# what are the best digital guages?



## wetbar (Jun 6, 2009)

Howdy all, I am thinging about purchasing digital guages, I am very new to the field and can use all the help I can get. I have two questions: 1- what is the best guages for the money. I am willing to spend about 500 - 600 dollars. question 2: is there an advantage to digital guages, and what do they do? I am not very good at looking at guages and knowing if they are correct or not. I am thinking that maybe the digital guages would let me know that I am 1.5 pounds short on freon - or over charged. I am going to school now, but still dont feel like I know all that much. Guages that did that would be well worth the money.

Thanks for the help.


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## yuri (Nov 29, 2008)

Gauges are ONLY that. They are as good as the person reading them and interpreting what they are saying. What you need are a good set of durable CPS or other brand solid block manifold gauges with liquid filled gauges. You totally need to understand the concepts of superheat and subcooling. Then you need to understand heat loads, humidity and psychrometric properties of air (what humidity does to the load on an AC). No gauges can ever tell you that. They don't help if the unit is under or oversized or has mismatched components. Understanding superheat/subcooling goes a long way. Understanding how a thermostatic expansion valve works is critical also. Digital gauges are very expensive, drop them and you will shoot yourself, get any debris from a dirty system in them and you will hate yourself. Good for working inside a clean environment, not bounced around in a service truck IMO. I see lots of newbies buying high end Fluke testers and digital gauges but not knowing what to do with them. Learn the fundamentals first unless you have a rich Uncle.

http://www.cpsproducts.com/


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## beenthere (Oct 11, 2008)

You still need to know what the gauges are telling you. They won't tell you a system is low. Most digital gauges will include the temp probes also. But, you are suppose to know how to interpret the readings.

I'd get standard gauges first. Learn what SH, SC mean/tell you. And then get digitals later. If you feel you need the latest thing.


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## Marty S. (Oct 31, 2009)

Only ones I have tried are the yellow jacket replacement heads on one of my brute manifold sets. Bought the first set of heads a little over a year ago and they have been replaced under warranty several times. Not being waterproof is their downfall. Starts raining and they go crazy. It's a 50/50 chance the heads are toast once they dry out. No more warranty so if they break down again it's back to the regular heads.
Saw some tesco's on sale at Johnstones. They had duel clamp on temp probes with superheat and subcool right on the display. Only a three valve set though and I like a 4 valve. Also is one piece unit so if it breaks down you got to ship it off for repairs. Couldn't see spending $500 so I didn't have to subtract to come up with superheat and subcool. 

You'll need more then one manifold set so stick with the basics to start. Later on when you want some toys and can afford them go for it.


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## wetbar (Jun 6, 2009)

Hey marty I took a look at the fieldpiece H36 you were talking about in the other post. Looks prety sweet! So the tesco will do nothing the H36 cant do except for measure psi, right? Plus I get a DMM for 300.00 cheaper.

The tesco were the digital guages I was looking at.


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## beenthere (Oct 11, 2008)

http://www.trutechtools.com/Testo-550-Kit-2_p_1201.html
Less then 400 bucks.


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## Marty S. (Oct 31, 2009)

The tool I was talking about in the other thread is a fieldpiece HVAC guide model HG1. The HG1 is a tool where you input return wet bulb, return dry bulb,supply wet bulb, supply dry bulb, outdoor air temp, type of refrigerant and pressures. It gives actual superheat,subcool,delta T and target data for each of those. With another head it's also a combustion analizer. The manual also points you in the right direction for what the problem is when actual and target do not match. Saves all data under a customer ID if you want and can be downloaded to your computer for future reference. Helped me a bunch several times when units don't have target SH or SC data listed anywhere . The HG2 has a lot of additional features for total diagnostic.

It's not a DMM, you still need one of those. Mines the fieldpiece SC77. Has everything a heating and air guy needs in a DMM without a huge price tag.


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