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Pascone10

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Discussion starter · #1 · (Edited)
Yes, ladies and gentleman, thats right we have a new micron gauge on the market. The DigiVac Bullseye!

Let me give you guys a little background on how I got my hands on one of these. A couple months ago I was finishing up with my apprenticeship at the UA training center in New Jersey. Tim Collins who is the President of DigiVac made the effort to come out and talk with the graduating class to get our opinions on his new Bullseye gauge. He went over the features and took our questions and feedback. That was not good enough for me. I wanted to put it through the paces of everyday life in the HVAC world. Tim was onboard for me to try it out and after giving me a tour of their manufacturing facility in Matawan, NJ (Yes they are Made In our United States of America!) I have been using it every chance I could get.

We have not fully geared up with the summer service calls so I intend to add to this as time goes on.


Lets get to it..

What is that hanging in the back ground you ask?



That would be the Bullseye. I can't think of any other micron gauge with a magnet so you can actually put the tool where it is convenient to view.


First and foremost, this gauge just feels tuff. It has a rubber boot around to protect the instrument. Incorporated in the boot is a kick stand to prop the tool up.


Another feature that no other gauge on the market has is the graphical displays. It actually logs the last 1min to 24 hrs of vacuum. Here are a few pics of the displays..


Now let me say I am using the Bluvac in some comparisons of the Bullseye because it seems that is what a lot of you guys including myself have been using lately.

The Graphical displays


The display reads left to right. The 2 numbers on the left show the highest and lowest numbers on that display. This was set up for 10 mins so about the 5 min mark you can see where I isolated the CRT's and shut the pump off. After 5 mins the reading rose from 690 microns to 940 microns. It leveled off at the top thus indicating off gassing and not a leak. The word "stable" shows that the rate of change has stabilized. There are also Pump, Leak, and Off Gas indicators. I use this graph the most of the 4 available displays.

One thing that takes getting used is the Word Indicators. They look over the entire length of the selected graph time so it will not change from say "pump" to "Off Gas" right away even though the microns are changing. Which is a good thing because you should be waiting a good 10-15 mins at least to analyze the readings of what is going on in the system. If I recall Tim uses microns/ min to come up with the wording.

The second picture shows me turning the pump back on and the microns decreasing. The number in the Top right corner is the current micron reading of 700. So the microns rose to 970 before I turned the pump on. The indicator changed to "Pump" and from the graph it has been on about 2 mins.

Here is an example of a leaking system. Note how the line continues to rise and not taper off.


I will continue on another page..
 
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I dont like how the look of the graph. It just looks cheap to me (kinda like an old graphing calculator). The graph and log is are great feature though.
How fast does the gauge respond to changes in vacuum as compared to the bluvac?
What is the accuracy and scale?
That sensor looks a lot like YJs old micron gauge (before they went to the BluVac).
 
Discussion starter · #5 ·
I dont like how the look of the graph. It just looks cheap to me (kinda like an old graphing calculator). The graph and log is are great feature though.
How fast does the gauge respond to changes in vacuum as compared to the bluvac?
What is the accuracy and scale?
That sensor looks a lot like YJs old micron gauge (before they went to the BluVac).
You guys are Fast lol. Im working on posting a video right now compared to the BluVac. I knew you guys would want to see that. Im getting there!

On a side note Thank you Jim Bergmann. I believe my class received 3 of your $100.00 gift certificates to use at TruTechTools.com!. That was really cool to see. Sadly I was the only one who knew what it was but I sure told everyone about what you guys were about over there..
 
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Discussion starter · #6 ·
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRg2e6Qnp6A
Check out Tim's Video. He does a very good job at explaining the different views available and their features.

Here is a video I shot. This is the system I installed at my house. You can see the 2 instruments are very close to one another.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjuEq4UVkzw&feature=youtu.be

A couple other features I did not mention yet are
1) An alarm function. Like others are the market you can set the gauge to alarm at a certain micron level. Once it achieves that point it has an audible beep and flashing display. To be honest the alarm is not loud enough to really hear in most cases where we are working. However the flashing display is nice and you can see that quite a bit away.

