Opinions on Cheap Thermocouple Meters

I've been 'eye-balling' these cheap meters and am wondering if I want to take a chance on one of these. Curious if anyone has any experience with these? They may be nothing but junk, but who knows?

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-jim

Reply to
Jim Flanagan
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Made in China, but seems like a legit company.

Hey for $10 it's worth the risk.

Cheers

Reply to
Martin Riddle

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$26 with postage... and if it's dead you only get $10 back, but still very cheap.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

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Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

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Spehro, What do you recommend for an IR thermometer? I have a "slab leak", so I want to scan the tile floor and localize which tiles I need to rip up :-( ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Reply to
Jim Thompson

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Pretty simple shit. Go to Harbor Frieght and buy the cheap $20 DVM they sell. It comes with a temp function and a probe. The probe alone is worth ten bucks. They actually built it pretty nice. The tip has a small piece of thermal heat shrink over the fiberglass cloth sheath, right at the tip. They did a really nice job on something with such a low price.

Reply to
Archimedes' Lever

It probably works, but don't expect very good reference junction compensation, which means it will be pretty accurate when the instrument itself is around room temperature. My Extech DVM/thermometer cost more like $70, and is really close on temperature if ambient is reasonable.

John

Reply to
John Larkin

Harbor Freight has one on sale for $8.99 in the seventh row from the top, left side. The coupon expires tomorrow.

You can get a free LED flashlight with the coupon on this page:

It looks like you have two stores near you:

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Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

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What's the emissivity of the tiles look to be? Most tiles are shiny so a fast contact probe might be a better bet, but NONE of the cheap meters come with a proper ribbon thermocouple, which alone is worth $40-$100. I could lend you a probe if you have a meter with a type-K jack. You only need relative readings, so just about any meter should do.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

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"it's the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
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Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

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I don't have such a meter :-( ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Reply to
Jim Thompson

My house has PEX in the slab. Just as dumb, but at least they aren't rigid.

Reply to
krw

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Toss one together yourself; i will even send you some TC wire. Use a torch to make a connection bead at one end, make 2 TCs one for the ice bath and connect to a decent sensitivity pane meter. Most expensive part is the meter even if from surplus house.

Reply to
Robert Baer

Under the slab, not in it? That's going to be tough to find. The water can migrate quite a ways before it contacts the slab where you'll find the cool spot.

Any change you can just abandon the buried stuff and have PEX snaked through the walls?

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Paul Hovnanian     mailto:Paul@Hovnanian.com
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Reply to
Paul Hovnanian P.E.

Pretty common on the Left Coast, particularly in Eichler-style homes, which also used copper-in-slab radiant heating.

Pinholes, jackhammers. Noisy and expensive. This might be the time to go to forced air?

Reply to
artie

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Damn! You just missed a sale at Harbor Freight. These were going for about $25

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Measuring shiny surfaces (tile) isn't too difficult. You just stick a patch of tape on each one, let it stabilize and use it as a target. You can write the readings down on the tape as well.

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Paul Hovnanian     mailto:Paul@Hovnanian.com
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Reply to
Paul Hovnanian P.E.

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I have, but it has some limitations. It will not go around bends let = alone=20 elbows (though it can handle sweeps). It cannot handle "T" or "Y" taps.=20

I will mention directional boring for the work under the slab.

Reply to
JosephKK

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Interesting. Worth a serious look.

Reply to
JosephKK

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is on sale for $19.95 on the main page of their website:

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Flat black spray paint?

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Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

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