All right, a common debate out there in the field is, is: should you use an analog manifold like this yellow jacket that I've had forever or should you use a digital manifold like this test, Oh 550, and I'm not gon na tell you what you should do. I'm just gon na tell you some of the differences. A lot of people have pointed out that they learned on this analog manifold and that there was a lot of benefit to that because they had to calculate superheat in some cooling manually. I do see some value in that I would say for somebody who's in school learning, hands-on.

Just the basics, I would say an analog manifold - is a really nice place to start because it sort of gives you that tactile feel. However, there are some big advantages to using digital and we're gon na talk about this. So the first thing is: is that these analog gauges? They don't read with very high resolution, so if you think of even sort of the width of this needle, if I have this needle pointed at - let's say you know 150 here: okay, is that 150 1? Is it 150 2? Is it 150? It's you know. It's kind of hard to tell so you don't have the resolution, you don't have the detail of measurement and yes, forgive me.

I do have the lens off of this for this demonstration, and the other thing is: is that just built into the actual mechanics of this gauge itself? Not only don't you have resolution, but you also aren't gon na have accuracy you're very easily gon na be 3 4 psi off one way or the other, and that can obviously greatly impact your sub cool and super heat readings. When you're trying to be accurate on some systems, it matters more than others, but nowadays when we have micro channel condensers, you know critical charges working on ice machines, you're working in refrigeration, and it can become very important that you have very, very detailed super heating sub Cool as well as pressure readings like we talked about before these inner scales here, show us our saturation temperature so on the high side, we're generally gon na call this. Our condensing temperature on the inside that correlates to the pressure and you've got to find the refrigerant that you're working with and on this other side here on the low side, we're gon na call this the evaporator temperature. In both cases, the temperatures are what we would call saturation temperatures just on the low side.

We specifically call it evaporator on the high side. We generally call it condensing temperatures. If you look at the test. 205.

50, for example. The first thing, you're gon na notice, is that the 0 out is very with whether you notice or not. It's something you should notice is that to zero it out you're, not gon na, go here and adjust these little screws in order to zero it out. You want to take your hoses off of the parks so that way, you're open to atmosphere and then you're just going to hit this until pressure equals zero.

So right now you see we're reading one PSI right now, so you can either do it that way or you can unhook the center hose and open your knobs whatever you just want to make sure that they're open to atmosphere and then you want to hold down P and then let go and it will zero out and now we're zeroed out at atmosphere, so we'd be ready to connect, which is an easier process than going in taking the lenses off adjusting them. We also find the 550's are very durable on the actual body of the thing, and it's it's not going to be as prone to change. If it gets jostled a little bit, you just have to zero it out before you use it each time. When you look at the 550 here, one of this kind of standard settings you can set it and superheating some cool as well, but you have evey is what it says right here, evey and right here it says CEO, so that right there tells you, your evaporator Temperature for r410a and your condensing temperature for r410a, so it doesn't eliminate a real measurement that you see on the gauges.

You can set it to superheat receptacle mode. If you have the temperature clamps connected or you can do it in that sort of old-school. Looking at your, your condensing and evaporator temperatures, and comparing it to a clamp separately, is also available to you. So if you wanted to teach a newer technician, how to do it, you could still do that on the 550.

You have to make sure that you have the right refrigerant, which I like, because then it kind of takes away the distraction and the possibility that you're looking at the wrong scale. You know on these, you could be. You know looking at our 22 scale when you meant to look at the you know r410a scale. Obviously this is this gauge here is very old-school.

This was only for an hour 22 system which shows you that I haven't used these gauges in a while. That's the basic differences as far as how you calibrate these and again, you get the same sorts of readings on both, but there's some huge advantages to the 550's or in digital gauges like it, the one being that they do tend to read much more accurately. On the pressure side, but then they also tend to read more accurately on the temperature side and you have more access to more types of refrigerant, whereas on these, if it was a refrigerant safe to say it was r410a on the high side, I would have to Go get a PT char or use the refrigerant slider app on my phone in order to figure out what our condensing temperature was, which you know can be challenging, especially as we get more blends and there's you know more different types of refrigerants out there. That's one thing: the the thing is in order to calculate superheat and sub cool with an analogue set you're gon na use a line.

Temperature clamp, I'm gon na show you my fluke line temperature clamp that I have had forever. I've probably had it almost as long as I had this old set of yellow jacket and gauges that I've had here, and this thing is a workhorse. It's a beautiful line. Temperature clamp.

I've used it for many many years. It does the job, but it is a k-type thermocouple and k-type thermocouple connects to a lot of different temperature gauges, a lot of different meters. I used to use it with my old field, peace meter that I had. I would connect that in and then I would compare the temperatures.

