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Dropped $340 on a used thermal camera, my most hated buy in 8 years on the job
Everyone in the trade keeps telling me thermal imaging is a must-have for finding hot spots and air leaks, so I dropped $340 on a used FLIR at a pawn shop in Mesa last spring. It caught one loose breaker lug in a whole summer of attic runs, and half the time the readings just reflect sun-baked drywall instead of the actual problem. Am I using this thing wrong, or did I just burn money on a tool that only pays off on certain kinds of jobs?
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ericgonzalez8d ago
Wait, you paid 340 bucks for a used one at a pawn shop? That is wild to me. I have seen guys find decent cameras for way less at estate sales or on marketplace when someone's retiring. The sun-baked drywall thing is real though, you have to go early morning or after the sun goes down or you're just looking at heat stored in the walls. Are you adjusting the emissivity setting at all? Most people never touch it and then wonder why their readings are garbage.
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