initial thoughts on fireboard 2

[Murphy's Law]

I have a Thermoworks IRK-2.
A little pricey, but allows you to change emissivity values, so you can use it on practically anything

Bonus points for anyone who can explain emissivity!!!

(In a past life I was a Level III Thermographer FWIW).

 

[JamesB]

Bonus points for anyone who can explain emissivity!!!

(In a past life I was a Level III Thermographer FWIW).

Emissivity is the measure of an object's ability to emit infrared energy. Emitted energy indicates the temperature of the object. Emissivity can have a value from 0 (shiny mirror) to 1.0 (blackbody). Most organic, painted, or oxidized surfaces have emissivity values close to 0.95.
And most IR guns are set at 0.95

 

[John S.]

What IR gun do you have? I need to get one

ThermaPro TP-30 $22 Amazon, Take a look at Thermoworks IR-Gun-S @ $44
These both have adjustable emissivity

 

[JamesB]

For instance, a shiny stainless skillet has an emissivity rating of 0.75. So many IR would be way off. However, you could put some oil in that skillet, and the IR gun will then measure the oil instead of the stainless

 

[JamesB]

(In a past life I was a Level III Thermographer FWIW).

I had to look that up…lol

 

[Timmy]

Bonus points for anyone who can explain emissivity!!!

Way over my pay grade!

 

[JamesB]

ThermaPro TP-30 $22 Amazon, Take a look at Thermoworks IR-Gun-S @ $44
These both have adjustable emissivity

I looked at the IR-gun-s, and almost bought it, and can’t remember why, but decided to go with the -k instead.

 

[miguelb]

Same here. Just want to get the temp of my pizza stone and skillet from time to time. Not looking to rehash science experiments anymore.

 

[MidwestSmoker]

Unless you are cooking at very high temperatures I am not sure what the benefit of IR guns are. The thermistor probes are far more accurate and better suited for Traegers. I have it to approximately measure the temperatures in my pizza oven where it reaches above 900 degrees.

 

[miguelb]

I saw Mad Scientist BBQ use this one but not sure if it's worth it.

Thermapen® IR

Specializing in cool, unique and professional temperature tools. Super-Fast thermocouples, thermistors, infrared thermometers, data logging and more.

www.thermoworks.com

 

[JamesB]

I saw Mad Scientist BBQ use this one but not sure if it's worth it.

Thermapen® IR

Specializing in cool, unique and professional temperature tools. Super-Fast thermocouples, thermistors, infrared thermometers, data logging and more.

www.thermoworks.com

Read the reviews on it….

 

[Puertex]

Emissivity is the measure of an object's ability to emit infrared energy. Emitted energy indicates the temperature of the object. Emissivity can have a value from 0 (shiny mirror) to 1.0 (blackbody). Most organic, painted, or oxidized surfaces have emissivity values close to 0.95.
And most IR guns are set at 0.95

Ahh... heat transfer...
The above is correct and it is a material property...
Without going into lots of stuff, emissivity is used to determine the surface temperature of an object calculated in a backwards way.
The gun detects the radiant heat coming out of a surface but it calculates the surface temperature (of the object you are pointing the gun at) by dividing the energy by the emissivity. Heat energy and temperature are two different but related things.
With the gun comes a chart with emis for most materials, and it is a setting that should be changed as necessary for accuracy of the readings.
I worked with these calcs for most of my life...

 

[KraZ440]

I read a negative review of GrillGrates once, where the person was complaining about them not getting hot. They were using an IR gun to measure the temp. The GrillGrates response said IR guns are not accurate on shiny aluminum. This must be the reason why.

 

[Murphy's Law]

I read a negative review of GrillGrates once, where the person was complaining about them not getting hot. They were using an IR gun to measure the temp. The GrillGrates response said IR guns are not accurate on shiny stainless steel. This must be the reason why.

Exactly, "shiny" surfaces reflect energy much the way a mirror reflects an image. I remember seeing one of those ghost hunter shows and they were using an IR camera. The dude holding the camera walked past a stainless fridge or something like that and saw "a ghost". It was just the camera picking up his energy being reflected off the surface he was looking at.

If you really wanted to know the temp of the grill grates you could simply get some high temp black paint and spray a small area and then point the gun there.

 

[Puertex]

Exactly, "shiny" surfaces reflect energy much the way a mirror reflects an image. I remember seeing one of those ghost hunter shows and they were using an IR camera. The dude holding the camera walked past a stainless fridge or something like that and saw "a ghost". It was just the camera picking up his energy being reflected off the surface he was looking at.

If you really wanted to know the temp of the grill grates you could simply get some high temp black paint and spray a small area and then point the gun there.

If I wanted to know the exact temperature of an object and it was reachable, I would get a special probe that has like a little disc at the tip and it would detect an accurate surface temperature.
Sometimes, objects were not reachable due to their high temps (such as molten glass), and with that I had to rely on the IR gun. Luckily molten glass is clean and has a super high emissivity.
IR guns were not as accurate due to the surface emissivity assumption.
See, if the surface is dirty, it throws off your reading.
I would treat the readings as rough and often used them as a validation of my calculations in whatever work I was doing.