Pressure gauges all useless at low pressures?

[sibelman]

Both the gauge that came with my Spike manifold bundle and the cheap digital gauge I bought on eBay fail to show useful information for low pressures. They seem to think that anything much below 10PSI is really zero.

Is there anything to do about this issue? Anyone have a better gauge to suggest that might cope with pressures as high as 15PSI but still accurately display at lower pressures?

 

[day_trippr]

Surprised about the digital gauge, but what's the full range of these gauges? When I cobbled together a spunding valve with gauge I quickly realized using the typical $8 0-60 psi gauge would be a handicap and went with a 0-30 psi gauge instead (still just $8 )

Cheers!

 

[Bobby_M]

I'm always in favor of using the right range for the job. If a tank is rated for 15psi, it should have a 0-30 gauge range to allow for a few psi of over pressure. If you plan to use that tank in pressures around 10-12psi, you can use a 0-15 as the needle does have some limited travel room just above the max but going up much higher will usually damage the internals or cause the needle to slip on the shaft.

 

[sibelman]

0-30

0-15

Thanks for these responses. fwiw, the Spike gauge is 0-30 and the digital flashes 20.0 when it boots and then shows 0.0 (unless the pressure is about 10PSI or higher. Both stay pegged at 0 when the pressures are low, unless the pressure was higher and is then lowered.

Maybe I've just been unlucky with these two? Gauges in my Tap-Rite regulators don't seem to have this issue.

 

[DuncB]

Thanks for these responses. fwiw, the Spike gauge is 0-30 and the digital flashes 20.0 when it boots and then shows 0.0 (unless the pressure is about 10PSI or higher. Both stay pegged at 0 when the pressures are low, unless the pressure was higher and is then lowered.

Maybe I've just been unlucky with these two? Gauges in my Tap-Rite regulators don't seem to have this issue.

Perhaps some correspondence with spike?