Monitor Keeper Tools: Temp Guns

[Kyle Barker]

IM curious, how safe is that light? Not that anyone would intentionaly pointin somethings eye's, but what if?

[Edwin]

The light is just an LED to help you pinpoint where the temp gun is taking a reading.

[SHvar]

The devices have a warning that states may cause temporary to permanent blindness, or retina damage, and to never point it in anyone or anythings eyes. I guess if your curious then try it on yourself dont debilitate some harmless animal out of curiosity. Makes me really question when someone asks something like that, if this person should be responsible for another life form.
I use a few laser devices at home over the years, with no risk of it happening ever. It would have to be intentional to have that happen.

[V.hb]

It takes long exposure to the lazer to cause any long term effects.

[Stockwell]

I did quite a bit of research a couple years back before purchasing my IR thermometer.
Raytek, is indeed the leader in the field, but many of the cheaper ones are only accurate to plus or minus 2 degree C which is almost 4 F degrees. That's not very good when it comes to Python eggs. If you're reading 90F it could be 94 or 87

What I discovered is that they make an inexpensive unit for the food industry and it has a more narrow range, but is perfect for our use in herpetology. It's also quite inexpensive at about 100US.($150 cdn)
I purchased 3 Food temps, Two for myself and 1 for Craig Stewart(Urban Gecko).
They were about 150 bucks, and a great deal. Small enough to fit in your shirt pocket. The have a nice back light, and lazer, and an auto hold function.. They will display in C or F... Very nice little unit
I love mine and have one upstairs and one downstairs.
You have to get them from industrial suppliers.
Got mine from Anderson Controls.
The part number is RAYMT-FS It's called the Raytek minitemp Food safefy. It's mostly sold to the restaurant industry.
It's rated accuracy is plus/minus 1 degree C..

If you need more accuracy than that, Raytek has them, but they are bigger units worth a few hunded or more
Here's a link to the model I'm talking about on the Raytek
website
http://www.raytek-northamerica.com/c...l?cat_id=2.3.6

[Jeff_Favelle]

Holy smokes Roy, that's awesome! Have you tried to test it to see how accurate it is?

[Edwin]

Here is the model Roy is talking about:

http://www.infrared-usa.com/Product....MTFS&Param2=22





I have seen them for sale in Toronto, but cannot remember where exactly. They were in high demand during the SARS outbreak. My IR thermometer is similar to what Ravi has, except I got it from Radioshack in the US. According to the manual, the accuracy is +/- 4 deg F, or +/- 2.5% of reading, whichever is higher.

[Jeff_Favelle]

+/- 4F is useless for me. My hand can feel +/- 4F for crying out loud.

[Steeve B]

Important I wanted peoples to understand how variable can be highly important.
On this photo aim trying to illustrate a very common mistake often leading to incubation failure. The grey heat gun is my favorite everyday tool, however its unsuitable for any précis readings, the smaller and cheaper $60 medical thermo-scan is far more précis, this is why I use it for reliable incubation readings.
See I took 5 deferent readings on the Hot water glass, the Thermo-scan gave me accurate readings 95.6f every time, the heat gun gave me five deferent results, needles to say shod you rely on the heat gun for your incubation, your in trouble!

Also I who’d like to say! I tested many brands of heat guns, they all performed quit similar, except for Medicals, perhaps the best advising is to obtain models with 9volt battery.

I haven’t tried the food raytek, however I did try 4 of there models and wasn’t impressed except be the high $$

Rgds

[Steeve B]

Why a 9volt battery? Simply cause they are a safety item every herper shod have, we need them for fire detectors, no herp room shod be without! OK enough with the preaching!
The truth is when ever my heat guns battery is dead, I snitch one off the fire detector, handy don’t you think? hihi

[asphyxia]

Steve,

Where do you find the guns above, are they at drugstores?
Are they used in the same manner as the gray one with the red buttom 2 posts up

Thanks
Brian

[Jeff_Favelle]

I totally agree with Steeve B!! I would never use a temp-gun for incubating!!! Not in a million years. I mean, unless they make an x-ray one that can see through wood, insulation, rubber, more wood, plastic liner, and then a Rubbermaid. LOL! Theremometers with probes are for incubators. Temp-guns are for basking spots.

Now Steeve, where can I get those guns you were talking about? And they still make 9-volt batteries? Holy moly! LOL!!

[Steeve B]

Well the Heat gun is the same model Linds talked about, Thermo scan is a probe gun and must have direct contact to get any reading, its designed for ear or rectal use in humans, available in any drug mart. The best way to use it is to simply lean it on top of any plastic egg container! And you get the exact temperature in a second, you don’t have to open the container, the accuracy of this tool is unmatched yet! However the next best thing is a needle probe sold by farm supplies, the same unit is now available with a thinner needle use in the meat industry , what’s fun about these devises! You can get nesting site temps without disturbing your animals, you can also when working with large egg containers stick them thru an 1/4in hole and get both humidity and heat without disturbing the eggs.
Rgds

[Mwoxy]

Something to be aware of with infra red thermometers is the spot to distance ratio. With many of the larger (Raytek) units it's in the region of 1:8 ie at 8cm's you are measuring a spot of 1cm diameter or a 12.5 cm spot at a metre. Some of the cheaper/smaller units have a 1:2 ratio, so at a meter you are measuring a 50cm spot, not particularly useful and potentially very misleading. Otherwise they are great, just know your tools.

Cheers Mark

[SHvar]

Its an "Extech non-contact IR thermometer 42529". Its a 6:1 distance to spot reading, accurate to 1 degree+/- f or c. I couldnt find the place I ordered it from, but I did find a new price of $158.00, after I only payed $72. When I found it originally I checked prices in 4 businesses. It works great and is very accurate. I had one from Proexotics for a few years (gave it to a friend) accurate to about 9 or so inches and small.