I would get on my liquid line in my suction line to either in my evaporator temperature or my condensing temperature, in order to get my superheat and so cool, and that's all fine and dandy right. The challenge is, is that k-type thermocouple aren't as accurate as thermistor, which is what the test Oh 550 uses. So this it's not gon na be have quite the accuracy and the other thing is you also have to calibrate these separately. You have to make sure that you calibrate your k-type thermocouple to the side of whatever meter you're using and every meter is a little different with how you do that.

This isn't a demonstration to show how that how you do that, but you got to make sure that you actually calibrate these and then once you do, that you use it on the same side, every time which adds a level of complexity and potentially some you know A couple degrees of inaccuracy to a super heat and sub cool reading and when you're dealing with a new technician, where you potentially have a couple degrees off on your pressure setting, maybe they didn't calibrate their gauges right, maybe they didn't calibrate their k-type thermocouple and then The cake type thermocouple itself has plus or minus a degree or two. You know you could easily be five degrees off. A technician could have zero superheat and think they have five or they could have twenty degrees of superheat and think they have ten or fifteen, and that can be a you know, obviously have a big impact on the way a system works. That's the challenge: when you're dealing with an analog setup, it's not that it doesn't work.

It's worked for many years and a lot of us have used it. It's just not as precise, and it has more room for error. Obviously, there's room for error on a digital. They get it set the wrong, they could set the wrong refrigerant, they could forget to zero out the gauges, but it eliminates some of that also with the test.

Oh five, fifty you'll notice that this plug looks totally different. It's not a k-type thermocouple. This is actually a thermistor clamp and, if they're mr. clamp, the thermistor in this clamp, is actually this one right here.

A little cut secret here is you: can they slide these the mistress right out and use them separately? If you don't want to use them on a clamp or if you have a really large line that you want to attach to it, you can use just the thermistor, but these are much more accurate than K, type, thermocouple and they're also less prone to go out Of range, in my experience, and so with all of them, you can test zeroing them out using ice water, making sure that it gets to 32 degrees. That sort of thing that's a good practice, no matter what type of temperature sensing device you're using just to make sure that it's working properly ice water is a great method to use you just make sure that you stir it and that it's you know it's. It's has plenty of ice in it, so you can test either way, but a thermistor is gon na have greater accuracy than our k-type thermocouple, and you can tell a key type thermocouple, because it's generally gon na have this type of attachment, which is very common. Very nice, like I said, we've used it for many years, but it's not going to be as accurate and so with these all you do, then, is you just attach it into the side of the gauge manifold, and then that gives you your survey superheat and sub Cooled directly on the gauge, when you change the mode to that mode, makes it a little bit easier from that standpoint to see your superheating sub cool in real time on the gauge and not have to calculate a lot of guys will say what is the benefit Of you know, that's stupid.

Well, you know a tech can calculate. Do basic math do basic addition and subtraction. That's not the point. The point is, is that you have to do separate addition and subtraction every time you take it, whereas this is going to give you a real-time readout or if you want to see your evaporator and your condensing temperature and do it manually.

You also have the right to do that in a lot of cases, you're gon na tend to be almost twice as accurate with this, as you are, with a digit, with an analog type of setup and and it'll analog type manifold. To summarize, my opinion would be when you're teaching a new technician just for the sake of teaching. I think an analog manifold is a great way to teach it gives them that real tactile feel, but for a technician in the field, who's. Looking for accuracy and simplicity, I'm definitely gon na suggest a digital manifold and the testo 550 is honestly the one that I've used for years and we've used for a very long time.

So there you have it digital versus analog oops. I almost forgot. I wanted to also show you wireless probes, which again I've done all kinds of videos showing these actually in action. You can you'll notice that these look very much the same as these.

The reason is is because they are they're just attached to a bluetooth module. So if you want to go with probes probes, do much the same thing: the testo 550. Does they just do it an even more small and compact way, and the reason you would use these is that they are easier to carry around. They all are more small and compact and you're gon na have less refrigerant losses, and then you do all the calculations right on your phone.

Some people, like them, some people, don't if you're working in critical charge, applications where you don't want to have the losses that you would get through your hoses, then these make a lot more sense to work on a nice machine. You work in a refrigeration, whatever the only challenge with these is, you do have to add a tea in order to charge or recover, because these aren't, you know, obviously you're not gon na - be able to charge or recover through these and, unless you add, a tea Which is a very simple thing to do, you can add a tea and a ball valve or some type of a valve to charge or recover, and then these are very easy to use. A lot of my technicians use these for day in and day out, maintenances. The refrigeration guys love them.

The tester smart probes are excellent for that and there's other probes in the market as well, but these are tend to be the ones that we use because of their durability and reliability. So these are really your three options. You can use probes, you can use a digital manifold or you can use an analog manifold. You.