Hi, Jared.
It sounds like you have been putting excessive torsion on the plastic body of the BluVac when connecting/disconnecting the gauge. Over time, this will cause the plastic to stress and wear, causing the play you are seeing. No torque should be applied to the plastic. If you need to tighten excessively, you should use a 3/4" wrench to grab the nut portion of the sensor while tightening. If you think it is so loose now as to cause a problem, go to my website (
www.accutools.com) and contact me. I'll arrange to fix it up for you.
Unlike other micron gauges, there is *no* change in performance over time that cannot be cured by a quick recalibration (see the manual). Once recalibrated, the gauge will perform *exactly* as the day it left the factory.