Fieldpiece Combustion Analyzer

Fieldpiece Combustion Analyzers

If you work in HVAC, you know the name Fieldpiece. Fieldpiece has become virtually synonymous with high-quality tools for heating and refrigeration. It might surprise you to know that until just recently, Fieldpiece did not have a line of combustion analyzers on the market. Technicians have been asking for the brand to bring its signature designs and performance to the combustion analyzer field, and Fieldpiece has delivered. Their two new combustion analyzers offer standout performance for residential and light commercial work and offer a few genuinely innovative and exciting features that make them outstanding in the market. We would expect no less after all these years.

The Importance of Combustion Analysis

This may be review for many readers, but it never hurts to go over just "why" exactly you'd even want a combustion analyzer Fieldpiece or otherwise. The primary reason for both technician and customer is safety. Any combustion machine will generate a certain amount of carbon monoxide, which is a deadly gas virtually undetectable by the human senses. So proper combustion checking can possibly be a life and death matter. Beyond that, there are issues of peace of mind for the customer and liability for the technicians. Long story short, it's crucial to have accurate combustion analysis when servicing or installing heating equipment, or any process that runs on combustion.

The next big reason to have a good combustion analyzer in your toolkit is the income potential. If you are able to prove to the customer with hard data that they are losing money on inefficiencies or have damaged equipment that poses a safety concern, you can offer whatever services they need. They will know you are dealing fairly with them because of detailed reporting and hard evidence, and you can provide and subsequently test any of the related services you offer.

Because of these two relatively serious considerations, most combustion analyzers provide at least adequate capability. So, what you're looking for in a combustion analyzer is primarily reliability, reporting capacity, and a variety of innovative convenience features that save you downtime and just generally make improvements to the process of servicing heating equipment.

The Fieldpiece CAT45 Combustion Analyzer

The first mode of two in the new Fieldpiece combustion line is the CAT45. We'll go through all the details this meter has in common with the other model above it, then discuss one of the two exciting innovations that Fieldpiece has come up with for this line.

First off, as any good analyzer must, this analyzer takes highly accurate readings for carbon monoxide (CO) and oxygen (O2), while using those values to calculate CO2. The primary parameter to look for in selecting a combustion testing device is the CO range. The Fieldpiece CAT45 reads up to 4,000ppm, which suits it nicely to residential and light commercial work; the market Fieldpiece excels in.

Additionally, the CAT45 measures stack temperature, air temperature, and draft pressure. From all the measurements that the meter takes, you can acquire a whole variety of reporting data, the most important perhaps being combustion efficiency. That will be an essential measurement to record as you work to service and potentially replace heaters, boilers, and furnaces.

On the physical level, the CAT45 comes in a really attractive lightweight yet heavy-duty package. The analyzer has a standard inline water trap, sturdy rubber boot exterior with powerful magnets for hands-free operation, and a long-lasting rechargeable battery.

Primary power-on operation is done through a single button. From there, you can use the intuitive and bright high-definition 5.5-inch touchscreen interface to easily navigate to any testing option you choose. Along with the obvious combustion testing mode, you can also check for ambient carbon monoxide, draft pressure, primary air, smoke test, and review customer profiles.

For reporting, the analyzer is compatible with the Fieldpiece Job Link app via an industry-leading 1000-foot Bluetooth range. In addition to saving and logging data for reporting, you can use the Bluetooth capability and app to remotely view your testing results in real-time. Once your testing is complete, you can quickly email reports directly to your customer or to a networked office printer to save hard copies. A bit more on printing at the end of this section.

Now, we come to one of the exciting new innovations from Fieldpiece combustion: the patent-pending SensorVault technology. As you know, if you work in the heating and combustion field, one of the biggest problems with analyzers is the degradation of your oxygen sensor and the associated downtime and cost to service your meter and replace the sensor. This degradation happens, of course, because the electrochemical sensor is continuously exposed to oxygen gas that is in the air around us. Fieldpiece has been the first to recognize the need for technology to protect our oxygen sensors. SensorVault seals off the sensors from air when the analyzer is not in use or is being stored. Thus no gas is reaching the sensor to degrade it. Because of this, Fieldpiece is confident to warranty the sensors in the CAT45 for 4 years! This is virtually unheard of for combustion sensors in the residential service market, and we are not aware of a better deal for sensor protection. And when the time does eventually come that you need new sensors, all the sensors are field-replaceable and precalibrated, truly "plug and play". Overall, Fieldpiece's treatment of sensor technology here should change the game, give technicians massive convenience and reliability, and throw a gauntlet to other combustion testing manufacturers.

Finally, a word on the kit version of this exciting new analyzer. Some techs like to have physical printouts to go along with all the digital and remote reporting features. Recognizing this desire, Fieldpiece offers a kit option for the CAT45 that includes a wireless Bluetooth printer for printing on the job. Should you choose to only purchase the analyzer at this time, you can always buy the printer separately and easily connect it up later on.

The Fieldpiece CAT85 Analyzer HC

Now, let's have a look at the top-tier offering in this line, the CAT85 Fieldpiece combustion analyzer.

The CAT85 is somewhat similar to the CAT45 with two significant differences. As to the features that are common between both models, let's review. This analyzer reads CO up to 4,000ppm, reads O2, and calculates CO2. It reads stack temperature, air temperature, and draft pressure allowing for robust reporting, including combustion efficiency.

The physical platform is the same with the hi-def touchscreen interface and lightweight yet rugged design. Heavy-duty rubber boot included with high power magnets for hands-free work.
The Bluetooth connection also works up to an exceptional 1000 feet for remote viewing of results and streaming data to save to reports through the Job Link app.

The CAT85 also features the new patent-pending SensorVault technology we discussed above. In a nutshell, this new technology seals off the meter's sensors when not in use to protect them from ambient gas degradation, thus prolonging their life drastically and allowing Fieldpiece to offer a mindblowing four-year warranty on their sensors. When it does eventually come time to replace sensors, they are field-replaceable and precalibrated. Just pop them in and get back to the job.

One distinguishing feature of the CAT85 is that it also has a built-in manometer so you can troubleshoot a system while reading live draft pressure, including streaming all this data to the app. In this way, your diagnostic capability is much more robust than on the CAT45, and it functions as two tools in one, replacing the need for a standalone manometer.

Now we come to the significant defining feature of the Fieldpiece CAT85. You may have noticed a little "HC" at the end of the part number for this analyzer. That stands for HydroCycle, another innovative patent-pending design feature from Fieldpiece combustion analyzers. HydroCycle is a specialized design of the meter's sampling pump that collects, automatically separates, and returns water from the gas sample to the flue. This technology eliminates the need for a standard water trap. So with the CAT85, you never have to worry about emptying or cleaning a water trap or hassling with trap filters and such. Just another incredible way that FIeldpiece is upping their game with their new analyzers. Another nice bonus of this new design feature is that the sampling hose doesn't have anything bulking it down, being without a water trap. It's just a straight line from the analyzer to the probe.

As with the previous analyzer, there is a printer kit available. You can also buy it separately later on if you need your Fieldpiece combustion analyzer with printer.