2024 test15 productsGadgets & Tech
Which Infrared Thermometers Brand Wins?
We compared 15 infrared thermometers options head to head. Fluke came out on top. See the measured results, the runner-up, the budget pick, and a link to the full test video.
Winner
Fluke
Price shown in test: $245
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Runner-up
VEVOR and NJTY T600 (declared two-way tie for 2nd place overall, average finish 5.3)
Price shown in test: $9
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Budget pick
NJTY T600
Price shown in test: $9
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The measured results
Every number below is read straight from the test. Scroll sideways to see all measurements. Products are listed in the order they finished.
| Product | Specs | Room temp accuracy (concrete floor, 69.4F target) | Hot accuracy (steel plate, 386F target) | Cold accuracy (freezer, -6F target) | Aluminum wheel (71.3F target) | Speed | Sunlight visibility | Room temp accuracy | Hot accuracy | Cold accuracy | Aluminum wheel | Cumulative error (5 tests) | Average finish (overall scorecard) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1Soonkoda$8 | range -58F to 932F, claimed accuracy +/-1.5%, 12.1:1 distance-to-spot ratio, made in China, weight 12.52 g as spoken (suspiciously about 10x lighter than every other unit in this video, which run 100-330 g; likely a dropped digit, kept verbatim) | 71.1F, error 1.7F too high | 373.5F, 12.7F too low | -6.3F, transcript states 'off by just under 10 degrees' which does not match the ~0.3F gap between -6.3F and -6F; see videoNotes on the cold test | 73.9F, a little too high | 2.46 seconds (slow) | pretty easy to see | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested |
| 2NJTY T600 T600$9 | range -58F to 1112F, auto-off feature, made in China, weight spoken as '123.6' with a garbled trailing fragment ('mi de') | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | 1.17 seconds, more than twice as fast as Soonkoda | pretty easy to read | error 0.2F too high, tied for 2nd place with AMES per closing recap | off by 1.5F, 'very impressive', 2nd place per closing recap | -4.7F, transcript states 'off by 11.3 degrees' which does not match the ~1.3F gap to the -6F target; see videoNotes | 72F, 0.7F off target | 3rd place at 18F | not tested |
| 3ThermoPro$17 | claimed accuracy +/-1.5%, claimed 500ms response time, min/max/average modes, 0.95 emissivity, made in China, weight just under 142 g | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | 1.95 seconds (slow) | pretty easy to read | 64.9F, 4.5F too low, 'way off' | 371.5F, 14.3F off target, worse than Soonkoda | mid-narration figure -16.4F described as 'nearly perfect', which conflicts with a -6F target (that would be a 10.4F miss); however the closing recap states ThermoPro finished FIRST in the cold test missing target by only 0.4F, so the recap figure is treated as the more reliable one for this test (see videoNotes on the cold-test garbling) | 67.5F, 3.8F below target | not tested | not tested |
| 4Sovarcate$19 | range -58F to 1112F, claimed accuracy +/-2%, 12:1 distance-to-spot ratio, claimed 500ms response time, made in China, weight spoken as split digits '158.4 6 g' (one garbled decimal, resolved as 158.46 g) | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | 1.17 seconds, same as T600 | 'I just can't see the display', worst so far at that point | 68.4F, 1F off target | 381F, 5F off target | -8.7F, transcript states a 7.3F error, which does not match the ~2.7F gap to a -6F target; see videoNotes on the cold test | 71.8F, moved into first place over the T600 at that point in the narration (0.5F off vs T600's 0.7F) | not tested | not tested |
| 5KIZEN$19 | 12:1 distance-to-spot ratio, range -58F to 1112F, adjustable emissivity 0.1 to 1.0 (unlike most other units tested), made in China, weight spoken as '146.640' (garbled trailing digits, kept literal) | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | 1.89 seconds (slow) | 'definitely the best yet, very clear', tied with Fluke for the best possible rating of 1 per closing recap | not found in the transcript; the video jumps directly from KIZEN's spec listing to introducing the FKM, an apparent caption gap | largest error yet, missing target by 24F | -6.5F, transcript states a 92F error, almost certainly a garbled/dropped-digit figure since the reading itself is very close to the -6F target; kept verbatim, flagged | 71.4F, only 0.1F off, tied for 1st place with Fluke per closing recap | not tested | not tested |
| 6FKM$30 | range -58F to 1112F, 12-point laser (multi-point, unlike the single-point design of most other units), adjustable emissivity 0.1 to 1.0, includes a carrying case, made in China, weight just under 202 g | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | 1.17 seconds (fast) | unreadable in direct sunlight, most difficult to see so far at that point | 71F, missed target by 1.6F | 365.5F, 20.5F error | -12.4F, 3.6F off target, 'performed quite a bit better than average' | 73.4F, over target by 2.1F (identical reading to AMES's aluminum-test figure, possibly a transcript mix-up, flagged) | not tested | not tested |
