Sears has this infrared thermometer with aiming laser for $48 (without
a Craftsman card it's $80):

http://tinyurl.com/y7689y

Is it any good, and can it be calibrated?

In article .com,
"larry moe 'n curly" wrote:

Sears has this infrared thermometer with aiming laser for $48 (without
a Craftsman card it's $80):

http://tinyurl.com/y7689y

Is it any good, and can it be calibrated?

LMC-

After seeing your post yesterday, I stopped by Sears to check it out.
The one in the local store had the $79 price tag, with no evidence that
it could be had for less.

I spent $50 for a smaller IR thermometer at Radio Shack. It works OK,
although it doesn't have the LASER pointer or the extremely high
temperature range of the Sears unit. I took mine apart and didn't see
any way to calibrate it, so they must select components in the factory
to set its accuracy.

You might see if you can find the Sears unit in the parts department of
their web site. Sometimes they have a diagram available in addition to
a parts list.

Fred

Fred McKenzie wrote:
In article .com,
"larry moe 'n curly" wrote:

Sears has this infrared thermometer with aiming laser for $48 (without
a Craftsman card it's $80):

http://tinyurl.com/y7689y

Is it any good, and can it be calibrated?

After seeing your post yesterday, I stopped by Sears to check it out.
The one in the local store had the $79 price tag, with no evidence that
it could be had for less.

It's in a Craftsman flyer dated Oct 22-28, page 3. Here are scans of
the front and page 3:

http://static.flickr.com/99/280848013_9d154c0e0c_o.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/87/280848017_0a60e4be4d_o.jpg

There were lots of these flyers in the tool dept. at Kmart (some are
now called Sears Essentials), but they didn't have the thermometer in
stock, so I had to visit a regular Sears store.

I spent $50 for a smaller IR thermometer at Radio Shack. It works OK,
although it doesn't have the LASER pointer or the extremely high
temperature range of the Sears unit. I took mine apart and didn't see
any way to calibrate it, so they must select components in the factory
to set its accuracy.

You might see if you can find the Sears unit in the parts department of
their web site. Sometimes they have a diagram available in addition to
a parts list.

This Craftsman thermometer turns out to be an ExTech model 42510.
Amazon.com had its user manual available for download, but nothing in
it mentioned calibration. However, the inside of my throat measured
98.4F, so I guess the accuracy is OK.

While searching for infrared thermometers, I found a downloadable book
forecasting the worldwide growth in sales of handheld infrared
thermometers:

http://tinyurl.com/y9x8sz

Only $795.00!!!

"larry moe 'n curly" wrote in message
oups.com...

Fred McKenzie wrote:
In article .com,
"larry moe 'n curly" wrote:

Sears has this infrared thermometer with aiming laser for $48 (without
a Craftsman card it's $80):

http://tinyurl.com/y7689y

Is it any good, and can it be calibrated?

After seeing your post yesterday, I stopped by Sears to check it out.
The one in the local store had the $79 price tag, with no evidence that
it could be had for less.

It's in a Craftsman flyer dated Oct 22-28, page 3. Here are scans of
the front and page 3:

http://static.flickr.com/99/280848013_9d154c0e0c_o.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/87/280848017_0a60e4be4d_o.jpg

There were lots of these flyers in the tool dept. at Kmart (some are
now called Sears Essentials), but they didn't have the thermometer in
stock, so I had to visit a regular Sears store.

I spent $50 for a smaller IR thermometer at Radio Shack. It works OK,
although it doesn't have the LASER pointer or the extremely high
temperature range of the Sears unit. I took mine apart and didn't see
any way to calibrate it, so they must select components in the factory
to set its accuracy.

You might see if you can find the Sears unit in the parts department of
their web site. Sometimes they have a diagram available in addition to
a parts list.

This Craftsman thermometer turns out to be an ExTech model 42510.
Amazon.com had its user manual available for download, but nothing in
it mentioned calibration. However, the inside of my throat measured
98.4F, so I guess the accuracy is OK.

While searching for infrared thermometers, I found a downloadable book
forecasting the worldwide growth in sales of handheld infrared
thermometers:

http://tinyurl.com/y9x8sz

Only $795.00!!!

