Accuracy of tyre pressure gauges

[Aspenshaw]

How do you know how accurate is the tyre pressure gauge you use?

I find myself with three tyre pressure gauges. One on the Ring pump, a Ring analogue which I was assured gives accurate readings, and a Michelin digital which I've had for years. I decided to test all three today on all the van's tyres. The Ring pump read nearly 0.5 bar more than the others, the Ring analogue 0.2 bar over the Michelin. I don't know which gave the most accurate reading. I had to pump up all the tyres after the test!

Or to rephrase the question, which do you think is the best tyre pressure gauge for ease of use and accuracy. Bar, PSI or kPa anyone?

 

[dunnah01]

The best are on garage forecourts and I'm a psi man

 

[David and Sally]

There are best gauges tables on Google.

Eg.https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/product-group-tests/36242/best-tyre-pressure-gauges-2022

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I have the Draper one for my motorbikes and cars. I have a digital one for the Moho as it has to read higher pressures. Halfords one IIRC.

Often some surprising results with cheaper ones coming in well

 

[Phill D]

Psi for me.
I use a separate dual type pressure gauge which I believe....

 

[Martin How]

Bar, kPa and PSI are just different scales like Fahrenheit, centigrade and Kelvin for temperature.

Bizarrely I think about PSI for car (32 front 42 rear) and cycle tyres (35 for the mountain bikes, 70 for my road bike and 100 for the Brompton) and Bar for motorcycles (2.2 front 2.7 rear). I use and old fashioned press on, pop out plunger gauge made by Schrader for the car and motor bike but it only goes to 50 PSI, so for the Van and cycles I use the gauge on the pump. Digital at the garage and analogue for the cycles.

Within their working range I don't see much variation. To be honest except the motor bike where the pressure is important to handling I don't see much effect of a variation in pressure. manufacturer and tyre maker recommendations are a bit arbitrary but if you are deeply concerned you can calculate the correct pressure for your vehicle weight, tyre size and a few other factors.

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[Lenny HB]

Psi is smaller increments and it is English so I stick with that. I reckon the Tyrepal TPM's are accurate so I go by that they read the same as the dial gauge I have.

 

[heliart]

I use a Venhill analogue gauge. Super accurate. Mainly used on my motorbikes, whereas stated pressure is important. But it tops out at 60PSI, so I think that's a little low for motorhome use.
Avoid the cheap digital crap you see on amazon, ebay. Good enough to see that there is air in the tyre, and that's about it.

 

[Ingwe]

Just ordered the Draper one detailed in the review linked in David and Sally post.

Edit: I had a digital one from Halfords. I left it on the tyre by mistake after checking pressures and ran over it. Wondered what the ‘crack’ sound was.
Have noted the concern that it may not be suitable for high pressures on mohos. It seems the Draper is calibrated to 100p.s.i. This is adequate for us as the rear tyres require 79p.s.i. Well within the range.

 

[Bailey58]

I use a Michelin gauge and it's always matched an old stick type that I keep in the garage but not a few others I've bought over the years including the one on the compressor. So two out of five ain't bad.

https://www.diy.com/departments/michelin-tyre-pressure-gauge/261329_BQ.prd

 

[Aspenshaw]

Bailey 58, that looks like the Michelin gauge I've been using.

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[Bailey58]

Bailey 58, that looks like the Michelin gauge I've been using.

Programmable too although I don't use that.