kim_davis•1d agoMost Upvoted

Was wrong about those cheap thermal imagers, now I own one

For years I figured the $150 thermal cameras were junk compared to the $1000+ Fluke models. Picked up a Klein at a supply house in Akron last month just to check a suspect breaker. Found a loose connection on a bus bar in about 4 minutes that I would have spent an hour probing with a meter. The resolution is grainy but it caught a 12 degree temp difference clear as day. Has anyone else had luck with the budget units for residential work, or am I just getting sloppy with my troubleshooting?

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sanchez.ivan1d ago

That Klein unit will pay for itself on the first bad breaker you find. The trick is learning to read the blobs, not the pixels, small hotspots on a big panel mean something, but tiny ones on a motor housing usually dont. I run a cheap one for walkthroughs and only break out the fancy stuff when I need to document something for a report. Keep it in the truck, use it early, and youll stop chasing ghosts with a multimeter.