| 7Mestek$36 | broadest temperature range at that point in the video (-58F to 1472F), claimed response time under half a second, 12:1 ratio, includes a carrying case, made in China, weight 155.5 g | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | 1.12 seconds, fastest yet at that point in the video | also nearly impossible to read | 71.2F, 1.8F error, 'an even bigger miss' | 13.8F off target, 'a pretty big miss' | reading of 282F spoken, wildly implausible for a freezer test near -6F; narrator states he made several attempts to adjust settings without success and concludes Mestek 'is not ideally suited to measure cold temperatures' - reported as a genuine device limitation, not just a caption artifact | 74.5F, off by more than 3F | not tested | not tested |
| 8VEVOR$38 | broadest temperature range in the video (-40F to 2732F), claimed dual laser configuration, adjustable emissivity 0.1 to 1.0, distance-to-spot ratio spoken as 550:1 ('by far the best yet', notably higher than every other tested unit's 10:1-30:1 range, possibly a caption inflation, flagged), auto power-down after 35 seconds, made in China, weight 312.50 g, by far the heaviest unit tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | 0.7 seconds (very fast) | just as difficult to read as the FKM | came out on top of the room-temperature test with an error of only 0.1F too low, best of all 15 units on this test | 364F, 22F error, 'struggled' | -9.3F, 6.7F error, 'a little bit better than average' | 71.8F, only 0.5F off (identical reading to Sovarcate's aluminum-test figure, possibly a transcript mix-up, flagged) | not tested | not tested |
| 9Surpeer$48 | range -58F to 2552F, 30:1 distance-to-spot ratio, claimed accuracy +/-2%, warns that low battery can cause inaccurate readings, made in China, weight spoken as split digits '194. 79 g' (one garbled decimal, resolved as 194.79 g) | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | 3.44 seconds, the slowest of all 15 units tested | 'for thermometers with dark displays, the Surpeer is definitely the best so far' - best among the dark-screen subgroup, not overall | 69.1F, 'pretty close to target' | reading spoken as 38.1F 'or 5.9 too low', which is wildly implausible against a 386F target on its own; the stated 5.9F delta implies a true reading near 380.1F (386 - 5.9), suggesting the raw '38.1' figure dropped a leading digit - this derivation is noted but the literal transcript value is preserved rather than silently corrected | -6.3F, transcript states 'missed target by just 10 degrees', which does not match the ~0.3F gap to a -6F target; see videoNotes on the cold test | 'only off by 0.2 degrees', 3rd best on this test per closing recap | not tested | not tested |
| 10AMES$50 | sold at Harbor Freight, 20:1 distance-to-spot ratio, 2.1 inch color screen, adjustable emissivity, range -22F to 2120F, made in China, weight spoken as '31011 g', almost certainly a dropped decimal point (kept literal, flagged) | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | 1.63 seconds | very challenging to see | 69.2F, tied for 2nd place with the T600 at 0.2F error | 376.5F, 9.5F error | -10.3F, 5.7F off target, 'performed better than average' | 73.4F, 2.1F too high (identical reading to FKM's aluminum-test figure, possibly a transcript mix-up, flagged) | not tested | not tested |
| 11AOPUTTRIVER$63 | range -58F to 2876F, 30:1 distance-to-spot ratio, includes a flashlight, made in China, weight 38.3 g (notably lighter than most other units, but no independent signal this is a caption error, kept as-is) | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | 1.79 seconds (slow) | also very difficult to read | 68.1F, 1.3F too low | 384.94F, off by just over 1F, moved into the lead at that point in the narration; closing recap confirms 1st place, missing target by 1.2F | -9.4F, 6.6F error | 70.5F, 0.8F too low | 2nd place at 12.6F | not tested |
| 12Klein Tools IR5 IR5$65 | 12:1 distance-to-spot ratio, range -22F to 752F, claimed dual laser targeting, made in China, weight 282.30 g | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | 0.6 seconds, fastest yet at that point in the video (later beaten only by the Klein Tools IR10) | 'a lot friendlier on the eyes than its dark screen [would suggest]' | 72.7F, 3.3F too high, 'a pretty big miss' | closing recap gives 1.6F off target, 3rd place | -6F reading itself, but the transcript states the unit 'continues to struggle' with a 10F miss, which does not match a reading at the -6F target itself; see videoNotes on the cold test | 75.9F, 4.6F off, one of the larger misses | not tested | not tested |
