RH Clark

Hey guys,I have a nice compressor and need a recommendation for a good tire pressure gage that attaches to the compressor line. I need something fairly cheap ,but still isn't just junk.

Iride01 

You do realize you can't just attach it to the line and measure your tire pressure. At least not unless you regulate the pressure of the compressor to what you want your tire to be. Then there is no need for the extra gauge.

This is one air chuck and gauge combo that I see a lot being used by LBS's..... https://www.parktool.com/product/sho...category=Pumps

They have it configured so you are measuring tire pressure and not line or tank pressure of your compressor.

scottfsmith

I use one of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08K47SRGP

The head on it would not attach reliably to Presta valves so I spent another couple bucks for a new head. Other than that it works great, the main gauge is very well-made.

Andrew R Stewart 

The Op asks for a good gauge but a cheap one. The typical is that the cheap stuff isn't as good at measuring then the more expensive stuff is. Pick one because you are likely to not get both. Of course we don't really know what the OP means by "good". It is easy to install an in line gauge (usually hard threaded into the compressor's outlet with a "T" connector). Gauges that are a part of a air chuck tend to be more expensive and the plumbing needs to be such that the line pressure isn't being read and only the tire's is in play WRT the gauge.

I'll tangent here- so many people talk about a gauge's accuracy, how "good" it is. I will postulate that consistency is the more practical aspect. I don't care what my measured tire pressures are. I do very much care that when I fill the tire so the gauge needle reads "X" AND the ride/performance of the tire at "X" is what I like, the next time I pump up the tires to "X" the pressure is pretty much the same. Of course this means that the rider will be willing to find out what pressures work for them in what conditions and not rely on published numbers that were measured by some other gauge of unknown accuracy.

I have used many different gauges, built into the air chuck and freehand versions from a number of brands, and they all have some drift from each other (and I'm allowing for the slight pressure loss with each gauging). I've seen as much as about 10% difference from the same brand/model when comparing gauges. It is because of this that I discount accuracy claims. Andy

scottfsmith

Were those digital? I have three cheap digital gauges (including the one I mentioned above for my compressor) and I did a test on my car tire (loses less pressure between tests) and they were all within 1psi. I have some horrible analog gauges but the digital ones are all very accurate.

In any case I agree repeatability is more important. My built-in hand pump gauge (analog) is always 18psi low, no more no less. So I just get used to adding 18.

Andrew R Stewart 

precision vs accuracy - Bing

The digital gauges mentioned above display precision but of unknown accuracy. So what's the OP's definition for "good"? Andy

JoeTBM 

Do you mean something like this ?

Harbor Freight https://shop.harborfreight.com/media.../3/63049_I.jpg

About $12

RH Clark

Sorry guys. If it takes a $150 tool to be any "good" I'll just stick to a separate gage to check my pressure.

CACycling

I managed to mate one of these:

https://carsoncitybikeshop.com/pump-...BoCMgQQAvD_BwE

with one of these:

https://www.harborfreight.com/pistol...xoCogYQAvD_BwE

and it works great.

DaveSSS 

I buy winters brand liquid filled gauges from Amazon for around $20. I put a 0-100 psi model on my ancient silca pump. The same sort of gauge can be attached to a variety of heads, with the 1/4 inch pipe threads and used for car tires. I'm not a fan of measuring bike tire pressure, except when pumping them up with my silca pump. There are other pressure ranges available. Pressures above 100 psi are mostly a thing of the past, at least for me.


https://www.amazon.com/Winters-Stain...9561623&sr=8-4

Retro Grouch 

I made one a lot like JoeTBM's about 25 years ago. I cut the Schrader inflator off at the hose and clamped a Silca Presta chuck in it's place. I don't remember what it cost me, but it was way less than $130.

Warbird21

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SKMLP3Q...roduct_details
This was delivered today, via Amazon. I have a gauge on my Walmart pump (Zefal) but I'm skeptical as to the accuracy.

Iride01 

Accu-Gage!

Wow, the very name itself will have me running scared and dubious of any pressure reading.

But I have been surprised by the accuracy of some of my cheap gauges. One being the one on the cheap floor pump I bought from Walmart. It too a Zefal.

Warbird21

Accu-Guage is a pretty well respected name in auto tire gauges (I have four, one in each of our vehicles and one in the garage). My Zefal gauge was reading about 1 lb low, compared to the new gauge.

Crankycrank

+1. Accu-Gage also offers a lifetime warranty and they honor it. They're not super high-end gauges but plenty accurate for cyclists unless you're going for the world hour record in which case you might want to spend $300+ for one. Also handle your pressure gauge like any precision measuring instrument and don't drop it or bang it around and store it where it's protected.

Warbird21

Good advice. I'm postponing my world record attempt, until I get a better gauge. The Accu-Gauge will have to soldier thru for now. But, I feel the world record is within my grasp.

Kapusta

I bought 3 Accu-gauges of different ranges (0-15, 0-30, 0-60) a couple years ago. 2 of them were so far off as to be useless. They were so bad I wondered if there had been a mismatch between the innards and printed faces.

Guess I just got a bad batch.

speedy25

Get away from the crap sold on amazon. Go to an industrial supply house. You can get a great gauge that will lead a long accurate life for around $20.

-SP

easyupbug 

I have this gauge, it is specified to be Grade B by ASME B40.1 which means if you got the one you show it's accuracy is 2% within the middle 50% of range or 25psi to 75psi and 3% outside that range. I use mine for road bikes so I get the 0 to 160 psi range so that it's accuracy is 2% at road bike tire pressured which is much better than I need.

easyupbug 

Unless you have dead weight tester access I would be cautious of calibration. If so you should return them as they were a bad batch. They are grade B ASME B40.1 certified so within 2% of scale in the middle 50% of scale and 3% outside that. So on the 0-15 gauge the error when reading 15 psi can be only 0.45 psi, with the 0-30 gauge for a 15 psi reading it can only be an error of 0.6 psi and with the 0-60 for a 15 psi reading it can only be an error 1.2 psi.

Warbird21

Great minds think alike. That's the one I bought, in the link above, which seemed to more than satisfy my needs. I can add that it fits on well, without air loss and easily bleeds down to the desired PSI.

Kapusta

They were absolutely off. They were not even close. I have 4 other gauges. (Two digital, two analog) that are all ptretty close to each other. These two were wildly off of those, and from each other. I was only half joking when I said the innards and the faces might have been mixed up. They were that far off.

i would have returned them, but I had opened them up and see if I could fix them, and just made it worse and was unsure if that was going to make returning a hassle. And in the end these were cheap enough that is just was not worth the the effort at the time.

Anyway, next time I will just return them right off the bat.