About IR Thermometers

Good to Know About the Thermometer

There are a few things to note about how IR thermometers work in General. We put a quick "good to know" section on our website here and this Thermo Blog article also makes a great read. 

Note that our thermometer has an emissivity rating of 0.95 and cannot be changed or calibrated.
Here are the essential things to note:

IR Thermometers take surface readings, not internal temperature readings. It is important to stir your milk first to be uniform in temperature as it might be quite a bit hotter at the bottom by the stove than it is at the top in contact with the air.

IR Thermometers are extremely sensitive to orientation & reflections, so be sure to point them to the surface correctly.

IR Thermometers will take a reading from the first contact they come across, even if that contact is steam that you cannot see; this makes them tricky to use with water straight off the boil or evaporating liquids at 80°C onwards.

IR Thermometers are also particularly not good at taking the temperature of boiling water in a stainless steel pot due to the reflectivity of the stainless. This tends to reflect ambient IR rather than emitting its own, so this is the worst way to determine an IR thermometer's accuracy.

I hope this info helps you understand the best practices with IR thermometers.

Updated on: 13/06/2021