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Etekcity · Etekcity Infrared Thermometer Laser Temperature Gun 774 | Cooking, Pizza Oven, Griddle, BBQ, Meat, HVAC, Engine, Adjustable Emissivity, MAX Display, Surface Measurement
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A non contact infrared thermometer with a trigger, a laser aiming aid, a 12 to 1 distance to spot ratio, a measuring span of -58 to 842 F or -50 to 450 C, a reading displayed in under half a second on a large backlit screen, a maximum temperature display, and two AAA cells supplied. The thing that distinguishes this page from the rest of the category is a disclosure: it states in writing that the reading is the average temperature across the circular area the sensor sees, not the single point the laser marks. The gap that undermines it is that emissivity is never mentioned at all.
The listing states the reading is an average, and that is rare
The last bullet contains a sentence that most sellers would have deleted. It says the displayed figure reflects the average temperature within the circular area targeted by the infrared sensor, and not a single point.
That is the single most misunderstood fact about these instruments. People buy an infrared gun believing it reads the dot. It does not. It collects radiation from a cone, and the number on the screen is the energy arriving from everything inside that cone, blended into one figure.
The consequence is immediate and practical. Aim at a 1 cm bearing from across a workshop and the instrument dutifully averages the bearing with the housing, the shaft and the air gap around it, then reports a figure cooler than the bearing. Aim at a hot joint on a pipe from too far back and the pipe either side dilutes it. The instrument is not wrong in either case. It answered the question you actually asked.
Printing that in a bullet is a seller telling buyers something that makes their product sound more limited, which is the kind of disclosure worth crediting specifically.
Twelve to one, worked out in centimetres
The second bullet publishes the figure that turns the disclosure above into arithmetic you can use: a 12 to 1 distance to spot ratio.
Read it as a simple proportion. The diameter of the measured circle is the distance to the target divided by twelve.
- At 12 cm, the circle is about 1 cm across. That is close work on a small component.
- At 36 cm, the distance the bullet recommends, it is about 3 cm. That suits a steak, a pan base, a duct register or a brake disc.
- At 1 m, it is more than 8 cm. Still fine for a large surface, already too coarse for a single component.
- At 3 m, it is roughly 25 cm. At that range the instrument is reporting the average temperature of a dinner plate sized patch of whatever you pointed it at.
Twelve to one sits in the middle of the range for handheld guns. It is better than the wide optics on the cheapest units, where the circle grows so fast that distance readings are nearly meaningless, and well short of the tight optics on instruments built for furnace and kiln work at a distance. For the applications the bullets describe, which are all arm length jobs, it is the appropriate choice rather than a compromise. We work through how to match a ratio to a target size in our guide on choosing an infrared thermometer.
Fourteen point one seven inches is thirty six centimetres in disguise
The same bullet tells you to position the thermometer approximately 14.17 inches, or 36 centimetres, from the target.
That 14.17 is a converted number. Nobody designs to fourteen and seventeen hundredths of an inch. The real design figure is 36 cm, and the inch value is the arithmetic that follows. It is a small thing, and it is a useful reminder when reading any specification: figures with absurd precision are usually conversions, and the original unit tells you where the engineering was done.
More importantly, publishing a recommended working distance at all is a good practice that the category mostly ignores. It converts an abstract ratio into an instruction. Stand about this far back and the circle you are measuring is about the size of a large coin, which is a sentence a buyer can act on.
The one thing to add is that it is a recommendation and not a limit. For something small, get closer and the circle shrinks with you. The reason to respect the figure is that the stated span tops out at 842 F, and surfaces that hot are reason enough to keep your hands at a sensible distance.
Emissivity is missing from the page that needs it most
Having been unusually honest about the spot, the listing then leaves out the other half of how these instruments work.
An infrared thermometer does not sense temperature. It senses radiated energy and converts it to a temperature using an assumption about how efficiently that surface radiates. That assumption is the emissivity setting, and it has to be right or the conversion is wrong.
A matt, dark, non metallic surface radiates efficiently. Food, wood, brick, soil, cooked meat, painted metal and most building materials fall into that group, and a fixed high emissivity instrument reads them well. Bare metal does not. Polished aluminium, stainless steel, chrome and foil radiate very little of their own heat and reflect their surroundings instead, so the gun reports something closer to the room than to the metal, and typically far too low. Our explainer on why shiny metal misleads infrared instruments works through what to do about it.
These bullets contain no emissivity figure, no statement of whether the value is fixed or adjustable, and no mention of the concept. For the cooking, grilling and food applications listed, a fixed high value would be entirely appropriate, and that is probably what is inside. For the automotive and air conditioning applications also listed, which involve a great deal of bare and plated metal, you need to know. Our note on what emissivity means covers the workaround, which is a patch of matt tape on the surface you want to read.
