Balancing Central Heating - What Thermometer ?

naepace

Hi guys, basically I want to balance my radiators, I am well aware of the process but don't have a suitable thermometer. Does anybody have any recommendations for a cheap thermometer that will do the job ?
Cheers.

brig001

Try this: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=220790
It is infra red so won't work on anything shiny (towel radiator?), but should do the rest.

HTH,
Bri.

naepace

Cheers Bri.

Anybody know of anything less than £20. I can't imagine myself using it after the radiators are balanced.

andrew-b

Have a look on ebay..there's loads of the equivalent one's to the maplin one above on there for much cheaper. I was looking the other day after unsuccessfully trying to use one of the thermocouple proble thermometers (from maplin) which was far too slow to react so i gave up - usually used as a meat temperature probe in our house! One tip i read on using infra-red thermometers is to stick say a piece of opaque tape (duck tape, insulating tape etc) on where you want to take the reading from so every test point reflects infra-red in the same way.
I really want an infra-red thermometer with a laser pointer but can't really justify £30 for it.

keystone

naepace wrote: »

Anybody know of anything less than £20. I can't imagine myself using it after the radiators are balanced.

Pay someone to do it for a lot more than £ 20 or buy the thing for £ 20 - do the math irespective of using it again. Once you've done it put it on Ebay if you don't want it any more.

Cheers

keystone

andrew-b wrote: »

I really want an infra-red thermometer with a laser pointer but can't really justify £30 for it.

My they have gone up - mine cost less than £ 20 from Maplin and been worth every penny. Zip round a system in no time with it.

Cheers