SMAN 3 ... Deaded at Age 3 weeks!

[jpsmith1cm]

Testo hosed theirs down didnt hold it under water but do you hammer nails with a level,its a precision testing device.

NO. I use my DRSA to hammer nails with. It's tougher....


Yes, it is a precision measuring instrument, but it MUST be capable of sustaining the rigors of day to day use or it is essentially useless.

Ever been caught out on a rooftop when a storm blows up? Don't have a lot of time to unhook your gauges and get them out of the rain, do ya?

[uniservice]

Hmmm. Reminds me of the rep for CPS using a leak detector to drive a nail into a 2X4 to show how tuff his leak detector was. I bought one. Great nailing device, but a crappy leak detector, and oh yeah, it needed a longer handle on it to drive nails.

[71CHOPS]

just had to cover my partner's Sman's on a roof the other day.....looked over at my analogues, and thought, "eh, they're not gonna get hurt!!"LOL!!

that digicool submersion is impressive. getting rained on, and being completely submerged are 2 diff. things. hhhmmmmm.......

[Pascone10]

It had to be the rain IMO.

Going to Testo now because, working in S. FL, there's no way I can avoid my tools getting wet at some point. A couple of techs that I work with have Testos and I know for a fact that they've been caught in a downpour and there were no ill effects to their gauges.

If your looking to go digital thats great. Unfortunately, you found out the hard way DRSA's are not created equal. I have had the 1250's for about 3 years now. I put a battery in occasionally and go to work. Rain, subzero temperature, 100*+ roofs. they work. If it was up to me I would by one gauge and that would be Digi-Cool. Hell, Ask my buddy. He bought the Testo 550 When I bought my 1250's because of the price. "he said they should be good enough for him" Well they weren't! HE now owns the 1250's and couldn't be happier. Donated the Testos to a technical school..

Im going to pick up a set of AK900's this week. I find myself pulling more then one gauge out of the truck nowadays. Yesterday my analogs that I were using were 10 psi off on the suction.. I'm done with analog. There is a better product out there.

[ar_hvac_man]

My analogs work great in the rain..

[Doug Lockhart]

Sad night for me last night.

On a late night service call with my SMAN 3 connected to the condenser getting SC and SH when I had to run to the truck. As I'm walking back from the truck, the H/O calls me and I head inside to see what the concern was. Well, after I calm the guy and his wife down and tell them to sit back and let me work a little, I head back outside and discover that it has started to rain. I run to the rear of the house to protect my gauges and when I get to them I notice that they're reading over 400 psig ON BOTH lines!

Disconnect them and put them in the truck. Later as I'm packing up to leave, I turn them on to see if everything is okay and discover that they're reading pressure without being attached to a line! They even read pressure without the hoses attached!!! Attempted to calibrate them and now the high side just reads OL while the low side is still fluctuating.

I just hope that my local supply house allows me to return them and get the Testos.

Alreegator,
We had a guy forget his gauges on the top of a R/T on Friday in South Florida...it rained all day Saturday and Sunday damned near all day. When he went to the first service call Monday....he realized.....no manifold....sheeit.....remembered the last service call Friday, went back, grabbed the gauges off the top of the R/T and dumped the water off the faceplate and hit power.....that was 3 years ago....he's still using the same gauges....
We have double labyrinth molded gasket on the clamshell and gaskets/o-rings on the temp sensor faceplate plug which is IP68 (underwater rated) as is the unit when it's plugged in and the back has a shrouded goretex vent to allow the battery hydrogen to escape without water ingress......
Just to bore you on all the blah, blah, blah....but it's a TOOL not a girly toy and it's gotta be dependable for me too....I'm in coveralls everyday doing the same stuff as you guys......and I'm on the 'Wet Coast' of Canada.....it rains damned near everyday out here.....and for the guy, #1CDNTECH from TO, yes we're 3 hours behind you but if I'm in the office at 5 am before my mtn bike ride, and Brenda's cell goes off I'll answer it......
You also ain't the #1 tech.....that'd be Garth Denison ... d'you know him...? He's a GOD in this industry ...

[AirTechMech]

Bought the 1200 in 2007 then converted it to a 1250 a year or two later. I also bought the AK900 shortly after this past Thanksgiving and I find the KA900 every bit as tough and accurate a my 1250.

I use both in the hot sun, rainy roofs, inside -18*F freezers just as I used my analogues in the past, without any protection or cover. Since 2007 I never experienced any failure of my Digi-Cool's. This is not to mention the many drops and falls, some that I know even analogues would not be undamaged. Digi-Cool's are not only a precision test instrument but also a proven tough field instrument.

[cy]

why are so many Sman 3 failing? some not very old

[Doug Lockhart]

why are so many Sman 3 failing? some not very old

[hurtinhvac]

What's the big advantage with digitals anyway? What do they tell you that an analogue won't?

[mark beiser]

What's the big advantage with digitals anyway? What do they tell you that an analogue won't?

They give much more accurate pressure readings than analogue gauges, and the readings are not subject to the same kind of interpolation and parallax errors you get with all analogue gauges.
The reading is the same, no matter who is looking at them, or what angle they are looking at them from.

They also directly display the PT relationship with a high degree of precision, so no squinting at a dial and basically guessing, or interpolating between points on a PT chart.

In the case of Digi-Cool products, they are MUCH more durable than analogue gauges.

Not even considering the additional functions, like SH and SC readings, good digital gauges are orders of magnitude better at their core function than any analogue gauges.

My personal recommendation is Digi-Cool.

[qwerty hvac]

You have incorrect information.

They discontinued the 1250.

They still make the 1600, 1200 and AK-900.

ALL are just as tough as the one shown in that video.

Hey JP why did they discontinue the 1250?

[chuckcrj]

Here is a great video describing the accuracy, and lack thereof, of analog bourdon tube gauges. http://yellowjacketuniversity.com/vi...2-vs-1-gauges/

And this is when new! What do you think an accidental drop does to that accuracy? On my digital, I don't worry about a little rough handling, the accuracy is far better than analog.