Are Infrared Thermometers Accurate?

Today’s technological advances have resulted in some amazing products, including no-contact thermometers that work using infrared (IR) technology. They work quickly and without any preparation beforehand, but how accurate are these thermometers when all is said and done? When you take someone’s temperature with a no-contact thermometer, can you really trust the results? Thanks to COVID, more and more people are using these thermometers, and if you’re considering buying one yourself, it’s good to have the answers to these questions first.

What Are Infrared Thermometers?

Infrared (IR) light is essentially electromagnetic radiation, or EMR, and its wavelengths are longer than those of a visible light. This means that IR light rays are invisible to the human eye. IR radiation is used by numerous industries, including the military, commercial, industrial, and medical industries. IR thermometers are sometimes called laser thermometers or temperature guns, and the small amount of radiation used to take the temperature isn’t harmful. But if you’re asking yourself, are infrared thermometers accurate, most experts agree that they are in fact very accurate.

Ways to Take Someone’s Temperature

The main ways to take someone’s temperature include:

• Oral
• Rectal
• No-contact

Of all three methods, the rectal thermometers are the most accurate because they are testing the temperature from the inside of your body. But if you’re looking for the most accurate infrared thermometer, most of them are as accurate as the other two types of thermometers. When they were tested, they were seldom off by more than 0.5 degrees, if at all. What does this mean in practical terms? It means you can trust the IR thermometers to give you efficient, accurate numbers every time, provided you’re using the thermometer correctly.

Many of these IR thermometers have consistently gotten high ratings from organizations that have tested them for accuracy, including the Blaux thermometer. This thermometer is super-easy to use because it isn’t made to be complicated. You simply point it at someone’s body – preferably their forehead – and wait one second for the number to pop up on the display screen. The screen also turns green if the person has no fever, yellow if there is a slight fever indicated, and red if the fever is high.

Why Are These Thermometers So Popular?

Besides how fast these thermometers work, the no-contact feature is most appreciated by parents of young children, who can have their temperatures tested even while they sleep. While you can test someone’s temperature on any part of the body, it is recommended by the makers of IR thermometers to use the thermometer on the forehead for the most accurate results. Why? Because that is where the temporal artery is found, which carries blood from the heart. This means it is the most accurate way to take someone’s temperature.

Another factor to consider when you’re asking yourself, how accurate is an infrared thermometer, is that it should never be used on someone who is sweating, because that sweat could affect the temperature reading. Something else that can affect the temperature reading is if the person has taken a pain-relieving medicine in the hours before a temperature reading is attempted. In this case, the fever will have naturally come down due to the medication and therefore, the person’s temperature will not be accurate.

Another aspect that makes the thermometers so popular is that most of them can be used to test inanimate objects as well, so if you need to test your bath water or even a food or drink item, you can use an IR thermometer and get an accurate reading every time.

Which One Should You Buy?

Before we get to which IR thermometer you should buy, it’s good to mention something very important. With all infrared thermometers, it is imperative that you follow the instructions to a tee. If you use these thermometers incorrectly, the chances of getting an accurate reading are going to go down. But not to worry, because they are extremely easy to use. In fact, most of them require only that you point it at the forehead and press a button. They are certainly not complicated devices, but you’ll still need to make sure you use them correctly every time.

As far as the most accurate infrared thermometer medical device, different lists in different publications will all have different brands mentioned as the “top” thermometers, even though you’ll see some of these brands listed in all of the publications. If a certain brand is listed more than once, that should catch your attention. To be sure, the more often a specific brand is mentioned in a “top 10 products” list, the better that particular product is likely to be.

Doing Your Due Diligence

Naturally, any product you’re interested in buying should be researched before you make a final decision, and that is much easier when you go online. There are hundreds of websites that provide objective reviews and reviews from real-life customers on tons of products, both old and new. This means you can easily find out what the experts are saying about any product you’re considering buying so that you can be steered in the right direction. Finding the right infrared thermometer, therefore, is much easier than you might think.

Conclusion

Wondering, is an infrared thermometer accurate, is only natural because let’s face it, these devices seem too simple and too basic to be accurate. But the truth is that they are incredibly accurate as long as they’re being used properly. They offer many advantages, in fact, including speed, ease of use, and lots of features that make it super-easy on you, not the least of which is the changing color display screen that alerts you whenever the person’s fever is particularly high and needs to be tended to.

The Blaux thermometer is one of many IR thermometers on the market today, and they are excellent devices not just for parents of young children but for anyone else as well. The old-fashioned bulb thermometers may be accurate but let’s face it, you have to keep it in the person’s mouth or under the arm for a minimum of two minutes, and that’s a long time when you’re taking care of a sick child. IR thermometers are much easier, making this one purchase you won’t regret.