I was wondering what you guys keep for thermometers in the tool box?
Non contact is fine, this is for things around the house and shop not people.
If anything, your budget may be too generous!
Years ago when I went shopping for IR + laser thermometers, it seemed to me that the main difference between an inexpensive unit like my $13 Rosewill, and a pricier Fluke, was that the latter's specs showed that it maintained a tighter measurement spot over a greater distance. But for my day to day casual usage, such as ensuring my water was the right temperature for a good cup of tea, or for verifying my PC's CPU temperature, my Rosewill was great, and it was super-easy to use: Just squeeze the trigger to get an immediate reading, ideal for when you when you just want a quick temperature reading.
A couple of years ago, I bought the least expensive Flir imaging thermometer (<$300), and an example of where the thermal imager shines is when I built myself a new preamplifier, and it showed me unexpected details I might not have found on my own, such as a diode which was running considerably hotter than surrounding devices. But it requires a few extra seconds to boot up, and as a household tool, it's a bit esoteric. You want to know stuff like whether you're losing precious winter heat due to leaky windows, the $13 tool will tell you that.
