Pressure Valve Caps

January 2007

Did you know that if your tyres are under-inflated by 10 per cent, their life will be cut by the same amount? Yet most drivers don’t check their pressures often enough – so products that give at-a-glance warnings are booming.

Usually, these replace the valve cap, and alert you to any psi loss via coloured inserts; green means everything is OK, while red (and sometimes yellow before it) indicates the pressure has dropped. But some of the kits are based on conventional gauges.

We set out to see if such devices really can help you take better care of your tyres.

Using a wheel and tyre with three valves, we checked the cap alerts while monitoring the slowly released pressure with a digital gauge.

Ideally, we wanted to be able to spot even a small pressure loss. We also factored in price and convenience, with marks lost if you had to do anything more than simply look.

Most products are sold on the Internet, so allow for delivery costs if buying online.

Verdict

Regular pressure gauge checks are still the best option, as the valve caps were slow to react to air loss. As a failsafe, the Pressure Guard is our pick of the bunch. The Auto Unique TPMS Remote trailed it only on price.

1. Pressure Guard
2. Auto Unique TPMS Remote
3. Bike It Pressure Alert Valve Caps

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