It's a WIKA DG-10-E digital pressure gauge 0... 60 PSI. Good for water and air. And what is cool is it take a reading 5 times per second and remembers the MIN and MAX pressures, which can then be reset.
When used to measure the water pressure, it is altitude-sensitive. If I lift the gauge 6 inches, the pressure goes down by about 0.20 PSI. I plugged that into a 1/4 NPT cross fitting, and added some Schrader valves. One Schrader valve is to let me calibrate tire pressure gauges, and the other is the same valve being used as a plug. Onto the 4th port I put a cheap 1/4 inch air hose and a nice clamp-on chuck. Unfortunately the chuck housing was hitting he base of the Schrader valve on the pressure tank (as well as my own 1/4 NPT Schrader valves). I worked around that with a Slime valve extender from an auto store. The extender does not have a valve itself, but instead has a pin that is pressed by the chuck and then in turn presses the pin in the pressure tank valve.
In fact, while setting the precharge, I had a quick-connect air hose fitting and the hose hooked to the compressor hose. So I would stop the compressor to let things equalize, and check the pressure. Then I released air and stopped where I wanted to be. I stopped at 35.84 PSI for the precharge.
These are spot-checks of the recorded accumulated min, max pressures for the water. After writing down a pair of pressures, I then reset the min and max on the gauge.
I figure the min and max readings do not quite match the pressure switch settings because it takes a while for the pump to start delivering water, and the water momentum probably delivers a little water after the power is off. The gauge is at the end of about 2 ft of garden hose, so there will be a little delay and smoothing. I used an air quick-connect fitting instead of a proper barbed fitting to connect to the cut-off garden hose. Then there is the fact that the pressure is only sampled 5 times per second.
I think things are pretty good now. I expect the pressure switch is set to about 38/57PSI with some jitter in the actuation, and some undershoot on the low end and overshoot on the high end. I suspect the two lows in bold could have been from actually running out of water in the pressure tank momentarily, but I did not detect water pressure dropping out.
I figure the water pressure at the pressure tank diaphragm is probably about 0.5 PSI below where I locate the gauge for taking reading, which is about the level of the bottom of the tank. Comments welcome, and I agree that the gauge is extravagant, but it is not too bad. I paid under $160 new. Other ranges somehow sell for a lot more.
When used to measure the water pressure, it is altitude-sensitive. If I lift the gauge 6 inches, the pressure goes down by about 0.20 PSI. I plugged that into a 1/4 NPT cross fitting, and added some Schrader valves. One Schrader valve is to let me calibrate tire pressure gauges, and the other is the same valve being used as a plug. Onto the 4th port I put a cheap 1/4 inch air hose and a nice clamp-on chuck. Unfortunately the chuck housing was hitting he base of the Schrader valve on the pressure tank (as well as my own 1/4 NPT Schrader valves). I worked around that with a Slime valve extender from an auto store. The extender does not have a valve itself, but instead has a pin that is pressed by the chuck and then in turn presses the pin in the pressure tank valve.
In fact, while setting the precharge, I had a quick-connect air hose fitting and the hose hooked to the compressor hose. So I would stop the compressor to let things equalize, and check the pressure. Then I released air and stopped where I wanted to be. I stopped at 35.84 PSI for the precharge.
These are spot-checks of the recorded accumulated min, max pressures for the water. After writing down a pair of pressures, I then reset the min and max on the gauge.
I figure the min and max readings do not quite match the pressure switch settings because it takes a while for the pump to start delivering water, and the water momentum probably delivers a little water after the power is off. The gauge is at the end of about 2 ft of garden hose, so there will be a little delay and smoothing. I used an air quick-connect fitting instead of a proper barbed fitting to connect to the cut-off garden hose. Then there is the fact that the pressure is only sampled 5 times per second.
I think things are pretty good now. I expect the pressure switch is set to about 38/57PSI with some jitter in the actuation, and some undershoot on the low end and overshoot on the high end. I suspect the two lows in bold could have been from actually running out of water in the pressure tank momentarily, but I did not detect water pressure dropping out.
I figure the water pressure at the pressure tank diaphragm is probably about 0.5 PSI below where I locate the gauge for taking reading, which is about the level of the bottom of the tank. Comments welcome, and I agree that the gauge is extravagant, but it is not too bad. I paid under $160 new. Other ranges somehow sell for a lot more.
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