Mr RB
Well-Known Member
Bryan, that's the problem Scaedwian was talking about. It's to do with the reflectivity/emissivity of the thing you are measuring. I bet your coupling was shiny metal? Then the temp would read a lot lower than it was. If you has painted it with some UHT exahust paint you would have read the correct temp.
If you point the IR therm at some shiny metal it's like a mirror and it reads the room temperature that was reflected. One of the first things I did with mine was point it at the chromed parts of a hot Harley engine and it was reading room temp, because the room temp reflects in the chrome! Also if you point it in the oven to read the temperature of something in the oven it reads the temperature of the glass in the door, it can't read the temp THROUGH the glass door which is a pain.
You can fix the problem reading temps of shiny metal by painting some white-out or use a sticker or any colour matte paint. But I don't know any way to fix the problem of reading through the glass oven door.
If you point the IR therm at some shiny metal it's like a mirror and it reads the room temperature that was reflected. One of the first things I did with mine was point it at the chromed parts of a hot Harley engine and it was reading room temp, because the room temp reflects in the chrome! Also if you point it in the oven to read the temperature of something in the oven it reads the temperature of the glass in the door, it can't read the temp THROUGH the glass door which is a pain.
You can fix the problem reading temps of shiny metal by painting some white-out or use a sticker or any colour matte paint. But I don't know any way to fix the problem of reading through the glass oven door.