Night Vision I need a thermal, but for inspecting electrical work

[PinesAndProjectiles]

Not your normal post in the Night Vision Devices thread.

I'm looking for a thermal imaging device that I can use to inspect electrical cabinets, pumps and motors.

From what I've read so far, Thermal will beat out Infrared.

Does anyone use either for looking at electrical cabinets, hydraulic systems, etc?

I would like to stay around the $1200 mark.

Thanks.

 

[Frog05]

We have company come to our plant every year with thermal cameras do that. It is pretty effective at locating problem areas for us.

 

[PinesAndProjectiles]

Thanks @Frog05 . Do you think that is more efficient than having our own and training our people to use one?

I should have added, we have five facilities and the unit would be shared between them.

 

[remmynikon.308]

how about the Fluke pocket thermal imager?

 

[Frog05]

Not knowing your exact situation makes that a tough question, but for what we do I think its more beneficial to subcontract it out, unless you want to spend some big money on a unit similar to what they use. They are very thorough and take a thermal pic, a regular camera pic, as well as a description of the problem areas and compile into a report for your maintenance personnel.

We also have a cheapo handheld scanner and it works but the professional units are considerably more accurate on their temp readings.

 

[Frog05]

Shoot me a dm if you want and I can give you some more specifics.

 

[MCHOG]

Thank you OP for the idea of using a thermal as a tax write-off. That changes the entire economic dynamic. Skeet, here I come!

 

[PlinkIt]

We use them at work for all grade if maintenance activities... Cheap fluke phone crap all the way up to 100k units that can see gas leaks

Depending on exactly what you expect to get out of the unit will change the suggestion here greatly

The ability to use software to log and inspect / compare later .. opens up some serious doors in a maintenance roll.
Changing emissivity is not even an option on most of our hunting type thermals. Some of the hunting units have a fixed focus which is 100% wrong for maintenance work.
Just being able to change the scale allows you to find much slighter differences in temp that wouldn't be seen with a hunting unit

This is like comparing a motorcycle and a combine harvester... One is a nice cruise but won't get crops up.. the other one won't do great on a ride to Sturgis

 

[Sferguson53]

I don’t have a lot of thermal experience but do have about 40 years industrial maintenance. We didn’t own a scanner, but had scans of major equipment done several times. Before I retired, our insurance company would do free scans for us. Thermal is an awesome tool. Scanners were too expensive back then for us to own one. We made do with a non contact ir thermometer. Now Fluke has devices for less than $1000. Resolution is fairly low (120 x 90) but still amazing. They should work well for breaker panels, disconnects, and such where you can get close. If you want to scan overhead lines and equipment something more expensive would be in order. Good luck in your search.