Car tyre compressors.

I was looking at gauges from a specialist supplier, they are not that expensive until you start to add all the costs of fittings to add it to the pump.

For many (50+) years I've had a pencil gauge and I had a garage confirm it's readings at around 30psi. It was 3psi slow. The other day the whole thing flew into pieces so I'd got little rubber seals and a spring. Put it back together but not checked it out yet.

My Homebase electronic gauge is useless and won't give the same reading twice.

The inbuilt gauge on my 12v LCAN inflator was too small and inaccurate to be of any use at all but that device, £8.99 about 25yrs ago, has recently given up the ghost.

I was googling around to see what I could replace it with but then was in Wilko for something else and saw they had the RAC610 for £12 and bought that. I'm not too sure whether I prefer it's screw on valve fitting or the traditional clip on but anyway it seems to work. The gauge is a lot more sensible but as best as I can work out 7psi slow. I've used it about 4 times (two cars) but it's only because I prefer to top up at home in my own time and not at a garage forecourt where I don't trust the gauges anyway.

I have a second had one from Ebay that works well. It's a Ford branded one that has probably come from a scrapped car where it was the original equipment.

Some of the small space saving spare wheels are around 60 to 70 psi.

I've had a cheap compressor fail when I've used it for too long a period (much longer than the instruction manual recommended without leaving it to cool) and the cylinder got very hot. I would expect a very short life expectancy from some of these units when working at 150psi.

Looking at some Youtube videos where these compressors are dismantled the working parts mostly seem to be the same generic design, possibly all produced in the same couple of Chinese factories.

I've looked on Ebay for a similar unit with a knackered battery as my battery is near new. But it's a pretty old unit.

Its a common misconception that Chinese items that look alike are produced in the same factories. Having spend several years involved in sourcing product from China which involved visiting Chinese factories I can erasure you items that appear outwardly to be the same can vary enormously in quality and be produced by 100s of different factories.

Mike

Does that mean there is no copyright on things the Chinese design? Or several factories owned by the same people producing the same design, but to different standards?

Indeed.

I've seen lots od reports illustrating this involving electronic goods such as meters, etc.

General consensus is that Banggood are the preferred supplier for kit which is well built.

Some stuff.

We've 2 compressors (no jump start, light, cup warmer, etc.

One original Toyota, One badged as Argos (a £4.99 clearance bargain, identical looking item in Robert Dyas ws £15.00).

Not checked the gauges for accuracy, but I've put the Toyota one in the Peugeot and the Argos one in the Toy Yoda as the argos gaugue goes high enough for the Toy Yods'a space saver spare (car didn't come with one, we bought one). Whether the compressor will go that high (without self combusting) is something I've yet to discover.

Yep --- even the Chinese copy each others items. You can have any quality you want in identical looking widgets at any price you want to pay. Appearance does not guarantee repeatable quality. I sent many years working for a widget importer, testing items.