| 13Milwaukee$86 | 10:1 distance-to-spot ratio (narrowest of all units tested), claimed clearer screen and faster scanning, emissivity fixed at 0.95 (not adjustable), range -22F to 752F, made in China, weight spoken as '29118 g', likely a dropped decimal (probably ~291.18 g, kept literal, flagged) | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | 1.27 seconds, 'a little faster than average' | isn't as easy to see as the Klein Tools | 68.7F, 0.7F off target | not tested | -4.1F mid-narration; closing recap gives 2nd place, missing target by 1.9F | 75.2F, 3.9F too high | not tested | not tested |
| 14Klein Tools IR10 IR10$104 | 20:1 distance-to-spot ratio, range -40F to 1200F, adjustable emissivity 0.1 to 1.0, rated to survive a drop from almost 10 feet, made in China, weight spoken as '24.2 n g' with a stray letter; this is far lighter than every comparable unit (100-330 g range) and likely dropped a digit (probable true weight around 242 g), kept literal and flagged | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | 0.2 seconds, 'by far the fastest yet', fastest unit in the entire video | not tested | 71.7F, 2.3F error | 376.3F, 'almost 10 degrees' below target | 'struggled', missed target by 11.5F (again inconsistent with a reading that should be near a -6F target if read literally; see videoNotes on the cold test) | 72.6F, only 1.3F off | not tested | not tested |
| 15Fluke$245 | 12:1 distance-to-spot ratio, called out as 'the biggest limitation' for the price, temperature range spoken as 'up to 102 degrees F' which is almost certainly garbled/understated for a professional $245 unit (likely a dropped digit, e.g. a range closer to 1,022F), only low/high emissivity choice (no fine adjustment), made in China, weight 332.00 g | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | 0.3 seconds, 2nd fastest overall (only beaten by the Klein Tools IR10 at 0.2 seconds) | very easy to see in direct sunlight, tied with KIZEN for the best possible rating of 1 | 0.7F too high | missed target by 3F, 'performed quite a bit better than average' | -3.4F mid-narration; closing recap gives 3rd place, missing target by 2.6F | missed target by 0.1F, tied for 1st place with KIZEN per closing recap | best overall, lowest cumulative error at 8.8F | best overall at 2.5, 'performed consistently well in all categories' |
How it was tested
- room-temperature accuracy on a concrete floor against a calibrated contact thermometer (69.4F baseline)
- hot-temperature accuracy on a steel plate heated for ~4 hours (386F target)
- cold-temperature accuracy on steel plates in a freezer for 12 hours (-6F / -27C target)
- shiny-surface accuracy on a polished aluminum wheel (71.3F target)
- measurement speed (time to take a single reading, in seconds)
- display visibility rating in direct sunlight (1 = best, 2 = worse)
- cumulative temperature error summed across the room/hot/cold/aluminum accuracy tests
- overall scorecard: average finish ranking across all measured categories
“the fluke came out on top with an average finish of 2.5 the fluke performed consistently well in all categories”
Data notes and caveats
15 distinct units across 13 brands (Klein Tools contributes two separate units, IR5 and IR10). Products are listed above in as-tested order (roughly price-ascending, $8 to $245), NOT a full best-to-worst rank, because the narrator only gives explicit overall average-finish figures for the top three (Fluke 2.5; VEVOR and T600 tied at 5.3) and a cumulative-error top three (Fluke 8.8F; AOPUTTRIVER 12.6F; T600 18F), not a complete ranking of all 15. The entire cold-temperature (freezer, -6F target) sub-test has widespread arithmetic mismatches in the mid-narration transcript between each brand's stated reading, the -6F target, and the stated error in degrees (e.g. Soonkoda reads -6.3F but is said to be 'off by just under 10 degrees'; ThermoPro reads -16.4F but is called 'nearly perfect'); these are kept verbatim per brand but flagged low-confidence, and the closing recap's clean ranking (ThermoPro 1st at 0.4F, Milwaukee 2nd at 1.9F, Fluke 3rd at 2.6F) is treated as the reliable summary for this specific test. Multiple brand names are resolved against caption mangles using the description's Products Tested list and, in one case (Soonkoda's 'Theo kod' mangle in the hot-test section), by testing order rather than phonetic similarity, since Soonkoda is always tested first in every sub-test. Several weight figures (Soonkoda 12.52g, AMES 31011g, Milwaukee 29118g, Klein Tools IR10 24.2g) are flagged as probable dropped-digit/decimal errors since they fall far outside the 100-330g range every other unit occupies; none were corrected. A handful of aluminum-wheel readings are identical between two different brands (FKM/AMES both 73.4F; Sovarcate/VEVOR both 71.8F), flagged as possible transcript mix-ups rather than resolved. AMES is present in the description's prose brand list and video tags but absent from the amzn.to Products Tested link list; it has full, consistent data across every sub-test, so it is treated as a real tested product per the 'incomplete affiliate list' handling.