Fieldpice SSX34 Superheat/Subcooling meter. Anyone have any experience with it?

[SkullMonkey]

I have seen this meter at a couple of supply houses and wanted any feedback on it if you have used it.

[weber]

Not bad tool, but not needed.

You can simply do the math yourself, I recommend you take that money you would spend on it, and invest into a set digtal gauges. These will calculate your super heat and subcool, be much more accurate, more reliable, ect...

You can get a set of yj, digi cool, or testo for a good price, therre are others out there but spend your money wisely, tools are an investment into your career!

[Twilly]

Twilli agrees with Weber

[captinsano]

I am not sold on digital gauges,most equipment that I work on has a microprocessor with pressure transducers I do not fell comfortable verifying that a computer is giving me good info with another computer.You should be able to calculate superheat&subcooling in your sleep,for my money a regular old set of gauges and some good thermometers is all you need.

[mark beiser]

I much prefer to have a full on digital gauge set on a manifold, but if I was doing work on small critically charged systems, that tool with a short hose, or just a swivel connection, would be ideal.
Sure would beat the heck out of the single gauge with a short hose method that most people use to work on that type of equipment.
Well, it would be ideal if it was a stand alone meter, I'm not into the Fieldpiece accessory head system, and don't already have a stick meter to plug it onto, and no plans to buy one.
JB makes stand alone units, but I don't trust electronic devices made by JB. :(



I am not sold on digital gauges,most equipment that I work on has a microprocessor with pressure transducers I do not fell comfortable verifying that a computer is giving me good info with another computer.You should be able to calculate superheat&subcooling in your sleep,for my money a regular old set of gauges and some good thermometers is all you need.


So you trust an instrument that, at best when it is brand new and freshly calibrated, has a base accuracy that has a 200% greater margin of error, in a range of about 1/3 of the scale, more than instruments that give real time saturated pressures and temperatures, and SH/SC with 0.5% accuracy at any point on the scale?

Analogue gauges are also subject to interpolation errors when getting the pressure reading, then again when using a PT chart to convert the pressure to saturated temp, then rounding when you calculate superheat.
A digital gauge set eliminates interpolation and rounding errors, especially if it is equipped with temp probes for SH/SC calculation.

Have 10 different people walk up to a typical analogue gauge setup, with separate digital gauge and pipe clamp thermometer, and ask them to record the saturated pressures, SH and/or SC.
Chances are really good that you will get more than 5 different answers, maybe even 10. If you asked each one to hook up their own analogue gauges and thermometer setup, you would be almost assured of 10 different sets of numbers.
It isn't just small refrigeration systems and niche market type stuff that have charges that are more critical than can be adequately assessed with analogue gauges. We have residential systems out there right now that being off just 2º on the subcooling results in a >10% capacity loss at design conditions. The resolution of the scale on the gauge, + interpolation errors, makes it more likely that the systems will be incorrectly charged than correctly charged, even by skilled technicians that care about the work they are doing.
Depending on whose study you read, anywhere between 53% and >60% of all new systems are incorrectly charged.

Digital refrigerant gauges help us do our jobs faster, more accurately, and more repeatably than it ever has been, is, or ever will be possible with analogue gauges.

Analogue gauges have been inadequate for the job on many types of systems for years, now we finally have a selection of the types of tools we should have been using for a long time now.

[hvactech13]

I am not sold on digital gauges,most equipment that I work on has a microprocessor with pressure transducers I do not fell comfortable verifying that a computer is giving me good info with another computer.You should be able to calculate superheat&subcooling in your sleep,for my money a regular old set of gauges and some good thermometers is all you need.

I travel on very rough country roads all day long. I can send you at least a dozen analog gauges with their needles laying in the bottom of them. Looking back now I was an idiot for not buying a digital set of gauges. The money I spent buying replacement gauges would have been a very good down payment on a digital set.

I bet there were a lot of arguments as to why the "beer can cold" method was more accurate and less time consuming than using gauges to get the correct SH and SC. Give it a few years and you will most likely be hard pressed to find a set of analog gauges on a service van.:rolleyes:

[Murphcoair]

The SSX34 is a stand alone device, My residential installers use them to adjust refrigerant charges on start up, they have been fairly dependable over the last 2 seasons, however I have had to replace the ATC-1 temperature probe that are supplied with them a couple of times, I have switched to the sliding adjustment probe part # ATC-3 .

[mark beiser]

Give it a few years and you will most likely be hard pressed to find a set of analog gauges on a service van.:rolleyes:

Give it a few more years and you will be hard pressed to find an equipment manufacturer that doesn't require the use of some type of digital gauges/refrigerant analyzer.

There is already 1, rest assured, more will follow.

[mark beiser]

The SSX34 is a stand alone device, My residential installers use them to adjust refrigerant charges on start up, they have been fairly dependable over the last 2 seasons, however I have had to replace the ATC-1 temperature probe that are supplied with them a couple of times, I have switched to the sliding adjustment probe part # ATC-3 .

Ahh, didn't know it was stand alone. I'll have to look into getting one with a short swivel fitting.

I already have 2 sets of digital gauges, just need something for those times when connecting a hose that holds 2-4oz of liquid refrigerant is a bad thing.

[tarheel_tech]

Give it a few more years and you will be hard pressed to find an equipment manufacturer that doesn't require the use of some type of digital gauges/refrigerant analyzer.

There is already 1, rest assured, more will follow.

Which one is that Mark?

[mark beiser]

Which one is that Mark?

One of the ice machine manufacturers, I forget which one.

[captinsano]

F#@*ing rocket scientists!