Most accurate air pressure gauge?

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Always wondered how accurate are the slim pencil type gauges. I know to check pressure when the tires are cold, but wanted to ask what everyone uses to check the air.
 
Most accurate tire pressure gauges are probably the ones that race car teams use. Those must be expensive like $100+.

I like to check my tire pressure in the morning since its cool in the morning. Call me cheap but I use a pencil gauge and it works fine, I get consistent readings. I choose one that has a narrower range like 10-50psi versus 20-120psi. I used to have a dial one but dropped it too much. Currently using a Campbell Hausfeld pencil tire gauge that I got from Walmart. It has psi, kpa and bar unit marks.

There is a review of tire gauges on Motorcycle Consumer News. It is "Tire Pressure Gauges November 2005." Its well worth the read.
http://www.mcnews.com/mcn/technical.asp
 
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I calibrate my tire gauges by collecting all I have (including my friends') and check one tire with all the gauges. This'll weed out (or calibrate) the odd ones.

Short of using traceable standards, this is the best method I can come up with.
 
I have three tire gauges. One is like 15-20 years old (Pencil gauge), one is around 3 years old (the round kind), and the other I used was purchased 2 weeks ago (not mine, really, but pencil gauge from Autozone). They all show the EXACT same readings. I'm not saying that all gauges will show the same, though. It is good to check them with a couple of other gauges, and just hope some freak accident didn't occur and make them all show 15psi too high.. probably not gonna happen, though.

I just remembered one I bought a couple of years ago that was off. It felt really light and cheap, anyways. I guess you get what you pay for.
 
Friend has a precision dial gauge that sits in it's own wood case and is checked periodically at work, used for aircraft tires. Checked most my assortment of gauges against it and all but two were darn close enough. My bad ones were a cheap harbor freight fill chuck gauge, and a an expensive USA made brass movement dial gauge that I've had for about 30 years. Suprised me when all my pencil gauges were close enough.
 
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Always wondered how accurate are the slim pencil type gauges.




I used to use those and they are pure garbage IMO. You can get it right once in the while but they extremely inconsistent and hard to use. I got two same type gauges with dial. one is accugauge from aap another is hausfeld&campbell from walmart both are ok but i like accugauge better, a lot easier to use. I also have electronic one. Garbage as well, hard to use, inconsistent. Don't trust it.
 
Pencil gauges I read, should be lubricated; ie the "stick" should be coated with the ever so lightest amount of oil. They should also be lightly pulled in and out to free up the movement prior to use.
 
"I calibrate my tire gauges by collecting all I have (including my friends') and check one tire with all the gauges. This'll weed out (or calibrate) the odd ones."

I do the same. Decent quality 'regular' pencil gages seem to do fine, and while I like my dial type gages they're more fragile.
 
I have two cheap-O digital gages and they always read within .5 psi of each other, and were dead on to most the rest of the gages I threw away when I got them.
 
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I have two cheap-O digital gages and they always read within .5 psi of each other, and were dead on to most the rest of the gages I threw away when I got them.




Same here. I dumped all of my mechanical gauges but one super low pressure specialty unit and will never own one again.

The cheapo digital gauges I now use always read withing 1/2lb of each other, unlike the old mechanical gauges I had.

I checked all my old ones against the new digitals when I started buying them. The least accurate was an expensive rubber cased mechanical gauge I used back in the day on my autocross car. It was off by a whopping 4lb at 35psi.

IMO, mechanical gauging should take its rightful place in automotive history along with splash lubed flathead engines and SA rated oil...
 
digital gauge here, for $10 from crapzone it's a nobrainer.
1/2 pound resolution from 0 to 100 psi, real nice for the truck tires that get inflated to 70-80 psi,
and real nice for the low pressure stuff around 10 psi.
they are accurate.
 
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I got two same type gauges with dial. one is accugauge from aap another is hausfeld&campbell from walmart both are ok but i like accugauge better, a lot easier to use. I also have electronic one. Garbage as well, hard to use, inconsistent. Don't trust it.




I have both a high quality made-in-the-U.S.ofA. G.H. Heiser (G.H. Heiser is the maker of Accu-Gage) analogue dial gauge (H-60XA: this is the one) and a small battery-powered digital gauge (with miniature LED flashlight) from Campbell-Hausfeld. This is the one.

I have tested them against each other in many situations, and they agree 100 percent of the time, which is reassuring. The Campbell-Hausfeld is smaller, less expensive, and not as likely to be knocked catty-wampus by a drop to the pavement, however.
 
I have two dial type. One is a Snap On, the other is Autometer. Both work equally well. The Autometer one is pretty small, so it lives in the glovebox.
 
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I got two same type gauges with dial. one is accugauge from aap another is hausfeld&campbell from walmart both are ok but i like accugauge better, a lot easier to use. I also have electronic one. Garbage as well, hard to use, inconsistent. Don't trust it.




I have both a high quality made-in-the-U.S.ofA. G.H. Heiser (G.H. Heiser is the maker of Accu-Gage) analogue dial gauge (H-60XA: this is the one) and a small battery-powered digital gauge (with miniature LED flashlight) from Campbell-Hausfeld. This is the one.

I have tested them against each other in many situations, and they agree 100 percent of the time, which is reassuring. The Campbell-Hausfeld is smaller, less expensive, and not as likely to be knocked catty-wampus by a drop to the pavement, however.




I have a - S60X
Straight chuck with pressure hold/release. that model also in that link. I found straight chuck is to be a lot easier to use than a swivel angle chuck that's featured on most of the pencil type gauges. As for electronic one,yes it's pretty accurate too(I did test them all for accuracy as well once) but good luck getting it right. Hard to use! I guess that's why most of us use dial type now.
 
Same here I like the straight chuck design better, I find it easier to insert without releasing air. But the majority of the gauges are angled. A straight chuck pencil gauge is rare but exist.
 
When you remove a Gauge with a long rubber hose, You will loose the volume of air in the hose. You will always have a lower pressure in the tire than in the gauge. JAF Ed
 
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