That $50 thermal imager from Harbor Freight actually worked

I picked up one of those cheap thermal imagers last year mostly as a joke. Figured it would be a toy that broke after one use. But I used it to find a failing defrost heater on a Whirlpool refrigerator in under 5 minutes. The customer had already paid for two no-fix visits from another guy. Has anyone else had a cheap tool surprise them like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

pat_coleman25d ago

Ended up finding a hidden water leak in a wall with mine, totally worth the gamble.

blairtaylor27d ago

Huh, I actually read something about thermal imagers getting way better and cheaper just last week in a repair newsletter. The tech has come a long way in the last few years. I've had a similar surprise with a $20 digital multimeter from an auto parts store - it's been going strong for two years now, and I was sure it would die in a month. Harbor Freight stuff can be hit or miss, but sometimes the cheap stuff just works. Your mileage may vary, but it sounds like you got lucky with that one. The defrost heater find is a solid win, those can be a pain to track down without some kind of visual aid.

the_matthew27d ago

A twenty dollar multimeter that lasted two years? That's wild man. I've had expensive Fluke meters crap out on me in less time than that. Must be some kind of fluke (pun intended) or maybe they just got a decent batch at that auto parts store. I've burned through three cheap meters in the last year, all of them reading wrong after a week or two. You must have gotten the one that slipped past quality control and actually works. I'm genuinely impressed but also a little skeptical, like did you check it against a known good voltage source or just trust it? Because if it's accurate after two years, that's a unicorn.