up and down one or two digits only but can be critical when it comes to superheat.

Chemi

[dill]

I agree chemi, I use IR thermometers all the time to obtain air off temperatures on our AC vents as the ceilings in my office block are 20 feet high. But I would never use it to obtain the discharge superheat on our chillers as the margine for error can be as much as 2 degrees which could prove criticle when callculating gas charges. dill.

[ozairman]

I have a fluke IR thermometer its handy some times for measuring air vent temps as dill has said but the area of view when the vent is 10 feet away is pretty wide (a couple of feet). I have used it a couple of times to measure discharge temps on compressors it works ok but you have to wrap the copper in black tape and hold the thermometer about an inch away otherwise it reflects and you get strange readings.

I normally use an ETI therma 1 with a 6 thermocouple switch box. A couple of minutes spent cable tying the beads to the important places allows you to check superheats really easily.

If I was doing preventative maintenance on large plant where I would be going back at regular intervals I would put matt black paint in places where I wanted to use the IR and possibly use it but for the most time its more of a cool toy than serious instrument