Calibrating Tyre Pressure Indicators

[I.Mupferit]

A serious question from, for a change.

Does anybody know how you would go about testing the calibration of these tools? I have 3 types, the pencil type, a digital type and an analogue dial on the footpump. Trouble is they all read differently by up to 4psi and I don't know which one to believe. I know from previous experience that the garage forecourt gauges are notoriously inaccurate, so where does that leave it and who could tell me which of my various devices reads correctly?

 

Brent

[Jason Plato]

Does it realy matter if the gauge is out of calibration - as long as you only use one gauge , consistency is key .

If you determine your optimum tire pressures using tyre temp monitoring across the tread , then record the pressures .

 

Its rather like rolling roads , it doesnt matter if its wrong as long as its consistent for comparative purposes .

 

Dave

[murph7355]

I think DaveJ's got a valid point and it's worth noting.

 

I've always understood pencil gauges to be the most accurate (of cause all of this assumes that each component is well looked after) outside of the megabucks F1 type kit.

 

Depending on the footpump I'd be less inclined to believe this gauge. Why I'm not so sure...it just feels like this must be the case with the ones I've used!

 

Digital gauges are largely an unknown quantity to me, though my dad bought one of the keyfob jobs from Halfords at Christmas and it exactly matched the pencil gauge readings, so these ones would seem to be fine and, more importantly, it was *much* easier to get a consistent reading without losing air from the tyre, something I've always found tricky with pencil gauges on some wheels.

 

 

C7 AJM

[robmar]

Brent - I have a procomp gauge (xmas pressie) that is supposed to be very accurate, if you are in the berkshire area you are welcome to borrow it for calibration

 

although I also agree with the comments in the previous posts.

 

rob

[Paul Ranson]

You can buy nice large dial type pressure gauges from Demon Tweeks for about UKP25. These seem reasonably accurate, and certainly much more repeatable than the various options from Halfords.

 

The 'bleed button' also makes it very easy to set pressures accurately.

 

Paul

 

 

[STEVE GILBERT]

As a Bike rider I used to get RiDE Magazine and not long ago they did a test on lots of guages from cheap to expensive Snap on.As I remember the winner was Halfords Pencil type @ £4.00 for good accuracy and value.Pick up a current copy and they give a 'Best Buy' guide of past tests.They may have updated since I read it

 

All.Knowing1@talk21.com

[Dominic Berry]

Father Christmas bought me one of the Demon Tweeks jobbies and it showed all my tyres to vary in pressure by +/- 2 psi about 2 weeks after I'd checked them with a pencil guage. Nice big dial and I agree with Paul, the bleed valve is excellent for getting accurate pressures.

 

Dominic

[Graham Perry]

Any of those sold by Tweeks seem quite good, having tried several of them, they all seem quite consistant. Some of the lower pressure guages will measure accurately to 1/4 PSI !

[CHRIS CLARK]

The trick with pencil gauges is to not let the indicator 'fly' out, but hold it back so that it reads pressure not acceleration!! This is a knack to be learned with only two hands!

 

I bought one of the cheap 4.95UKP digital ones from 'Halfords' recently and it was giving the same reading as a pencil one. It also has self calibration zeroing. Clever.

 

I do agree that consistency is the important factor though.

Brent. You'll need more than this to catch Mike B though !!!!!!