Digital Tyre Pressure

[noisyhen]

The family tyre pressure gauge appears to have come to the end of its life after over 20 years!

A guy passing by told me he bought a digital one which he is happy with, so I had a look about on Amazon and found lots of digital air compressors.

Any good?

What do most people use to frequently check their tyre pressures?

[Mistermena]

The family tyre pressure gauge appears to have come to the end of its life after over 20 years!

A guy passing by told me he bought a digital one which he is happy with, so I had a look about on amazon and found lots of digital air compressors.

Any good?

What do most people use to frequently check their tyre pressures?

I use a Snap on one. This one I have http://cgi.ebay.co.u...EOIBUAA:GB:1120

Auto Express have done reviews on tyre pressure guageswith air compressors.This is one I've had for years that one a shoot out. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SYKES-PICKAVANT-HALFORDS-TYRE-PRESSURE-GAUGE-669740-/160685490698?pt=UK_Hand_Tools_Equipment&hash=item25699a020a

[mandon75]

Not many people know this but Morrisons offer free air with any purchase of fuel, so every time we fill up the car we check our tyres - simples ;-)

[dwilson]

The family tyre pressure gauge appears to have come to the end of its life after over 20 years!

A guy passing by told me he bought a digital one which he is happy with, so I had a look about on amazon and found lots of digital air compressors.

Any good?

What do most people use to frequently check their tyre pressures?

The digital air compressors are good but I wouldn't rely on their gauge. Excellent for inflating tyres though.

I use a Polco Tyre Pressure Gauge Dial Type from Amazon but not available at present! I have tried digital and various analogue gauges over the years but the Polco gauge seems to be accurate but I haven't compared against a standard or done an experiment to prove my belief of accuracy!

David

[Chris Dance]

I Have recently purchased a RING AUTOMOTIVE TYRE PRESSURE GAUGE: REF RAC150. I ordered it via the Amazon web site from 7dayshop.com St Peter Port. Guernsey. GY1 2RN

I have used it once so far and find it easy to use. From the reviews on Amazon it is very accurate. It was £7.50 inc P&P. I like it.

I found compressors type pressure gauges run from the car electrics inaccurate and unreliable. I use a good old foot pump.

[timberwolf]

I have the digital gauge (in the link below) but I wouldn't recommend it because it is not always easy to seal on the value - about 1 in 4 attempts I get wrong and I hear too much hiss out! It does have a number of nice features like a large display and nice zip case.

Michelin Programmable digital gauge

I've got a 20 year old Halfords branded single barrel foot pump, and it only takes between 3 and 6 pumps to add some more air. I don't own a 12v compressor and my question would be why use an electric one, I'm imagining it is pain to have to plug in electric lead, leaving the car door open and trailing a cable around and presumably it would be aking power from a Prius' weak 12v Battery unless you put the car into Ready?

[acetip]

Not many people know this but Morrisons offer free air with any purchase of fuel, so every time we fill up the car we check our tyres - simples ;-)

Did not know that anyone charges for using tyre press machine these days.At least not around my way in the wilds of Norfolk.

i use footpumps myself.the last one was a Halford one had it donkey years.every once i a while i took it in the county council building and had it checked for accurecy.as it got older any lack of that accurecy was allowed for when using.Now have replaced it for a AA double barrel one and had that checked and is as good as spot on.

the check by the weights & measure people (or whatever they call themselves now) is free.

[Sagitar]

Not many people know this but Morrisons offer free air with any purchase of fuel, so every time we fill up the car we check our tyres - simples ;-)

Did not know that anyone charges for using tyre press machine these days.At least not around my way in the wilds of Norfolk.

i use footpumps myself.the last one was a Halford one had it donkey years.every once i a while i took it in the county council building and had it checked for accurecy.as it got older any lack of that accurecy was allowed for when using.Now have replaced it for a AA double barrel one and had that checked and is as good as spot on.

the check by the weights & measure people (or whatever they call themselves now) is free.

Topping up on the forecourt is OK but forecourt pressure gauges are notoriously inaccurate, so it pays to carry your own gauge. You also need to make allowance for the fact that your tyres are not cold.

All in all, I prefer to do it once a week at home, when the car is cold and I do my other regular weekly maintenance checks.

[johalareewi]

I've got one of these from Amazon.

Works well.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000Q4UBMW

[korat102]

I've got one of these from Amazon.

