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Inside the Box: The Standalone Thermal Target Kit

7 days ago
2 min read

The standalone thermal target kit is the smallest way to buy the heated target: the attachment only, for steel and stands you already own. In the box are two heating elements with sealed connectors, the control box with a U-bolt on its back, a 22.2 volt 25 amp-hour lithium-ion battery, and a charger. Full power is 100 watts, which takes a 66 percent IPSC plate to 100 C and runs five to six hours on the battery; turned down to half power it runs about 12 hours. Two warnings ship in the box, and both are worth reading twice.

Watch: The Ultimate Thermal Target Upgrade Has Finally Arrived (7:21) on YouTube. The unboxing, item by item, and who the kit is and is not for.

The standalone DRX1 thermal target kit laid out on the bench: control box, battery, cable and heating element
The standalone kit. It goes on a steel target and a stand you already have.

The two warnings

  • The battery is a large lithium-ion pack. On a range the risk is a puncture, so the battery always sits behind the steel, out of the way of a direct hit and of splash.

  • Never switch the system on unless the heating element is stuck to a steel target. The plate is the heat sink. Powered on its own, the element catches fire.

What is in the box

  • A quality control sheet listing the checks done in the shop, who did them, and the contents.

  • Two heating elements for the back of the steel, each with a sealed connector on its cable. One is the spare.

  • The charger. A dead battery takes about five hours to fill.

  • The battery: 22.2 volts, 25 amp-hours. It ships at a partial charge for air freight, so it needs charging before the first range day.

  • The control box: an aluminum body in a plastic casing, a U-bolt on the back for a fence post or target stanchion, and on the bottom the power switch, the sealed socket for the element, and the power knob.

Opening the kit box to the two round heating elements with their sealed connectors and coiled cables
Two heating elements. One goes on the plate; the other is the spare.
The two heating elements and their cables with sealed connectors laid on the table
The connector at the end of each cable is sealed against water and plugs into the control box.
The battery charger for the thermal target's lithium-ion battery on the bench
The charger. Dead to full takes about five hours, so it runs the night before.
The large blue 22.2 volt 25 amp-hour lithium-ion battery from the thermal target kit
22.2 volts, 25 amp-hours. Five to six hours at full power comes from this.

Power and runtime

At the top of the knob the box puts 100 watts into the element, which brings a 66 percent IPSC to 100 C, far hotter than a thermal optic needs. That is for the day you are training in desert heat and still want the plate to stand out. At 100 percent the battery gives five to six hours; at 50 percent, about 12. Lower settings run longer again.

The front of the thermal control box with the power switch, the sealed element connector and the power knob
Switch, sealed connector for the element, and the knob that sets power up to 100 watts.
The back of the thermal control box showing the U-bolt that mounts it to a post or stanchion
The U-bolt on the back fits a fence post or any target stanchion.

Who should not buy it

A hunter zeroing a coyote rifle twice a year. A hand warmer taped to the plate will do that, and this kit is overkill. The kit is for a course that needs a dozen plates hot for 12 hours on a half-power setting, or six hours at full, and every student getting the same picture without an instructor resetting anything.

The bigger packages

The same attachment ships as a kit with the steel and the stanchion, and in bundles sized for a training school or a company live-fire defensive position. The standalone kit in this video is the smallest of them.

Packages are on the Thermal Optic Targets page. The install on your own steel is in Fitting the Thermal Heating Kit to Your Own Steel Target.

 
 
 

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