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What to know before buying a pressure gauge or manometer

As the name suggests, a pressure gauge is a gauge that measures pressure. You can use a manometer or pressure gauge to measure the air pressure or water pressure in a system. A simple pressure gauge is a U-shaped tube with one side in contact with the atmosphere, i.e. atmospheric pressure, and the other side is connected to the pressure to be measured. The tube itself is filled with a liquid that is either mercury, ethanol, or plain water.

Digital manometer vs. analog manometer

man checks pressure gauge

Pressure gauges can be classified into two categories: analog manometers and digital manometers. Analog pressure gauges use a simple but accurate mechanism to determine the air pressure at which fluid is moving. As noted above, water, mercury, or ethanol are the liquids used to partially fill a U-shaped tube with an opening at one or both ends.

Instead of using liquids, digital pressure gauges use a pressure transducer. An elastic part of the transducer senses pressure levels and converts this energy into an electronic signal, producing a number on a display. For particular applications, you can use a digital pressure calibrator instead of a pressure gauge.

What are pressure gauges used for?

House heating system with steel pipes and pressure gauges

Without pressure gauges, fluid flow systems would be unpredictable and unreliable. Therefore, you can use pressure gauges to measure the pressure of various processes concerning atmospheric and many more. A manometer is a versatile instrument, and it is utilized in many different industries and applications. You may even have a bicycle pump with a manometer at home.

For example, you can use a pressure gauge to measure both the pressure difference between two points in a pipe and determine the pressure difference. Digital pressure manometers are used to monitor and maintain HVAC systems, monitor compressor systems and monitor gas pressure.

Which pressure gauge do you need to buy?

U-tube manometer

U-tube manometer

The simplest form of pressure gauge consists of a U-shaped glass tube containing liquid. The oblique and vertical u-tube pressure gauges are relatively inexpensive, and they are often used in measuring differential pressure with flow meters such as pitot tubes, orifices, and nozzles. The pressure measured and applied to the left side of the pressure gauge is of constant value. The fluid will not stop moving until the pressure exerted by the fluid column is sufficient to balance the pressure exerted on the left side of the gauge.

Micro-manometer

You can use a micro-manometer to measure, test, balance, and calculate the speed and volume flow. A micro-manometer has a high accuracy for measuring overpressure, under-pressure, and differential pressure. Thus, a micro-manometer is a type of pressure gauge designed to measure very minute pressure differences. Micro-manometers come in different varieties, but the digital micro-manometer is the most common.

Bourdon tube pressure gauge

Bourdon tube pressure gauge

A Bourdon tube pressure gauge is a mechanical pressure measuring device and works without the use of electricity. The Bourdon tube or Bourdon pressure gauge, named after the French inventor Eugène Bourdon, consists of a tube bent into a coil or an arc. As the pressure in the tube increases, the coil unwinds. It contains a pointer that can be connected to a handle and a pointer calibrated to indicate pressure on an underlying scale. The tube stretches and shrinks as the pressure increases or decreases.

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