Mini pressure guages ?

[Johnoly]

..Finally.....any to avoid or any recommendations?...

Just my 2 cents.......But I've used several on my pony over last 15yrs.

1)Some are more accurate than others. The most shocking error you will encounter (hopefully on dry land) is a bad or BENT gauge will read 300psi remaining after you remove it from the pony. I dive a small pony(but 100% use it every dive). What ever gauge you get Regularly TEST IT. It's simple > Turn on the valve, then Turn off the valve. Very slowly take tiny breaths off the pony reg and see how the gauge reading moves towards Zero. You don't have to drain the tank, just shut off the valve and watch it breath down. I do this because on my dive, if I'm in a panic cause I was stupid/distracted and ran way to low on air, I need to watch that tiny gauge to force me to slow my breathing until I surface. If you are at 50ft, in deco, and think you have more pony air than the gauge reads, it won't be pretty.

2) BENT gauge. I'm brutal on my equipment and my dive bag gets tossed everywhere including the pavement. The gauges are made out of very thin stainless and just the slightest knock and it will bend the gauge face. That will kill the reading accuracy and you won't realize it when needed U/W. So to prevent that, I DIY made a gauge "Collar" to protect it from damage in my bag & rinse bin soaking. It's a 1-1/2 inch PVC tee found in any plumbing aisle. Since your pony 1st stage will have a different hose layout, do the pvc cut-outs similar to what you see in my picture. It's a press fit so the collar stays on. You can whack the 1st stage and it won't harm the gauge. It's really critical cause you always want to check your pony pressure before every dive just like you do with your main tank. If you are jumping in with a bent & stuck gauge giving you a false reading, then it's just like diving an empty main tank.

3) Many gauges being sold. Like I said I've gone thru atleast a dozen of them in 15 yrs. The one I like the best is Dive Rite # DR-RG-270 at about $23. It's face is easy to read and they have always breathed down to zero in testing and been really accurate.

Sorry for the long answer, but hopefully you can learn from my mistakes that I've made before you, to save you some pain. Great job on getting and using a pony. In over 2000 dives, I've never been in the water without mine.

 

[p_kos]

These ones tend work well (easy to read and fairly accurate):

These ones generally don’t:

 

[Bigceff]

Just my 2 cents.......But I've used several on my pony over last 15yrs.

1)Some are more accurate than others. The most shocking error you will encounter (hopefully on dry land) is a bad or BENT gauge will read 300psi remaining after you remove it from the pony. I dive a small pony(but 100% use it every dive). What ever gauge you get Regularly TEST IT. It's simple > Turn on the valve, then Turn off the valve. Very slowly take tiny breaths off the pony reg and see how the gauge reading moves towards Zero. You don't have to drain the tank, just shut off the valve and watch it breath down. I do this because on my dive, if I'm in a panic cause I was stupid/distracted and ran way to low on air, I need to watch that tiny gauge to force me to slow my breathing until I surface. If you are at 50ft, in deco, and think you have more pony air than the gauge reads, it won't be pretty.

2) BENT gauge. I'm brutal on my equipment and my dive bag gets tossed everywhere including the pavement. The gauges are made out of very thin stainless and just the slightest knock and it will bend the gauge face. That will kill the reading accuracy and you won't realize it when needed U/W. So to prevent that, I DIY made a gauge "Collar" to protect it from damage in my bag & rinse bin soaking. It's a 1-1/2 inch PVC tee found in any plumbing aisle. Since your pony 1st stage will have a different hose layout, do the pvc cut-outs similar to what you see in my picture. It's a press fit so the collar stays on. You can whack the 1st stage and it won't harm the gauge. It's really critical cause you always want to check your pony pressure before every dive just like you do with your main tank. If you are jumping in with a bent & stuck gauge giving you a false reading, then it's just like diving an empty main tank.

3) Many gauges being sold. Like I said I've gone thru atleast a dozen of them in 15 yrs. The one I like the best is Dive Rite # DR-RG-270 at about $23. It's face is easy to read and they have always breathed down to zero in testing and been really accurate.

Sorry for the long answer, but hopefully you can learn from my mistakes that I've made before you, to save you some pain. Great job on getting and using a pony. In over 2000 dives, I've never been in the water without mine.

View attachment 651843

Thanks for the very thorough reply, I am very careful with my gear - but other people don't seem to be on some charters..! Great idea with the pipe cradle thing!

 

[Bigceff]

These ones tend work well (easy to read and fairly accurate):
View attachment 651845
These ones generally don’t:
View attachment 651846

Awesome, thanks for the pictures !!

 

[GF99/99]

I have been using one of those little ones show in the pictures above on my wing inflator for years now and no issues with it.

I would not say they are incredibly accurate but they do work. My guess is its accurate to with in 20 bar or so. I guess it really depends on your application. I use it for a wing inflator so really all I'm checking is if my tank is full (ie close to 200 bar) and if not then I fill it. I don't really need high accuracy for my application. But that is the only place I use these small button gauges. All reg that are for life support I use regular SPG's

 

[happy-diver]

You're going diving where knowing how much air you have is the imperative

Not just the oh yeah there's air in there syndrome system


DIR-diver.com - Reg config stages/deco

 

[macado]

They're not "in fashion" but I use them on my primary bailout regulators for my rebreather. I absolutely hate, hate dealing with leaking swivels / spindles, SPG hoses cracking/ leaking. I hate walking down to the water and or jumping off a boat and finding out there is a leak somewhere. I'll deal with small leaks but they're not really kosher in cave. Some of my dives include jumping into an airshaft. I'd rather not have to climb all the way out on a ladder to fix a pissing SPG. It's just one less thing to deal with or worry about. Maybe I'm just incredibly unlucky but 90% of my first stage leaks are SPG related.

I always check my bailout tanks with a pressure gauge and I start with full bailouts so the mini SPG accuracy is not really essential for me and wouldn't significantly change my dive plan. My bottle is either full or it's not full.

On the other hand, I still dive a fair amount of open circuit. My additional stages regulators all still have normal traditional SPGs since I actively breath them and use them on dives. I like to keep my stage regulators interchangeable (I have a lot of them..) between bottles so they're all rigged the same.

 

[kelemvor]

Apparently they don't last long.

I guess "don't last long" is subjective however, the small SPG on my pony is 4 years old now. So far, so good.

 

[Bigceff]

You're going diving where knowing how much air you have is the imperative

View attachment 651892

Not just the oh yeah there's air in there syndrome system


DIR-diver.com - Reg config stages/deco

 

[Bigceff]

Thanks for the DIR link, very informative.