Your Opinion?

Hi David, that is quite the idea. I know that many inspectors (I hope anyways for their sake) take pictures of things such as that with a normal digital camera but to be perfectly honest it never crossed my mind to include one such as that to prove proper water heating. I think I may just have to start adding infrared images to my reports. Are there any other pictures you add or keep from the inspection to prove/disprove a condition in a house? Thanks for the idea! :wink:

I never release a report without at least 3 IR images included (usually more) for several reasons which I wont post. I don’t want to train my competitors beyond what I already have.

I haven’t seen or used this Testo 875-1. But I think it’s a little misleading on the spec sheet. The $3000 version (875-1) does NOT include a visible camera.
The 875-2 includes a visible camera at $4000.

Let me know if I’m wrong Jason.

Mark

Document everything; electric water heaters (both elements are working), electric service panel’s (hot components or not), HVAC equipment (outdoor unit coil indicates operation, refrigerant line temperature can be converted to pressure without a set of pressure gauges), hot and cold water lines are not cross connected, door heaters are working on refrigerators.
Water stains (not currently active), ghosting (indication of thermal bridging), missing or detached HVAC air ducts, leaking toilet valves inside the water closet show up thermally in the bowl, ventilator fans not vented to the exterior, back flowing gutters into the soffit/wall, debris in the gutter system (without having to climb up three stories), is the thermostat anticipator heater functioning?, smoke detectors produce heat (if they don’t, they need to be tested). Slow sink drain? (Detect trap clogs versus inadequate drain construction), air conditioning condensate drain/trap clogs, heat pump reversing valve refrigerant bypass, overheating motor bearings on HVAC fans.

Just a few things that I look at while I’m walking around with my camera. I have pictures of every one of these issues, and I’m sure there are more that don’t readily come to mind.

Document, document, document!