I briefly looked at these type thermometers a year or two ago. They didn't
seem to be able to cover a small enough area. Has this changed, was I
mistaken or is their a way around it?. IOW can you check an individual
transistor or resistor? When I looked before it seemed doubtful a CPU
heatsink sized area could be read accurately. That was the killer for me.

T Shadow wrote:
"larry moe 'n curly" wrote in message
oups.com...

Sears has this infrared thermometer with aiming laser for $48 (without
a Craftsman card it's $80):

http://tinyurl.com/y7689y

It's in a Craftsman flyer dated Oct 22-28, page 3. Here are scans of
the front and page 3:

http://static.flickr.com/99/280848013_9d154c0e0c_o.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/87/280848017_0a60e4be4d_o.jpg

There were lots of these flyers in the tool dept. at Kmart (some are
now called Sears Essentials), but they didn't have the thermometer in
stock, so I had to visit a regular Sears store.

I briefly looked at these type thermometers a year or two ago. They didn't
seem to be able to cover a small enough area. Has this changed, was I
mistaken or is their a way around it?. IOW can you check an individual
transistor or resistor? When I looked before it seemed doubtful a CPU
heatsink sized area could be read accurately. That was the killer for me.

This particular Sears/Extech 42510 has a distance/spot ratio of 8,
meaning fhat, at a distance of 4", it measures tempearture over a spot
0.5" diameter. But I saw some much more expensive Raytek thermometers
where the d/s was of 50 or even 130, like this $226 ST60-SB:

http://tinyurl.com/y3q6az

BTW, be careful when buying products from Sears because they've
implemented a 15% restocking fee on some of them.

"larry moe 'n curly" wrote in message
oups.com...

T Shadow wrote:
"larry moe 'n curly" wrote in message
oups.com...

Sears has this infrared thermometer with aiming laser for $48 (without
a Craftsman card it's $80):

http://tinyurl.com/y7689y

It's in a Craftsman flyer dated Oct 22-28, page 3. Here are scans of
the front and page 3:

http://static.flickr.com/99/280848013_9d154c0e0c_o.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/87/280848017_0a60e4be4d_o.jpg

There were lots of these flyers in the tool dept. at Kmart (some are
now called Sears Essentials), but they didn't have the thermometer in
stock, so I had to visit a regular Sears store.

I briefly looked at these type thermometers a year or two ago. They
didn't
seem to be able to cover a small enough area. Has this changed, was I
mistaken or is their a way around it?. IOW can you check an individual
transistor or resistor? When I looked before it seemed doubtful a CPU
heatsink sized area could be read accurately. That was the killer for
me.

This particular Sears/Extech 42510 has a distance/spot ratio of 8,
meaning fhat, at a distance of 4", it measures tempearture over a spot
0.5" diameter. But I saw some much more expensive Raytek thermometers
where the d/s was of 50 or even 130, like this $226 ST60-SB:

http://tinyurl.com/y3q6az

BTW, be careful when buying products from Sears because they've
implemented a 15% restocking fee on some of them.

Thanks. At least that's within reason. And for the heads up on fee.

In article .com,
"larry moe 'n curly" wrote:

Fred McKenzie wrote:
After seeing your post yesterday, I stopped by Sears to check it out.
The one in the local store had the $79 price tag, with no evidence that
it could be had for less.

It's in a Craftsman flyer dated Oct 22-28, page 3. Here are scans of
the front and page 3:

http://static.flickr.com/99/280848013_9d154c0e0c_o.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/87/280848017_0a60e4be4d_o.jpg

LMC-

I printed your scans and took them to Sears. They didn't argue at all.
They sold me one at the sale price even though the sale had expired.

I found the Extech user's manual at their web site. It is obviously the
same unit, although I suspect theirs doesn't come with the Craftsman
red-and-black color scheme.

I noticed that Sears has the 2%/4 degree error spec across the entire
range, while Extech has a 1%/1.8 Degree spec from 60 to 113 Degrees F.

Thanks for the heads-up and the scans.

Fred