A tire-failure thread got me thinking about tire gauges. Over the years I collected different tires gauges and always wondered if I could trust them. It came recommended on another thread that the Accutire gauge is a very good one. I've had my eye open for a good digital tire gauge, one that is easy-to-read, easy-to-use, and covers the gammet from 5 to 150psi. The Accutire gauge seemed to meet all my requirements so I did a quick search on Ebay and found them for under $9.00 with free shipping. I took the plunge and bought 4 of them.
When they arrived, I collected every tire gauge I could find around the house and in my vehicles. Here they are.
I set one of my PC tires to 50 psi because some of my tire gauges go only that high. I learned that all 4 Accutire gauges were spot-on with each other. My gray colored Slime digital gauge was only 0.5 psi higher so I used the Accutire as my baseline to compare all other gauges to. I was surprised to learn that what I thought was my best gauge (the costly long handle truck gauge) was in-fact reading high by 9 psi. That meant when using that gauge, I was putting in 9 psi less air than I thought. No other tire gauge was off by so much.
The gauges on the left side of this picture were off from 4 to 9 psi when compared to the 4+1 digital gauges. The ones on the right were within what I considered to be acceptable, off by less than 3 psi, some a bit high, others a bit low.
My next test was setting one PC tire to 80 psi, again using the Accutire gauge as my baseline. The 4 Accutire gauges matched eachother at 80 psi just as they did at 50 psi, and the digital Slime gauge was 0.5 psi high just like before. My expensive truck tire gauge read high by 7.5 psi. I threw it away along with the others that were off by 4 psi or worse.
I opened one Accutire battery compartment to learn that it uses 3 button cell batteries as shown. The clear label you see is easily removed. It states something about passing frequency interference to other electronic devises.
Though accurate, my digital Slime gauge is complicated with menu features making it confusing to operate. But it is nice to use in tight quarters.
The Accutire gauge is straight forward, very simple to operate. It turns on while taking a reading, and turns off in 5-10 seconds after taking the reading. They work great in the dark because the display lights up. They are ergonomically friendly, offering just the right place for your thumb to apply pressure for a good reading.
Thank you fandj for the tip on the Accutire gauge.
