Thermal Images of My Q1200


 
A

A Lee

TVWBB Super Fan
I recently got my hands on a thermal imaging camera and thought it would be interesting to use it to check out the heat distribution of my grills.


Here's a couple quick photos I took of my Q1200. It's winter right now and I also had burger patties to grill, so the photos were taken quickly without fiddling around with the settings too much. Check out the hot and cold spots on the Q1200.
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Here's an image from a 13 year old Broil King Monarch I got for free. It uses the old style infinity burner (similar to bow-tie shape). The burner has some holes that need cleaning but this grill still heats very evenly.
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Bruce said:
Looks pretty reasonable to me. I don't see any problems at all.
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Yes, it's not perfect but well within reason. BTW, I wasn't complaining. I just thought you guys might be interested in seeing the heat pattern. The hot spot on the right side is common on the Q's, but the image let's you see how big it is.

I can probably get the temperature more even if I cleaned the individual burner holes. They get plugged very easily. I did give the burner a quick brush off though, just didn't have time to clean each individual hole.
 
Yes, that is a pretty cool upgrade to the old "toasted bread" method! Those Q grills are very good cookers - better than many full-size grills. They may not be perfectly even, but I have never had a problem using one that was in decent condition.
 
Can I offer a couple of suggestions? Next time, turn the burner off before imaging the grate. And be mindful of the spot size ratio...you need to be a lot closer on the Broil King if you want to measure grate temp, especially with a low-res imager. Other than that, gotta love the tech!
 
Ed Pinnell said:
Can I offer a couple of suggestions? Next time, turn the burner off before imaging the grate. And be mindful of the spot size ratio...you need to be a lot closer on the Broil King if you want to measure grate temp, especially with a low-res imager. Other than that, gotta love the tech!
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Yes, I thought of that and actually did try it but the flame tamer didnt cool down fast enough. It has quite a bit of thermal mass.

Ideally, it would be nice to be able to manually set the temperature scale but this imager doesn't have that option. It's a budget model with a 256x192 sensor but still better than the low end Flir ones. Most cheap thermal cameras can't measure anything as hot as a grill. In the past, I tried a Flir E6 but the image was completely unusable as grill temps are well above its max rated temperature.
 
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I noticed the -17F temps...dang, it gets cold where you live, doesn't it?

Here's a pic from the Level I thermography training I had in 2015. That aluminum plate with a 1" hole is set in front of a heat source, and we would go right up to it with an imager and get a reading...then back up about a foot at a time until the reading got wonky. Our Fluke imager was good out to about 6', as I remember, but those Duke Energy boys with their $30k imagers could get almost all the way across the room.

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For those that may be wondering, aluminum does not emit IR very well, so it blocks the IR that thermal imagers "read".
 
Ed Pinnell said:
I noticed the -17F temps...dang, it gets cold where you live, doesn't it?

Here's a pic from the Level I thermography training I had in 2015. That aluminum plate with a 1" hole is set in front of a heat source, and we would go right up to it with an imager and get a reading...then back up about a foot at a time until the reading got wonky. Our Fluke imager was good out to about 6', as I remember, but those Duke Energy boys with their $30k imagers could get almost all the way across the room.

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It was cold, but not that cold. The one I was using has two gain levels. To measure high temps, it needs to be set to low gain to measure from 302F to 1022F. But in low gain mode, anything outside of that window is an erroneous number. Anyway, it wasn't actually -17F.
 
That is too bad A Lee. If it was accurate, we could have declared an end to Global Warming.
 
Bruce said:
A Q320 for camping. That must be a nice sized camper. Or do you load it up in the truck?
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Yep. I leave the stand at home, and just stick the grill on the end of a table. That's when it's just me, the wife and kids. When it's a bunch of people, I typically load up the WSM 22, the Coleman Event Grill, a few Turkey Oil Fryers, a couple of Kegerators, and an obnoxious amount of booze.
 
I have the Q320. I modified the bolts that mount to the cart with 1/4-20 thumbscrews, so it pops in and out just fine. When it's separated, the grill itself sits flat just fine on it's tiny legs. It's an early first gen Q320, if that matters. I've never looked at the newer Q3XXX series, so perhaps there was a change? I use it on picnic tables or if there are none, I have a portable Coleman cook table too. Sits perfectly level on it's own. Does yours not?
 
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Scott C. said:
Yep. I leave the stand at home, and just stick the grill on the end of a table. That's when it's just me, the wife and kids. When it's a bunch of people, I typically load up the WSM 22, the Coleman Event Grill, a few Turkey Oil Fryers, a couple of Kegerators, and an obnoxious amount of booze.
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If you need help unloading.......
 
Pretty cool though. As for how it sits. I have taken my 320 off the cart and to a picnic location. It worked pretty well
 
They are actually quite decent sized for tailgating as well. With the fold flat Coleman cook table, the Q320, and a couple of coolers, we can still jam 7 in the back of the Suburban and make a heck of a ruckus before the Bears games. I originally went back and forth between the 220 and the 320, and I'm so glad I stuck with the 320. The perfect all around portable grill, imho.
 
I am sure the old Q300 and newer Q3xx grills are the same. I have taken several apart but never considered using it sans cart. I guess I just assumed it would worldn't work very well.
I guess I just don't envision many portable situations for myself personally where I would need more than a Q2xx grill, but good to know it can be done reasonably with a Q3xx.
 
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