Unpopular opinion: thermal cameras are overrated for most fridge callouts

I heard a guy at the supply house last Tuesday bragging about his fancy Flir camera catching a bad evaporator fan in 30 seconds flat. But honestly, I think folks rely on them too much now. I've fixed ten fridges this month alone just by listening for a hum or feeling the airflow with my hand (no fancy gear needed). A thermal cam might save time on a walk-in freezer, but for a standard Whirlpool or GE? Total waste of money in my book. Am I the only one who sticks to old-school troubleshooting over dropping $400 on a gadget?

3 comments

3 Comments

susan_wells3d ago

Funny you mention that, I actually stopped using my thermal cam after it led me down a rabbit hole on a bad control board once. It showed a warm spot that turned out to be normal, and I wasted an hour chasing ghosts.

foster.wade3d ago

Hold up, that's actually a solid point most people miss. Thermal cams are great but they're really just another tool that can lie to you if you don't understand your specific board's quirks. The real trick is cross-referencing that heat data with a multimeter before you start swapping parts.

ivan2112d ago

My buddy @foster.wade is spot on about the multimeter thing. I see this same issue everywhere now not just in fridges but in cars too. People buy a code reader or a thermal cam and then stop thinking for themselves. It's like everyone wants a shortcut but forgets that a tool is only as good as the person using it. Last week I watched a kid chase a phantom evap fan fault for two hours because he trusted his camera over his own ears. The fan was running fine, the camera just showed a warm motor which is totally normal. We're losing the basic skills like listening and feeling for stuff because everyone wants to stare at a screen.