Having the right tool for any job makes all the difference. Having the right tool that is professional grade, just makes it that much better. Which bring us to this review of the Milwaukee M12 Laser Temp-Gun. This is a great tool to take temperature measurements for various types of jobs.
Power Tool Review – Milwaukee Temp Gun
Power Tool Model– 2277
Specifications of the Milwaukee
- Infrared Surface Temp Measurements – (-22) – 1472 F
- Contact Surface Temp Measurement – (-40) – 1022F
- Distant to spot – 40:1
- Measures Ambient Humidity and Dew Point
- High Contrast Screen
- LED Floodlight
- Alarm Settings
- 20 Memory Settings
- K-type Thermocouple input
Nuts & Bolts of the Milwaukee
Specifications
Milwaukee has a couple different versions of the Temp gun. This review is for the Milwaukee Laser TEMP-GUN model number 2277-21. This is considered their top of the line gun and has more options, features and higher ratings than the other versions. While Milwaukee designed this gun for HVACR (Heating, ventilation, air condition and refrigeration), we found so many other uses for the gun. Dan used this on some of his computer jobs to take reading of heat sinks and cpu temp. We let Greg use it on one of his engines to take various readings, he liked the memory storage options, plus a couple other options. Like we said, this can be used for a variety of different uses.
This model (2277) comes with the temp gun, one 12V Lithium-ion battery, a charger, K-Type Thermocouple and a nice carrying case. This temp gun has all the bells and whistles. The temperature range is great coming in at a -22 to 1472 F for infrared surface temperature measurements. The distant to spot ratio of 40:1 is extremely good. For anyone who doesn’t know what distant to spot means, it is a pretty cool way to compare one tool to another. Distant to spot is the ratio of the distance to the object and the diameter of the temperature measurement area. So with the Milwaukee a 40:1 means that at 40 feet away, the reading is from a one foot spot. Now as with any reviews, we always like to see what others have said about the tool after we review it. A couple things online we have been noticing is the humidity and dew point readings. While this temp gun does take those types of readings, which is very helpful, some indicated they take the reading at the spot the temperature is measured. Actually the humidity and the dew point are measured at the base of the gun, not the distant of the measurement.
The Milwaukee gun uses a large and high contrast screen to display all the readings. The display is black with white alpha and numeric numbers as the readings. One item Milwaukee incorporated that most others do not have is an LED flood light which can be turned off and on with a button. This is a great feature for dark or tight spots you might be working in to make sure you are taking a reading where you intended to take the reading. This tool has a user configured hi/low alarm setting to let the user know if they reached or went over a certain temperature. Milwaukee made the controls of this gun very easy to use, even to our surprise the 20 memory function. Just push a couple buttons to get to the memory section of the gun and you can start recording various temperatures taken.
Also worth mentioning are the emissivity which is adjustable from .10 to 1.00 by increments of .01. The last item we will mention, as we are hoping we are not boring you, is the K-Type thermocouple. Thermocouples are a widely used type of temperature sensor for measurement and control. This is a great tool to have on board for any HVAC contractor. There is a lot more this gun can do such as average temperatures and more. As we said this really has all the bells and whistles for a temperature gun.
As with any temp gun there are a lot of specs. We are only going to cover a few of the major ones. If you would like to read more about the Milwaukee temp-gun, click on the link at the bottom of this review to see all the specs.
Review
When you pick up this gun, it just feels nice. The battery is located in the handle, which has a nice rubberized grip. The rest of the temp gun has a lot of rubber to provide extra protection. The screen is extremely easy to read and the large buttons below are easy to operate. We basically picked up this temp gun and were able to use it without reading the directions. When we did refer to the direction for other items, the manual was pretty good at explaining how to use certain functions. The LED lights on the front provide a good amount of light when in tight or dark spots.
As we noted we did a lot of different measurements with this gun to just play around. As you can see by the video we took some temp readings of a heater and of the snow, to show you this in action. The audible alarm was easy to hear and recognize when we went over or under a preset temperature.
The 20 memory management was very easy to use, set and recall any previous temperatures. Setting the alarm is an extremely nice feature. Once the alarm is set up, there is an alarm button on the front to turn on and off the alarm. Again the Milwaukee Temp-Gun is very light, easy to use and has a good feel to the overall tool.
Conclusion
If you are looking for a good temperature gun, take a look at the Milwaukee. The gun seems to be solid with a great design. There is plenty of rubber around the outside to help protect the gun and keep it in good working condition. The screen is very easy to read in light and dark conditions. The K-type adapter is a great add on for certain jobs. Besides the items listed above there were two items we really liked. One is the temperature range measurement. This works great for most applications. The other item is the distant to spot ratio at 40:1. All in all this is a great temperature measurement gun and one we feel comfortable recommending to anyone who is serious about the temp measurements.
