robin air ditigal gauges

[climatepros]

Has anyone bought the new robin air digital gauges and where did you guy them. I call all of the supply houses around my area and nun of them carried them.

[hvacker]

United Refrigeration told me they were too much trouble. Lots of warranty problems. I guess they'll have to get better.

[mark beiser]

To my knowledge, the new Robinair digital gauges haven't hit the street yet, marketing got ahead of production.

I would be leery of any digital gauges from the company who is arguably single handedly responsible, either directly or with sister company offerings, for poisoning the market with those absolute garbage Tif gauges, and especially with this POS in the mid 90's.

[beachtech]

i really don't like any of robinaire's products. they all look very cheap IMO

i am in the market for a good digital gauge set though. i am looking at the yellow jacket, the testo and the digi cool. the prices on the digi cool seem to be out of my range though. i see the numbers in the 700 plus range online. i have located the testo 523rsa online for 575 and i can do that but whats the tempurature clamp for? this gauge set cannot do SH and SC internally? thats cheesy if you ask me. what about the yellow jackets? do they do SH and SC internally? i am having trouble finding price on yellow jacket set.

[itsiceman]

but whats the tempurature clamp for? this gauge set cannot do SH and SC internally? thats cheesy if you ask me. what about the yellow jackets? do they do SH and SC internally?

How can it be done internally without a temp clamp Doesn't make sense to me.
Maybe someone will invent a hose fitting with a built in temp probe. That would be trick Sign me up for one of those

[jim bergmann]

They all require an external temperature sensor for superheat and subcooling measurement.

[itsiceman]

Jim, I'm ready for a pocket catalog
Can you hook me up.

[beachtech]

have you experience with the testo kit i mentioned below? is it a good value? i see both yellow jacket and digi cool are 700 plus. and the testo is 575. so i am wondering if anything is missing

"Integrated temperature probe for automatic superheat and subcooling readings"

on yellow jacket page

http://www.yellowjacket.com/HVACRPro...l=5&c=33&p=310

[itsiceman]

have you experience with the testo kit i mentioned below? is it a good value? i see both yellow jacket and digi cool are 700 plus. and the testo is 575. so i am wondering if anything is missing

"Integrated temperature probe for automatic superheat and subcooling readings"

on yellow jacket page

http://www.yellowjacket.com/HVACRPro...l=5&c=33&p=310

You still need to clamp the "integrated temperature probe" to the pipe.
I think digi-cool makes the unit for Yellow Jacket and they are similar.
I don't know about the differences but the testo looks sharp.

[mark beiser]

but whats the tempurature clamp for? this gauge set cannot do SH and SC internally? thats cheesy if you ask me.

How would you propose the unit should get a temperature reading that reflects the temperature of the refrigerant in the line?

[beachtech]

no great detail about the digi cool and yellow jacket probes, but testo goes on about how fast and accurate thier temp probe is.

also yellow jacket does 23 freezons and testo is at 30.

testo goes on with backlight, sight glass with backlight three or four valve (yellow jacket four only) and i like three valve manifolds, keeps it simple. testo also has the capability to print out readings. (wirelessly i am assuming) so i think that i am sold on the testo 523 RSA kit.

[itsiceman]

Beachtech, did you see this one
http://www.hvac-talk.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=164577

[beachtech]

yeah i saw that thread, i just have had several bad experinces with buying used in my past. so i have to have new.

[kiwireeferman]

Suggest you wait to see the Digi-cool DRSA 1600 lower price with little loss of features. Understand the price will be mid $400.

[bustawrench1]

The thing I want to know is..............

Now that these have been bounceing around in service vans for a year or two, how are they holding up?

I can see spending the money on the right tools, but I can't see spending $750.00 every year or so because the tool can't survive in the average service truck enviroment.

If I can be convinced that they will take the abuse, I'll definitely buy one. I'm a Yellow Jacket guy, so if I do buy one, that'll be the one I go with.

[mark beiser]

If I can be convinced that they will take the abuse, I'll definitely buy one. I'm a Yellow Jacket guy, so if I do buy one, that'll be the one I go with.

My Digi-Cool BTD-1000 is still going strong after almost 3 years. It hangs off the partition in my van just like the rest of my gauges, has been dropped, has been in the rain, etc..

I have the Digi-Cool and a Testo 523. Either one of them will handle vibration and impacts far better than an analogue gauge.
The 2nd worst thing you can do to an analogue gauge is drop it, or otherwise subject it to impacts and vibration.
The very worst thing being over pressurization.

Mechanical analogue gauges require more babying to stay working correctly than any good robustly built digital instrument does due to the number of small precision parts used for the gauge movement, and bourdon tubes don't like being subjected to higher than design pressures.

Someone on another forum has a sig line I completely agree with. Something along the lines of: "Of all the tools I own, I trust my analogue gauges the least".

[bustawrench1]

My Digi-Cool BTD-1000 is still going strong after almost 3 years. It hangs off the partition in my van just like the rest of my gauges, has been dropped, has been in the rain, etc..

Is that the same one that yellow jacket sells under their name?

If so, what manifold is it on, please don't say it's a Brute II.

Someone on another forum has a sig line I completely agree with. Something along the lines of: "Of all the tools I own, I trust my analogue gauges the least".

I know of whom you speak.

[mark beiser]

Is that the same one that yellow jacket sells under their name?

If so, what manifold is it on, please don't say it's a Brute II.

No, it is an older model, more boxy, no temp probe. I have it mounted on a Yellow Jacket series 41 "Delux" manifold. Just the typical Yellow jacket 2 valve brass manifold, but the wider version that they made for lager diameter gauges.
Here is a picture of it in use.


I'm not a big fan of 4 port manifolds in general, to bulky, and don't need the 4th hose 95%+ of the time.
If I primarily did installs and startups, a 4 port manifold would be more attractive.

I may consider a Titan 2 manifold, which the current Digi-Cool products will connect to without swivel fittings, because they are more streamlined than the typical 4 port jobs. I can always just put a cap on the 3/8" port and only put a hose on it when I'm doing an evacuation.

[beachtech]

The thing I want to know is..............

Now that these have been bounceing around in service vans for a year or two, how are they holding up?

I can see spending the money on the right tools, but I can't see spending $750.00 every year or so because the tool can't survive in the average service truck enviroment.

If I can be convinced that they will take the abuse, I'll definitely buy one. I'm a Yellow Jacket guy, so if I do buy one, that'll be the one I go with.

yellow jacket and testo have a 2yr warranty on thier product. if i save 10minutes on every job for two years, they have paid for themselves. besides, the more people that buy these gauges, the price will get lower. they are electronics, and such is all so true in the electronics business.

[danielworkerbee]

Will the DRSA 1600 have the built in temperature feature ? I do mostly residential split system service, I would buy one right now if I could for $400+/-. dan