Infrared thermometer?

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sudsy9977

sudsy9977

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So what does everyone use for an infrared thermometer these days. Cheap one from Amazon? Fancy thermoworks? I’d be using it for a pizza oven, griddle. Other random uses. Thanks for any advice. Ryan
 
I'm using a mid range IR thermometer (approx 150 euro). For Pizza (wood oven) you need to take care that the upper limit is high enough, many cheap versions have a limit at around 250'C (or at least when I bought mine several years ago), and you need to know how the beam 'flares'out. I don't think you can go wrong with a cheaper version. BTW; reflective surfaces do not measure well, unless you can attach something non reflective.

Better IR thermometers allow for the emissivity factor to be adjusted and have hold, max temp delta temp etc functions, in all honesty...not needed for regular cooking stuff IMO.
 
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I've had a Thermoworks for about 10 years. It works fine. Not sure about the upper range; I don't think it's meant for beyond 500 or 600 degF. We have had fancier ones here at my office; I haven't felt the need for one at home. Thermoworks has sales regularly, so it's often available for ~30% less than the regular price.

On a side note, you should drive down Sunday for the ECG.
 
Thanks guys. I might go for the higher priced thermoworks. They haven’t let me down in the past.

I wish I could drive down. My back is all messed up. No driving right now
 
I have one of the gun-style generic ones. It cost about $30. It’s OK for a rough measurement. I see fluctuations of +-10 °C or so with it. If you want accuracy, I’d recommend an instant-read probe thermometer instead.
 
Thanks Michi. I have a thermapen that is great. I needed one for a pizza oven
 
IR is pretty accurate, IF you know how wide the beam is at what distance and when you measure non reflective surfaces.
 
I use a cheaper one from Amazon all the time, it’s accurate even to high temps in the pizza oven.
 
i'm a civil engineer. we use IR's for work. i brought one home and found i never did use it all all. i kinda know when things are hot enough to cook.

what exactly are you all shooting for temp? griddle tops? my first pancake is the sacrificial one anyways. i do the water splash trick for heat. i need LESS tools in the kitchen, not more. i took mine back to work.
 
MarcelNL said:
emissivity
Click to expand...

thats the key word here. an IR thermometer only shows an accurate temp for a certain emissivity. you need to set the emissivity on the thermometer to the actual emmisivity of the thing you are measuring. i have one with adjustable emissivity. problem with that is; i dont know the emissivity of the materials i'm measuring :)

allinall they are usually set up to be pretty accurate for most common things. if you start measuring shiny metals at 500C, well lets just say they wont be so accurate.

one good feature on kine is that its fast to make a measurement. like 0,1 seconds. and its updated very rapidly if you hold the button. we have one at work and it takes about a second to get a measurement out of it. total crap imo.
 
It’s more for my father in law. He has a pizza oven and an outdoor griddle and can’t just judge temperature like someone who cooks a lot. I wound up getting a cheaper one on Amazon. It had good reviews. I’ll roll the dice on it
 
guesstimating how hot a pizza oven is has quite a learning curve especially in an electric oven, the difference between 250 C and 340 C is pretty big in terms of result but there is no visible difference. Other than that I'm not using IR for anything else than measuring heatsink surfaces etc..
 
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