Although I have carried out hundreds of Inspections / Surveys / Assessments, I have never had the finances to purchase an IR camera.
I now have the opportunity to obtain a CAT S61 smartphone which, I understand has the FLIR camera installed (as well as a Laser Measure). The question is: Should I invest in this phone for the camera, as it is the same price as a good FLIR camera? Does anyone have any experience with this phone and the actual accuracy of the device?
Ps - this phone locally is approx. 1 000 here in South Africa, and the cheapest IR camera is the SEEK XR Cell phone clip-on which costs 485, or the straight-forward camera which is also $ 1 200.
Robert, until one takes some good classes (like Flir, Infraspecton, IR for Building Sciences, etc.), one won’t know what they need or may use it for.
Get educated first (they usually have imagers to try out) otherwise one won’t know what to buy.
Something to think about.
I bought a cheap imager before taking classes 15 years ago and after class I traded it in for a $17,000 imager and took another class and it made money for me for years.
To expound on what Larry posted; The question is not if the camera is good enough for the job, it’s if your good enough to use any camera.
Even if the camera is not designed for the task, with training you will know your limitations and not create a liability to your company.
You must know when, where and how to take any thermal scan correctly. It is not a digital point and shoot process. People who take selfies put more into it than many IR camera owners.
Your taking scans of things you can’t see. You have to know what your looking at and why they are there.
Blue is not moisture. Air leakage and water leakage look the same, but are different. And many times, what is actually moisture is there because of air leakage not water leakage.
Out here, it is a great tool. The home inspectors that have them generally charge $50 more per inspection but the imager is part of that inspection. It isn’t line itemed out. The imager has caught many a roof leak so totally worth it out here. Hard to catch a roof leak in a dry climate where you don’t get rain as often.
Still worth taking classes and doing your research regardless.
You might want to watch some of the you-tube reviews. Does not appear to be a very reliable piece of equipment. Another consideration is why would I want my phone, which contains a slew of business contacts, to double as a diagnostic equipment especially if it is not reliable. The more complicated (more functions) a piece of apparatus is the more prone it is to breakdowns. I can’t have my phone going on the blink every time I turn around!
Thanks Sterling.