Please advise on a Good thermal camera to inspect water pipes under a mobile home.
(and possibly for other things such as looking for drafts/leaks inside a home)
Hi, this is for a mobile home that had pipes frozen last winter badly. A handyman watched a couple of videos on the topic, bought heat tape, insulated pipes. This year they were already frozen for at least half a day during a cold snap, but then it un-thawed and they work well. The handyman is quite experienced but not an overachiever, not the kind of person that starts a Youtube channel and shares his expertise with millions. He is a dedicated worker though. I want to arm him with the right tool, so that he can get under the home and record the infrared video and to figure out where the coldest parts of the pipe are and why.
Would the presence of heat tape mess with it?
I could get one from local Lowes or Home Depot, but I really prefer Amazon if possible.
This is the main Amazon link:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=thermal+camera&i=tools&ref=nb_sb_noss
I prefer regular, stand-alone cameras that can be connected to the phone or computer after the recording is finished, not gadgets that are meant to attached to an Android or an iOS phone. When down there, it is much easier to hold a camera with one hand like a gun.
I want a quality camera but I don't know much about them or what the good brands are. Most prices are between 100 and 200. I'm ok with that range. All else equal cheaper would be better of course but quality is more important. I could go a little over 200, if I must.
Not knowing much about these, I am tempted to look for the highest rated (on average) camera that also has the most amount of up-votes. However, the rating and the up-votes can be faked with enough money.
As for the specs - most of these can detect temperature as low as -4F which should be good enough. 25Hz (aka 25 frames per second) should suffice. He can always move the hand slower to capture more details. Higher screen resolution is strongly preferred. Battery life - whatever. I can't see him spending more than 30 minutes recording. Easy connectivity to various devices would be a plus. Storage space - higher such as 32 Gb is preferred, but I also suspect that at this low resolution the video files won't need to be huge. He can always concentrate on just the problem spots, and he can always just take a lot of static pictures in order to not run out of space.
I am confused by all of these options. If you were buying this tool for yourself, which one would you get? Or, which few tools would you consider?
Many thanks!
Posted Dec 9, 2025, 9:40 AM UTC