The table, and the one row that would settle it
| Specification | Published in the listing |
|---|---|
| Measuring span | -58 to 842 F, or -50 to 450 C |
| Distance to spot ratio | 12 to 1 |
| Recommended working distance | About 36 cm, given as 14.17 inches |
| Reading method | Average across the circular target area, stated explicitly |
| Display update | Result appears in less than half a second |
| Screen | Large backlit LCD |
| Extra function | Maximum temperature display |
| Units | Switchable between Fahrenheit and Celsius |
| Power | Two AAA cells, included |
| Emissivity value or adjustment | Not stated in the listing bullets |
| Accuracy | Not stated in the listing bullets |
| Repeatability | Not stated in the listing bullets |
| Display resolution | Not stated in the listing bullets |
| Spectral response | Not stated in the listing bullets |
| Operating temperature and humidity | Not stated in the listing bullets |
| Auto power off | Not stated in the listing bullets |
| Laser class | Not stated in the listing bullets |
Two of those blanks are worth more than the rest. Accuracy is the first, because without it a reading is a number without a tolerance, and on a tool whose whole purpose is comparison that leaves you unable to say whether a 4 degree difference between two points is real. The second is the emissivity row, for the reasons above.
The laser class is a smaller omission but a real one. The product name includes the word laser, no bullet describes it, and no class is given. Any aiming laser deserves the same care as any other: not into eyes, not at reflective surfaces at close range, and not pointed about casually in a kitchen full of people.
Right for grills and ducts, wrong for bare metal
This suits the person the bullets describe: someone checking a pan before the oil goes in, a grill surface before the meat, the air coming out of a register, the temperature of a radiator or a fridge shelf. All of those are matt, non metallic or painted, all are measured from arm length, and the 12 to 1 optics with a recommended 36 cm standoff is a good match for the size of those targets. The disclosed area average and the stated working distance give you more honest guidance on how to use it than most listings in this category manage.
It is the wrong tool for three jobs. Anyone reading bare or polished metal needs an emissivity adjustment, or at minimum a published emissivity value, and gets neither here. Anyone needing a figure with a tolerance for a record needs a published accuracy specification. And anyone trying to find a cold spot in a wall or a thermal pattern across a surface needs an imager rather than a single averaged circle, because the whole point of an infrared camera is seeing where to point something like this.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What does a 12 to 1 distance to spot ratio mean?
It means the circle the sensor is averaging grows by one unit of width for every twelve units of distance you stand back. Hold the gun 12 cm away and the measured circle is about 1 cm across. At 36 cm, the distance this listing recommends, it is about 3 cm. At a metre it is more than 8 cm, and at three metres it is about 25 cm. Nothing about the instrument changes, only how much of the world is being averaged into one number.
Does the laser show me what is being measured?
No, and this is the most common misunderstanding about the whole category. A single laser dot marks roughly the centre of the measured area and tells you nothing about its diameter. The circle around that dot is invisible and it expands as you step back. The listing is unusually clear that the result is an average across a circular area, which is the correct mental model, but the dot will still mislead anyone who has not read that bullet.
Can it measure body temperature?
Nothing in these bullets offers that. The applications listed are meat, cooking, grilling, food, ovens, air conditioning ducts, automotive use and refrigerators, all of which are surfaces. A clinical thermometer has to be calibrated against the emissivity of skin and validated for the purpose, and there is no claim of either here. Treat it as a tool for objects.
What is emissivity and why does its absence matter?
Emissivity describes how efficiently a surface radiates infrared energy compared with a perfect emitter. Matt paint, wood, brick, food and most cooked surfaces are high emissivity and read accurately. Bare aluminium, polished stainless steel and shiny foil are low emissivity, radiate little, and mostly reflect the temperature of whatever is around them, so a reading can be far below the real surface temperature. These bullets do not publish an emissivity value, do not say whether it is fixed or adjustable, and do not mention the subject at all, which leaves you unable to tell which surfaces the calibration suits.
Why does the listing recommend standing exactly 36 cm away?
Because that distance produces a measured circle of roughly 3 cm, which is a sensible compromise for the jobs the bullets describe. Closer than that and the circle shrinks toward the resolution limit of the optics while you get uncomfortably near a hot surface. Further and the circle grows until it starts to include the pan, the grate or the wall around your target. It is a design figure rather than a rule, and the useful version is to stand as close as is safe for small targets.
What is the maximum temperature display for?
It reports the highest value seen during a sweep, which turns the instrument from a spot reader into a crude scanner. Hold the trigger and travel across a row of components, an electrical panel or a length of duct, and the display keeps the hottest figure encountered. It is the right function for finding a hot spot you cannot see, and the wrong function for comparing two places, because you lose everything except the peak.
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