How Hot is it, REALLY?

[peculiarmike]

Here is how hot a lump charcoal fire really is, 1416° F. for this one, a full chimney of Royal Oak. This fire is in the fire pan for my GOSM 3005C before I put it to work smoking this morning.
I used my Raytek infrared thermometer. You can't see it, but there is a red dot laser that shows the point the instrument is reading temperature.
I also checked the side of the chimney after the lump was lit, 1030° F.
We'll play with thermography and infrared some more later.

 

[hawgheaven]

Hey Mike, that's a cool (and prolly really expensive) toy... Thanks for sharing!

How accurate is that thing?

 

[peculiarmike]

"+/-1% of reading, or +/-1.5°F (1°C), whichever is greater, at 73° +/-9°F ambient temperature."

It's very accurate. Sometimes requires adjustment for emissivity setting. Emissivity accounts for the amount of reflection from an object and the amount of infrared radiation from an object. Shiny, polished surfaces reflect infrared energy, dull surfaces do not (flat black), they absorb it and emit it very well. (Hence, the best color for heat retention in a smoker is silver.)
It has automatic ambient temperature compensation in case the ambient temperature is higher than the target.
Nice troubleshooting tool for a wide variety of applications
Interesting stuff that infrared. All objects above absolute zero radiate infrared energy. It travels at the speed of light.

 

[ajthepoolman]

Neat stuff. Point it at the sun, see what you get!

 

[pigcicles]

We use a temp gun similar to that at work to check for variations in sheet temps. Handy little thing to have. Beats the heck out of burning your little fingers.

 

[deejaydebi]

And we're shooting for 250! It's a wonder we can get down that low!

 

[peculiarmike]

On the other side, think about how much heat it takes to maintain a smoker at 225-250 for a long period! That is why you want to retain as much heat inside as possible.

 

[gypsyseagod]

i just boughtt a $2.50 thermo for the deck- was 104 @ 6pm... i can see the tbs from here & i'm not cooking anything..... had to put ice on to cold smoke cheese....

 

[peculiarmike]

I put ice in the water pan of my ECB to smoke cheese. Works!