Etekcity Lasergrip 1080 review: read the deck, not the dial
By Priya Patel · Updated
Verdict
The only instrument here that tells you something you cannot otherwise know: the actual surface temperature of your steel, as opposed to the oven's opinion of the air.
What it is
A handheld non-contact thermometer. It reads the infrared a surface radiates and converts that into a temperature, over a published range of −50 to 610 °C (−58 to 1130 °F), with a stated accuracy of ±2% or ±2 °C, whichever is greater, a 12:1 distance-to-spot ratio and emissivity adjustable from 0.1 to 1.0. A laser marks the centre of the spot; two AAA cells run it.
Two of those numbers do real work. The 12:1 ratio means that from 60 cm away the reading is an average over a 5 cm circle — close enough to aim at a specific part of the deck, far enough that you are not putting your hand into the oven to take it. And the adjustable emissivity is the difference between a useful instrument and a decorative one: emissivity is how efficiently a surface radiates, and it is not a constant. Bare polished metal radiates poorly and reads low unless you tell the gun what it is looking at; a matt, seasoned steel or a ceramic stone sits high, near 0.9 to 0.95. A gun with emissivity fixed at 0.95 will lie to you about anything shiny.
What it changes
It closes the gap between what the oven claims and what the pizza actually meets.
An oven thermostat measures air, somewhere near a wall, and it cycles: the element switches on and off around a setpoint, so the air swings either side of the number on the display while the dial says nothing about it. Your baking surface follows that air slowly, because it is a thermal mass — and slowly is the point. A steel given 20 minutes at 250 °C is nowhere near 250 °C, which is why "I preheated it" and "it was up to temperature" are different claims. Point the gun at the deck and the argument ends.
That single reading resolves several problems that otherwise look mysterious. If the base comes out pale and the deck reads 40 °C below the dial, you have an oven that is not getting hot enough and a preheat problem rather than a dough problem. If one side of the pizza is always darker, sweeping the gun across the steel finds the cold corner and tells you to rotate at four minutes — the fix for uneven cooking. And if you are chasing leopard spots, the reading is what tells you honestly that a 270 °C deck is never going to produce them, because that char wants around 400 °C and above.
It has a second use at the other end of the temperature range: dough. A 72-hour cold ferment behaves differently at 3 °C than at 7 °C, and most domestic fridges are not where their dial says either. Pointing it at a dough tub also tells you when a ball has actually come back to room temperature, which is usually an hour later than people assume.
Who should skip it
Skip it if your process is settled. Once you know that your oven and your steel need 50 minutes and that the third rack is the good one, the gun mostly confirms what you already do — it is a diagnostic, and diagnostics are for when something is wrong.
Skip it also if you were hoping to use it on food. This measures surfaces only; the internal temperature of a dough ball, a chicken or a loaf is invisible to it, and a probe thermometer is the tool for that. And if you buy an infrared thermometer at all, buy one with adjustable emissivity — a fixed-emissivity gun aimed at bare steel produces confident, wrong numbers, which is worse than no number.
+ What we like
- ✓Reads −50 to 610 °C (−58 to 1130 °F), which covers a fridge, a steel and a wood-fired deck
- ✓Adjustable emissivity from 0.1 to 1.0 — essential, because bare steel and cordierite reflect very differently
- ✓12:1 distance-to-spot ratio means a readable target from outside the oven mouth
- ✓Stated accuracy of ±2% or ±2 °C, whichever is greater, running on two AAA cells
− Trade-offs
- ✗Surface only: it cannot read the inside of a dough ball or a piece of meat
- ✗Emissivity left at the default will misread a shiny or freshly oiled surface, sometimes badly
- ✗It measures a spot, not a map — you have to take several readings to find a cold corner
Skip it if
Your bakes are already consistent and you only ever use one surface in one oven. Once you know the preheat time that works, this becomes a tool that confirms what you already do.