FLIR TG165 Spot Thermal Imaging Camera for General Use

 

I gave it as a gift he love it. Something he needed for work great buy. I recommend this thermal camera excellent investme

 

So many possibilities with this. You can see hot spots on a circuit board, insulation issues on the house or in plumbing. Check to see if someone has a temperature. The more you use it the more uses you find for it.

 

second one we bought for our labs – FLIR is best with their patented superimposition of the optical and infrared images – makes for a much faster human readout of the thermal situatio

 

Equipo exelente, cumple lo que promete.
Detecte fallas que de otro modo habian pasado desapercibidas.
Recomendable 100%.

 

It was better then expected..pictures are of ceiling with a square light, one with a camera other with FLIR TG165 . I did not have to resort to the user manual to operate it which is very important to me.. Im one of those guys that will read the instructions only if i have to… Easy menus to set date and other parameters… the ceiling shot shows the framing above the ceiling on how the light was mounted and looks. I was able to find hidden heat sources that i was not aware of.. had a shredder in stby mode and it was cool to the touch everywhere but apparently not the case internally there was a spot showing significant heat, same with transformers, some normal some excessive.. $350 bucks is a lot for my budget but well worth it.. I asked FLIR as an entry level which is better for application I was going to use it for FLIR ONE or TG165 and the answer was quick the TG165. Well I have not had any other thermal camera so cant may reference but Im glad I bought it..

 

Very good and handy for spotting thermal variances. My job has me Insulation attics and bed bug heat treatments, in these regards I am glad I bought this instead of waiting for the Company to get around to it.

 

I bought this device to trace a building walls humidity since the humid part of a wall will have a lower temperature than the rest of it. I found that the numerical readings of the thermometer show this difference in tenths of a degree Centigrade but the color display of the device is not accurate enough. May be I should choose a device with a higher level of display FLIR TG165 Spot Thermal Camera accuracy but theese do not fit my budget.

 

The FLIR TG165 Spot Thermal Camera is an outstanding product for identifying and recording hot spots. The most impressive feature is being able to down load and present the findings in meetings with clients.

 

When I started TKElectric75 I had to make some key purchases. This is one of them that makes troubleshooting, a bit more informative….. pictures save me alot of the blah blah with the plant operations department……..tkelectric75.com

 

Camra thermique de bonne qualit, mais surtout trs facile utiliser.
La capacit de la batterie est suffisante pour une utilisation classique

 

Not a cheap product- but it already helped me see potentially damaging problems with my real estate investments, which were not noticeable on the surface… A must for homeowners or investors.

 

Estremamente facile nell’utilizzo. Ha servito ad individuare flussi in condotti di scarico utlizzando acqua calda. E’ servito anche ad indviduare le zone critiche ai fini dello scambio termico, nelle ante di portoncini. Piu’ che sufficiente per un utilizzo nel fai da te o per utilizzi saltuari.

 

Fantastic product for looking for hot spots. Don’t know how we went so long without it. We’ve purchased 3 in the past month!

 

While at the price, I am constantly looking for other uses for this thing, it does quite well at what I bought it for. I can finally feel my fingertips again. I was using my fingertips as temperature sensors for electronic components. This thing does a much better job as there is no 1-2 second delay followed by curse words. There might be an occasional curse word as I scramble to find the power supply to quickly unplug it the board I am scanning with it, but the burning sensation in my fingertips is gone.

 

So awesome. I’ve found numerous air leaks around windows, doors, ceiling, chimney, etc. Would have never found them without this product. I love that you can save a photo to the microSD card for later viewing. A great product.

 

Outstanding!! Just what the doctor ordered. Works well, and at a fair price.

 

So I bought this mostly to use as a diagnostic tool in my day-to-day work. I have an IR thermometer but I feel like it doesn’t give me enough visibility into what I’m working on for it to be useful. In any case, I really like this camera. I do have two minor complaints but considering the price range I don’t think they’re a big deal. I would definitely buy it again and recommend it to friends. Although, if I had an actual use case for this in a day job I would probably save up my money and buy one of the bigger models.

