Our transfusion service is looking for an infrared thermometer that we can use to determine the internal temperature of our donor units. We issue products in validated coolers to surgery, ED, and other locations and sometimes we receive the products back that have not been used. Currently, we attach a temperature indicator to the unit, but want something more accurate that is not difficult to operate, calibrate, etc. Any information will be appreciated.

Thanks,

AMReagan

I wouldn't recommend an IR gun. I piloted and tried to validate the gun for blood products and the degree of difficulty is what made me cancel the validation. When you use the gun, you have to take into account of a few things for an accurate temperature reading. Emissivity, the type of material of the bag, the texture of the bag, the distance from what you are sampling, making sure the gun has adjustable emissivity settings, the angle of the bag when sampling, the brightness of the light in the room, is the bag shiny or not. And no I am not making this up. I ended up getting something called a TC -3 TempCheck. It is designed for blood bags and its a pleasure to use as well.

I totally agree with you.

We use an IR thermometer but I agree it is a little nit-picky to be sure we are getting a good temp. We have to be very consistent.

yes, we have an IR thermometer and it is very finicky. If you are not careful, you may find yourself discarding more units because of how the IR thermometer reads.

My Blood Bank is considering no longer using the IR thermometer because of its imprecision and inaccuracy (+/- 2 deg. C). I checked out the State Technologies TC-100 model, as suggested in this thread, but its accuracy is only +/- 2 deg. C as well. Is there anything else on the market more reliable for taking the temps of single units for purpose of returning to inventory?

I used the TC-3 model from Hampshire Controls Corp. Their literature also states 2 +/-. But I found that the equipment was within 1 +/- during my validation. This was compared to a Liquid in glass and Digital thermometer. You can always purchase the item and do your validation within the 30 days of receipt of purchase. If you dont like it, just send it back. I already had my validation and test cases set up before I purchased the equipment and it took 3 hours to do the validation. :cool::cool::cool::cool::cool:

Thanks. We will probably end up evaluating this model. Appreciate the suggestion.

Pmanager, would you be willing to share the price on this model. thanks!

http://hampshirecontrols.com/rapid-response-temperature-verification-system.htm

This link to the TC-3 has information about price, stats, etc.