2) The Bullseye also has a Bluetooth feature. I cannot really comment on this as there is not an app for the iPhone yet, which I'm being told is in the works. I talked with Tim Collins and would like to see a way to save the readings and trends in the app to show for proof of the vacuum achieved if required.

In Conclusion:

The more I use the Bullseye the more I like it and find the graphs useful. I really like the size of the instrument and the long cord so I'm not constantly bending over to see where I'm at in my evacuation. DigiVac used thermocouple technology in the Bullseye which along with their design allows the Instrument to be used in ambient temperatures from 110*F to -14*F. Finally a Micron Gauge we can bring anywhere with us including the roofs in Alberta, eh!

I was very impressed with touring the DigiVac Facilty. Its filled with hard working people like us who truly care about the end user. If you call with questions you will talk with the people that know everything about the gauge because they are making them in the next room! They have been making vacuum gauges since Tim's Dad founded the company in 1983. This is not their first rodeo but it is the first for the HVAC Market.

I hope you found the beginning of this review helpful. I will add to it as I get more time with it. If your looking to support an American made product, this is the place to start!
 
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Discussion starter · #9 ·
Thanks Pascone! Looks pretty cool.

I like the idea of graphing a vacuum.
You became the review man lately. Don't mean to step on your toes. :LOL: Glad to see you liked it.
 
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I took a look at the manual after I couldn't see anything in the display in original video a few weeks ago. Looks fairly complicated to o
 
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Operate for a micron gauge. Is it that bad? If it is $500 bucks it's kind of out of reach for most. That's some serious price tag for a HVAC micron gauge
 
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that is a bit high, but looks like a good product.

that graphing feature is pretty cool!
 
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Discussion starter · #15 ·
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Discussion starter · #19 ·
I'll make a quick comment. I know when I was at Digivac's shop I asked Tim the same question. What he told me is he purchased some of the popular micron gauges on the market and tested the accuracy at his location with his equipment which is certified annually for NIST traceability and he was surprised they advertised the accuracy they did. In certain instances I believe he said some of them were not even close to what was on their spec sheet.

He showed me the bullseye on his two calibrated instruments which every gauge is calibrated before it leaves the facility and it did very well compared to the $5000.00 plus instruments he had there.

I'm my testing when I hook up both the bluVac and bullseye the bullseye seemed to always be around 30- 40 microns lower once everything stabilized. So that must account for something. If the 2 are consistent with their readings I'm sure his accuracy is spot on. There was a reason he gave me for not lowering the accuracy to appear better on paper but I don't recall exactly what he said so I won't quote him. What I do know is he was being honest in one form or another.

I tested 5+ gauges before and I was lucky if they all read within a 100 or so.

On I'm on a service call. So I'm going to get back to it here. Any other questions I'll try to answer later.
 
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I'll make a quick comment. I know when I was at Digivac's shop I asked Tim the same question. What he told me is he purchased some of the popular micron gauges on the market and tested the accuracy at his location with his equipment which is certified annually for NIST traceability and he was surprised they advertised the accuracy they did. In certain instances I believe he said some of them were not even close to what was on their spec sheet.

He showed me the bullseye on his two calibrated instruments which every gauge is calibrated before it leaves the facility and it did very well compared to the $5000.00 plus instruments he had there.

I'm my testing when I hook up both the bluVac and bullseye the bullseye seemed to always be around 30- 40 microns lower once everything stabilized. So that must account for something. If the 2 are consistent with their readings I'm sure his accuracy is spot on. There was a reason he gave me for not lowering the accuracy to appear better on paper but I don't recall exactly what he said so I won't quote him. What I do know is he was being honest in one form or another.

I tested 5+ gauges before and I was lucky if they all read within a 100 or so.

On I'm on a service call. So I'm going to get back to it here. Any other questions I'll try to answer later.
He probably accounts for all variables like battery and ambient temp. which is very honorable of him. most list the best case scenario from what you see in the field.
 
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