GOOD:
– Solid construction and feel. It feels sturdy in my hands and it looks pretty sweet.
– Hand strap included which is nice if you plan on using this for more than looking at things on a workbench.
– Accurate. As far as I can tell the temperatures are accurate (using the screen readout and aiming reticle).
– Can transfer images using the USB cable or by removing the sdcard. I like that I can do both because it gives me greater flexibility and I can use a larger sdcard if I want.

NEUTRAL:
– The framerate is somewhere around 15-20 frames per second (definitely no more than 30). Doesn’t really interfere with the intended usage of this camera but it can be slightly annoying when moving it around quickly.

BAD:
– There is no included lens cap or case. I can’t imagine anyone not wanting at least one of those two things to protect their camera. I’m not even sure if they make lens caps for this particular model.
– The temperature color scale is always relative to what’s visible on the screen. This is particularly annoying when you’re trying to compare differences in temperature between several points. The screen always shows a temperature reading in the top-left so it’s not impossible to do just annoying. I can’t imagine it would be that hard to implement 1-2 options in the camera’s menu that would allow changing this behavior so I don’t really understand why it’s not included.

 

Its a great tool to use for home or work

 

I was going to buy a 1000 dollar FLIR but found this one. This does everything I was looking for. It helps find the cold air spots from poor insulation but also find hot spots in your fuse box. For fun you can also use this to find moles under the grass. The capture image feature and laser guide is handy to have also.

 

This tool is a totally awesome and useful for sensing and recording temperature readings and images. You can use monochrome as well as false color for the images. It fits the hand perfectly and is easy to use and recharge, but it holds a charge for a long time. It has a laser to help you to determine what you are getting the temperature of.

 

I was a bit torn on how to best review this product because about 2 years ago, I purchased the FLIR i3 thermal imaging camera http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0074YLFMC/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So, first things first. I opted to compare and contrast the two products because some buyers might be tempted to use this versus the other larger FLIR models…that would be a mistake and I will explain why in a minute. Next, I opted to evaluate this product as a stand alone rather when providing the review ranking.

Okay, so as far as the comparison…FLIR lists this product as an imaging thermometer and the FLIR i3 (and subsequent models) as a thermal imaging camera. While initially that might seem like semantics, there are important distinctions which should assist the buyer in making an informed decision. This is truly a thermometer that happens to have a visual screen while the other is an imaging camera that happens to be able to differentiate temperature. To put it another way, this thermometer will provide a quick glimpse via the screen but the resolution is insufficient to use in detailed or large applications. The compact i3 model is a bit larger, lightweight and a bit more than double the price…so, which do you need? Of course, the answer largely depends upon your desired function and what you plan to do with it but in general, I’d say you can safely assume this model (the imaging thermometer) will work well for applications such as mechanics/motor vehicle repair and maintenance or spot checking a known leak location. On the other hand, if you intend to do a bit of “detective work” such as locating an unknown leak in a large house etc…I’d absolutely go with the i3 or above (and having owned and used the i3 for 2+ years, I’d probably dish out a bit more money and go with a larger model. The i3 is a budget minded model – it works well but the screen and resolution is a bit too small…it gets the job done but I find myself wishing I’d gone larger).

Okay, so now back to this imaging thermometer. It is a nice, lightweight model. Unlike many other FLIR products, it did not come with a case which was a bit annoying. Aside from that, former FLIR users will find a familiar patterns for buttons and device structure. FLIR makes a fairly intuitive product. A standard usb and micro card allows easy storage and distribution of the images – also easily acts as a before/after comparison and ability to zoom for a better look. As others have noted, the battery is locked – ie, not user serviceable without voiding the warranty and undergoing more headache and hassle than one out to be required. FLIR does have a decent warranty and builds a reliable, useful product suitable for a wide variety of professional needs.

