Pros and cons of a Laser thermometer

I found a infrared laser thermometer on Amazon for 15 bucks so I was wondering is this worth grabbing

You mean the little gun thing, they are cool, I know alot of people that like them to check temps with having to touch the object, that way they don't have to worry about getting brunt, sounds stupid but it is true. For brewering it would just be cool to have one, fast read.

But, it would only be able to measure the surface of your water/wort which seems pretty inaccurate. Surface temps would be affected by the air above it, which would be significantly lower temp.

I'd say it's not very useful for brewing, but would be awesome if it did actually work because they are super cool

I thought the same thing regarding the surface temp, but then I recall seeing alot of people using the Fermometer strips on their primary

A valid point but I think that works differently in that there's no air gap between the backside of the fermometer and the wort. A plastic/glass gap but both those are better at conducting temperature than moving air

I'd like to be out to lunch of it because taking instant temp readings from afar would be super cool!

I have one and get inconsistent results. It seems that reflective surfaces (like shiny vessels) and steam can both throw off readings. I do use it to roughly gauge how long until I hit my strike temp, etc, but don't use it for any 'mission critical' temperatures.

wrench said:

I have one and get inconsistent results. It seems that reflective surfaces (like shiny vessels) and steam can both throw off readings. I do use it to roughly gauge how long until I hit my strike temp, etc, but don't use it for any 'mission critical' temperatures.

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+1 on all points. My experiences exactly.

Gear101 said:

You mean the little gun thing, they are cool, I know alot of people that like them to check temps with having to touch the object, that way they don't have to worry about getting brunt, sounds stupid but it is true. For brewering it would just be cool to have one, fast read.

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Agreed. I hate getting brunt when I'm brewering

"brewering" God, I love it!

I use mine for getting the CO2 volume correct in kegs I'm quick force carbonating. I put a pressure gauge on the gas post, shoot the keg with the infrared, consult the chart, bingo.

I also use it with my wood fired pizza oven. Homebrew. Wood fired pizza. Yeah baby!