I dropped my nearly new 8000psi Parker Junior hydraulic test gauge recently and it cracked the LCD screen. It only fell a very short distance too. I rang a mob in Perth (WA) and they tell me they are not repairable. Surely a $600 hydraulic test gauge isnt toast for the want of an LCD display Anyone have any advice apart from be more bloody careful in the future?
Maybe it's made by Apple.... Did you speak to an actual Parker distributor?
I got in touch with a hydraulics equipment dealer/repairer in Perth. The guy there said he had tried to source the LCDs before without success. He then tried to sell me an even better gauge for $800 that would go up to 10,000psi A bit of overkill when the pumps are set to 5k
I love the digitals, but an 8,000 psi glycerin filled clock with a CAT rubber sleeve on it is less than a hundred clams any way you look at it. And unless the glass face hits something and breaks when you drop it, it will usually still be accurate enough for government work.
And they are easy to read in awkward places and bad light too. The digital is handy for certain jobs though with its large range. Some people swear by the Tetra gauge but I thinks it's very cumbersome. Checking clutch and brake pressures on a dozer can be made a lot easier with the digital one. Easy to see 0psi when you want to
I used a Tetra guage many years ago, and while it was handy and had a nice hook to hang it where you could see it, I thought the same thing, it's almost the size of a dinner plate, awkward.
Problem with a tetragage is always accuracy, or more specifically lack of it. It's a quick and dirty way of telling how much pressure is in a system though, hence preventing you blowing up your fixed gauges. If I had $5 for every time I've hooked up to a test point and found that the pressure was in the wrong range because the test line in question was connected to the wrong part of the system I would be a very rich man ........ that's where the tetragage comes in handy.
True that. I generally as a habit start with a 5,000 psi gauge even if I think I know what pressure I'm working with, but that doesn't always guarantee I'm safe either and there's the added time and hassle of swapping gauges. The Tetra will also read vacuum which can be handy on the suction side of pumps at odd times. I think it's like screwdrivers, you don't have just one in the box, you need a selection to choose from for the job at hand. In terms of cost though, a metal tool box with six or eight gauges and three or four hoses with couplers will cover almost any need you may have.