 

Right out of the package, this has to be one of the easiest tools to setup and use. You get a bunch of different chargers that you can use in case you’re traveling to a foreign country. And you can easily just charge it up. Beyond that, it’s just a point-and-shoot to get temperatures. It’s literally that easy. I’m just a home owner but I can see that if you wanted something to handle A/C, or refrigeration job, this would work well. I do like that it charges of standard micro-USB. Anyone with an Android phone more than likely has a few of these already. And it’s a standard so there’s no proprietary cords to hold on to. The options in the tool are also easy to access and easy to set. One thing that I found handy was to change from color back to black-and-white. You can also set the timeout so you can conserve battery. Nice tool!

 

My husband does home maintenance work, so he has a whole arsenal of tools he uses and work that he does on houses for customers. When I showed him this device, he could not be more thrilled. He started going all over the house and testing everything he could find, and has been using it on site of a job that he is doing on an older home.

WHAT IS THIS DEVICE LIKE?
This is a small gun like tool which has a screen about the size of a small cell phone. The button you use to turn it on has to be pressed for a few seconds, so it is not going to be too easy to turn on by accident. On the micro SD card that comes with the machine, there is a PDF copy of the manual and some other files and images. You can connect the gun to a desktop or laptop via USB port and print out the manual, which is just over 30 pages. You can also find the manual PDF on the web site should you accidentally erase it. It also has a lanyard of sorts which slips through a slot on the bottom so that you can loop it over a tool belt or belt loop. The lanyard has a handy clip on it so that you can release it when you need to use it and then snap it back into place without having to un-loop it every time you want to use it.

HOW WELL DOES IT WORK?
This will give you a pretty good idea of temperature of things, but it depends on how close you hold the gun. For instance, when testing something thick such as a body of water (as in a fish tank), you will get different temperature readings depending upon how close you are to the tank. The point that the gun reads the temperature varies throughout the area of the water, so you will get different readings.

I realize that this is not for testing fish tank temperature, but the same holds true for things with larger mass. This is more for precise smaller area to find heat or cool leakages, in other words, variance in temperature that should not be there.

I will say that I was relieved to know that my fish tanks are all the same temperature reading despite the inexpensive thermometers being a bit more widely varied in their readings.

WHAT WE LIKE ABOUT THIS
-It is easy to use
-User friendly
-Very portable
-ON button has to be pressed for period of time to turn it on
-Stores information for reports for clients as well as takes snapshots
-Can use other microSD cards if you need to

WHAT WE DON’T LIKE
–You have to print your own manual
-It does not come with a cover to protect the lens or a carrying case
-It is easy to erase the microSD card if you are not careful
-Updating can be challenging
-Battery is not replaceable as per company recommendation

CAUTION
When you are updating this device using the USB port, you have to be relatively computer savvy. My husband tends to struggle a bit in this area. He is more of a hands on type person. The site is a bit difficult to maneuver around to find what you want to see and can confuse some. When we tried to update to add a rainbow color spectrum, we had to cut and paste the files from the site onto the device via USB port. Once it is there, you can open the text file to read instructions. It tells you to press buttons in a certain order to make the update happen.

Unfortunately what it DOESN’T tell you is that you have to unplug the USB cord first before trying to get the upgrade to happen. This led to some frustrations and an erased microSD card which took me some time to restore the things on the microSD card. Had my husband known what to do, it would have been more simple. Perhaps I can save someone else the frustration.

THE BOTTOM LINE
This is a very handy gadget which has a LOT of uses. In the line of work that my husband is in, he is finding new things to use it for every time I talk to him. He is looking at walls, plumbing, heat leaks, weak spots, the list goes on. The thing that we were both very disappointed in is that there is no lens cover or carrying case to protect this device. For the price, they should include this. The manual should also be included instead of making you print it. I realize that is how things are done these days, but it still seems that it should be included. For the price, it is a decent little device, as I know that most devices of this nature are far more expensive. I know that this device will come in handy for my husband and around our home. If it came with a case and/or at least lens cover, I would give it five stars.

If I could, I would give if four and a half stars instead.

I will update this review as we find out more uses for this device and learn more about how it performs over time.