Tire Pressure Gauge Accuracy - By Type

Tire Pressure Gauge Accuracy - By *Type*

Greetings, hey Capri hope your summer has been eventful, in a positive way.

Anyone can make the statements that “a Milton brand gauge is more accurate than a generic make”, or “spending north of $50 will guarantee you a better built tire gauge than spending $5”

What I’m asking is: Has any study been done for reading accuracy/ repeatability by category / type of tire pressure gauge?

Plunger/ stick vs dial vs digital?

Is there a tendency for greater repeatability among dial faces for example? Or are digital models really as precise as the marketing implies? Are plunger gauges more accurate by virtue of their simplicity, compact size and absence of a long hose & chuck? And so on.

And why do some gauge makers proudly flaunt their gauges’ ‘ANSI standard A’ or ‘B’ rating for accuracy, while others don’t?

Thanks for your input!

Study? None I know of. In general a dial is more accurate but less tolerant of abuse. Not sure on digital, don't waste the $ on them.

Thing is, I have always used the same gauge with each vehicle - they are consistent when comparing to themself - and have found they're within 1-2 psi of any other gauge. So once you've figured out the psi indication on the gauge that results in proper inflation for your setup, hell you could just mark a stick with a sharpie.

Study? None I know of. In general a dial is more accurate but less tolerant of abuse. Not sure on digital, don't waste the $ on them.

Thing is, I have always used the same gauge with each vehicle - they are consistent when comparing to themself - and have found they're within 1-2 psi of any other gauge. So once you've figured out the psi indication on the gauge that results in proper inflation for your setup, hell you could just mark a stick with a sharpie.

Exactly. It's not a big deal past keeping them even.

Exactly. It's not a big deal past
keeping them even.

Well, let's break this down to the molecular level:

You and I each are an air molecule inside someone's tire.

And we just happen to be lucky enough be sucked up the tire valve into a tire gauge when our driver checks the pressure we are imposing upon the walls of our rubber house(!)

The driver who owns our tire home is using a dial gauge with a length of hose.

So you, me, and hundreds of thousands of other air molecules just like us must travel out of the tire via the valve, through the connected chuck, up a rubber hose anywhere from 10 to 15 inches long, into the gauge casing where we get whipped through, potentially, a Bourdon Tube movement that in turn, moves the needle mounted above a dial numbered somewhere from 5 to 50 or 100psi. That's half a dozen moving parts along the way.

A week later, that same driver happens to grab his plunger(stick style) gauge: Some distant relative air molecule of yours or mine gets sucked out of the tire, across the valve into a chamber perhaps 2 to three inches long, pushing a plastic or metal index rod out of a 5 inch metal tube, where it reads a certain PSI. Less than the distance traveled outside of the tire, half the mechanical parts and linkages.

A lot shorter trip for those molecules inside the stick gauge, vs the trip we took through the dial gauge and its accompanying hose and chuck, wouldn't you agree?

The stick gauge, while having a smaller, sometimes harder to read scale, seems to me like a much shorter direct trip for the air sacrificed from the tire to obtain a pressure reading, compared to a dial or digital model with a long hose.

Well, let's break this down to the molecular level:

You and I each are an air molecule inside someone's tire.

And we just happen to be lucky enough be sucked up the tire valve into a tire gauge when our driver checks the pressure we are imposing upon the walls of our rubber house(!)

The driver who owns our tire home is using a dial gauge with a length of hose.

So you, me, and hundreds of thousands of other air molecules just like us must travel out of the tire via the valve, through the connected chuck, up a rubber hose anywhere from 10 to 15 inches long, into the gauge casing where we get whipped through, potentially, a Bourdon Tube movement that in turn, moves the needle mounted above a dial numbered somewhere from 5 to 50 or 100psi. That's half a dozen moving parts along the way.

A week later, that same driver happens to grap his plunger(stick style) gauge: Some distant relative air molecule of yours or mine gets sucked out of the tire, across the valve into a chamber perhaps 2 to three inches long, pushing a plastic or metal index rod out of a 5 inch metal tube, where it reads a certain PSI. Less than the distance traveled outside of the tire, half the mechanical parts and linkages.

A lot shorter trip for those molecules inside the stick gauge, vs the trip we took through the dial gauge and its accompanying hose and chuck, wouldn't you agree?

The stick gauge, while having a smaller, sometimes harder to read scale, seems to me like a much shorter direct trip for the air sacrificed from the tire to obtain a pressure reading, compared to a dial or digital model with a long hose.

Wow, you have really outdone yourself this time.

You are correct, the shorter distance that the air molecule has to travel lets less air escape from the tire when using a stick gauge.

But you forgot one very important thing: there is already air inside either the stick gauge or the dial gauge's hose, reducing the volume lost. Still, more comes out during the dial gauge usage, but I submit that it is a minuscule amount.

Wow, you have really outdone yourself this time.

You are correct, the shorter distance that the air molecule has to travel lets less air escape from the tire when using a stick gauge.

But you forgot one very important thing: there is already air inside either the stick gauge or the dial gauge's hose, reducing the volume lost. Still, more comes out during the dial gauge usage, but I submit that it is a minuscule amount.

Additionally, I postulate that in the stick gauge, there is less 'slop' - less total combined resistance and free-play between moving parts inside of a stick than inside of the average dial tire gauge.

Mininscule for sure, but there.

*My analysis in no way promotes or endorses any particular brand or manufacturer of tire pressure gauge*