Dropped $340 on a thermal camera and it paid for itself in six weeks

I was chasing a bad defrost heater on a Frigidaire side by side for two service calls straight and kept guessing wrong, so I finally bought a cheap thermal cam for $340. It showed me the ice build up pattern in about ten seconds flat and I found the bad heater on the third visit, then used it on three more calls that same week for blocked coils. For the guys still poking around with a hand on the grille, do you actually trust a temp probe over a camera or am I just late to this?

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tyler_bell21d ago

Man, $340 is nothing when you're burning gas on repeat calls. I still carry a probe for checking actual temps at the evap, but the camera tells you where to look before you even pull a panel, especially on those Frigidaire units where the defrost terminator hides behind the coil. Ice patterns don't lie, a probe only reads the spot you're touching. What model cam did you end up with?

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