Works well.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000Q4UBMW

Yes, I bought one of those. Wonderful little thing. Fast as well. I just happened to have one of those Battery jumpstarter things which I plug it into when I'm using it at home in order to avoid draining the Prius's Battery. That thing managed to turn over a 4 litre Jeep engine so it hardly notices this little compressor.

[MSHasan]

I've got one of these from Amazon.

Works well.

http://www.amazon.co...duct/B000Q4UBMW

Yes, I bought one of those. Wonderful little thing. Fast as well. I just happened to have one of those Battery jumpstarter things which I plug it into when I'm using it at home in order to avoid draining the Prius's Battery. That thing managed to turn over a 4 litre Jeep engine so it hardly notices this little compressor.

Hi!

Would you mind sharing which jump start thing you have? I've gone through 2 Halfords jump starters and vowed never to buy from them again!

Hasan

[korat102]

I bought my jumpstarter from Screwfix years ago, it's an old heavy Tool Rack model. Just looked on their website and they no longer have that one available. They've changed it for a smaller unit which is far thinner...and presumably has a much smaller Battery

[MSHasan]

Thanks!

Although both of mine looked exactly the same but were in yellow.

[korat102]

Sounds as if I was lucky and good a good one...bought it long before I got my Prius in 2005 and it's still going strong. Keeps its charge for *ages*. Mind you, it sits nice and warm at home - I don't have it rattling around in the back of a truck :)

[Opifex]

Machine Mart has a selection of Jump Starters here.

I bought a Clarke Heavy Duty Jump Start 4000 a few years ago but have only had to use it once or twice so can't give it a proper review.

[noisyhen]

Thanks for your info everyone.

I've ordered one from Amazon for a christmas present - exciting eh!

Is it really that much of a problem for the Battery?

Have a trickle Battery charger somewhere if required to boost Battery, would that be useful or useless?

Can you charge the battery by just running in Electric mode whilst checking the tyres or is that too simple?

[wass]

I carry a gauge in the car However, over a period of time I set the tyre pressures according to how the tyres are wearing. I use a tread depth gauge to check that the tyres are wearing universally accross their width. Quite often I find that my Toyota and my honda want to wear out the edges of the tyres before they wear out the middles when the pressures are set to standard recommendations using my gauge and so I increase the pressures by a few PSI until I can see a more universal wear pattern.I have also noted that when either car arrives back from servicing, the air pressures are reading at the recommended level again and so I add air to get them back to my preference.

I guess that the manufacturers like to run the cars at lower pressures in order to improve ride quality at the expense of fuel consumption and tyre wear.

I always take care to always check the tyres with the same gauge so that irrespective of that gauges accuracy, I get a consistant reading. As one of the other posters said, garage gauges can be inaccurate depending on how much use and abuse they get and how often they are calibrated against a standard.

I have a number of old gauges and have checked them all against each other by taking the pressure of the same tyre.There is 6 psi diference between the highest and the lowest reading.

[kithmo]

I have two digital gauges and one reads 5 psi higher than the other :ffs:

Do I need a new one ?

[Mistermena]

I have two digital gauges and one reads 5 psi higher than the other :ffs:

Do I need a new one ?

I'd take a look at the guage reviews off the motoring mags and get one they recommend.

[Terry953]

I have two digital gauges and one reads 5 psi higher than the other :ffs:

Do I need a new one ?

Ask a Traffic Cop, if you get checked then you've got an official answer !!! :!Removed!:

[timberwolf]

I have two digital gauges and one reads 5 psi higher than the other :ffs:

Do I need a new one ?

Ask a Traffic Cop, if you get checked then you've got an official answer !!! :!Removed!:

I liked the world a lot better in the days when you were innocent until proven guilty, you seem to be saying that just because the Traffic Cop performs the check you will automatically be guilty?

[Sagitar]

Guilty of what?

[timberwolf]

Guilty of what?

Not maintaining your vehicle to a roadworthy standard?

I would think that the tyres would have to very under-inflated, and thereby be cited as a risk to the handling of the vehicle. IIRC there was a design problem with a certain pickup in the USA and the manufacturers cheap solution was to under-inflate the tyres and it caused a number of fatal roll-overs, but maybe my recall is wrong.

[Sagitar]

But that is hardly likely to happen on the basis of a five psl difference between pressure gauges.

My answer to the original question would be to use gauge with the lower reading. A few pounds of extra pressure is most unlikely to do any harm.

[timberwolf]

Maybe both gauges are out? ;)

What standards, and accuracy, if any, do the tyre pressure gauges sold to us have to meet?