Warning: My $50 infrared thermometer was way off on my furnace ducts

I bought a cheap infrared thermometer from Amazon to check my heat registers in Calgary last month. One room showed 60 degrees while another was 85, so I thought my furnace was totally out of balance. Turns out the cheap sensor reads shiny metal surfaces wrong by almost 20 degrees, and the ductwork was actually fine. Has anyone else found big differences between IR thermometers and probe thermometers for HVAC work in Alberta homes?

2 comments

2 Comments

mila_craig47d ago

That's a frustrating discovery to make after thinking something was wrong with your furnace. A lot of those budget IR thermometers don't handle shiny metal surfaces well, which is exactly what ductwork is. It's good you caught it before calling a technician out for no reason.

nina_sullivan617d ago

Calgary here too and honestly that 20 degree difference sounds like a feature not a bug lol. My cheap IR gun from Canadian Tire gives me the same wild readings on my shiny ducts but I've learned to just point it at a piece of tape or dull surface to get a real number. Plus if your furnace was actually 20 degrees out of balance you'd probably feel it in the rooms themselves before you even grabbed a thermometer.