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I dropped $300 on a thermal imaging camera for my van and it paid for itself in a week

Had a tricky intermittent short in a fancy fridge that kept tripping the board, and my multimeter wasn't cutting it. The camera showed a hot spot on a wire run behind the insulation I never would have found otherwise. Anyone have a cheaper tool that can do something similar for finding hidden heat?
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3 Comments
spencer41
spencer411mo ago
My buddy swears by a cheap laser thermometer for finding hot spots in walls. It won't show a full picture like your camera, but it pinpoints the exact hot spot for about thirty bucks. It's a decent middle ground before dropping serious cash.
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the_jamie
the_jamie1mo agoTop Commenter
How do you even afford a van that has a fancy fridge? My old beater just has a cooler that leaks on my foot. That thermal camera sounds like actual wizardry though, finding a short like that. I've spent whole weekends chasing electrical ghosts with just a multimeter and a lot of bad words. Makes that $300 look pretty smart if it saves your sanity.
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victor_carter51
Man, I used to think those cameras were a total gimmick for guys with too much money. Then I borrowed one to find a short in my buddy's trailer wiring. Seeing that one bright hot spot in a mess of wires changed my whole view. It turned a full day of guesswork into like twenty minutes.
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