Availability of Tire Gauges in Walk-In Retail
0
37
This might seem like a silly topic to start a thread about, but I've noticed a pattern among tire pressure gauges available via traditional, walk-in, plunk-down-cash-or-credit retail channels:
You can buy any brand of tire pressure gauge in an actual store - as long as it's made by 'Slime'!
This goes for most chain auto parts places(Advance, AutoZone, O'Reilly, etc.) and big boxes like Walmart and the Home Depot.
There are two groups of tire gauges:
Milton, Jaco, Joe's Racing, Longacre Racing, Auto Meter, Vondior
and then, there's...
Slime(!)
I am fortunate to have discovered tire products from the former group, and clearly, products from the latter manufacturer cannot touch the reputation and level of quality available in the former! I have a 5-60psi analog Longacre Racing dial gauge I bought online two years ago, and the thing is substantial, with a huge 2.5" diameter dial face, and solid, heavy hardware holding it all together.
When you press the heavy chuck of this Longacre to a tire valve, the needle slowly swings up to indicated pressure of the subject tire, holds the reading, and drops maybe 1psi from that reading after five minutes! It repeats the same pressure each time, and is within half-PSI of two garages' gauges I checked it against. I would buy another, just to have a backup, in a heartbeat, even at over $50 a pop.
What I fail to grasp is why aren't gauges produced by members of the first group more readily available in brick-&-mortar retail establishments?
I was coming home from upstate CT, and hit "avoid highways" on my phone map. My backroads route took me past a small Car Quest shop with a line of Milton brand tire gauges, but that was about it as far as locating what I consider to be mid-upper tier quality instruments of this kind.
Beyond that, if you want an aformentioned Longacre, or a highly rated Jaco digital gauge, you must buy from those companies websites, or on Amazon. Why is that?
For me, a $16 Slime "elite" dial is just an introduction, a step up from the $3 pencil gauges next to the bubble gum rack at the pharmacy cash registers.
Once you start spending $40 and up on something as basic as a tire gauge, you've entered a whole new level of quality, durability, accuracy, and, repeatability of tire pressure reading.
You can buy any brand of tire pressure gauge in an actual store - as long as it's made by 'Slime'!
This goes for most chain auto parts places(Advance, AutoZone, O'Reilly, etc.) and big boxes like Walmart and the Home Depot.
There are two groups of tire gauges:
Milton, Jaco, Joe's Racing, Longacre Racing, Auto Meter, Vondior
and then, there's...
Slime(!)
I am fortunate to have discovered tire products from the former group, and clearly, products from the latter manufacturer cannot touch the reputation and level of quality available in the former! I have a 5-60psi analog Longacre Racing dial gauge I bought online two years ago, and the thing is substantial, with a huge 2.5" diameter dial face, and solid, heavy hardware holding it all together.
When you press the heavy chuck of this Longacre to a tire valve, the needle slowly swings up to indicated pressure of the subject tire, holds the reading, and drops maybe 1psi from that reading after five minutes! It repeats the same pressure each time, and is within half-PSI of two garages' gauges I checked it against. I would buy another, just to have a backup, in a heartbeat, even at over $50 a pop.
What I fail to grasp is why aren't gauges produced by members of the first group more readily available in brick-&-mortar retail establishments?
I was coming home from upstate CT, and hit "avoid highways" on my phone map. My backroads route took me past a small Car Quest shop with a line of Milton brand tire gauges, but that was about it as far as locating what I consider to be mid-upper tier quality instruments of this kind.
Beyond that, if you want an aformentioned Longacre, or a highly rated Jaco digital gauge, you must buy from those companies websites, or on Amazon. Why is that?
For me, a $16 Slime "elite" dial is just an introduction, a step up from the $3 pencil gauges next to the bubble gum rack at the pharmacy cash registers.
Once you start spending $40 and up on something as basic as a tire gauge, you've entered a whole new level of quality, durability, accuracy, and, repeatability of tire pressure reading.