Spent $400 on a thermal camera. Wish I did it sooner.

Had a panel in a commercial building that kept tripping. Chasing it down with a multimeter took hours. Pulled out the FLIR and found a loose connection in 5 minutes. $400 was a lot but that one job paid for it. Anyone else ditch the old methods for thermal imaging?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_jenny17d ago

Even just thinking about the time saved makes the cost worth it for anyone doing electrical work. Multimeters are great but they can't see heat patterns the same way. That loose connection could have caused a fire or more downtime if you hadn't found it fast.

maxmurphy17d ago

Grabbed my thermal camera after reading about loose connections here and found the same thing on a panel I'd been scratching my head over for weeks. That hot spot told me exactly where to look without pulling every single wire loose. Saved me a full day of troubleshooting and honestly felt like cheating compared to the old way.