Pressure Pro Batteries Dead?

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caltex

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Feb 14, 2005
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Has anyone experienced the failure of the batteries in the Pressure Pro sensors? If so what happened?

I have one sensor that started giving me interimmet low pressure reading (alarm sounding and displaying a specific pressure that was below the target). This happened once or twice over a period of a week.  The next trip the sensor failed to show a pressure, although it would correspond with the display panel.  Then two more sensors started giving false reading and alarms.

I am assuming that the batteries are going, but thought maybe some one else has experienced this and could confirm the diagnosis.
 
Cal, mine are 15 months old and I have had a couple do that but did not get the low battery warning on the contriol panel. Called Pressure Pro and they sent me replacements including a postage paid envelope to return the defective one.
 
caltex said:
I am assuming that the batteries are going, but thought maybe some one else has experienced this and could confirm the diagnosis.

Robert

In my 2 1/2 years using and selling PressurePro, I have yet to hear of one battery going down. If you had a low battery issue, the low battery light on the display panel would light. As Jeff did, I would suggest calling the factory and see what they have to say. Your symptoms are different from any I have heard before.
 
See if there is another vehicle with PP near you.  I have had at least 2 instances where another PP equipped vehicle caused spurious readings on my panel.  Once the other vehicle left, all went back to normal.

The PP engineers say this can't happen, but I've seen it.
 
Thanks for the replies, I will call Pressure Pro.  I didn't get a low battery indication, and there were no other Pressure Pros around so I guess something else must be wrong.
 
I had an issue with the monitor on my Pressure Pro.  I'm still not sure what the issue was but I mailed it back to them and they put it on their test bench... Where, alas, it's working perfectly.  They sent me the one they had on the test bench before and it's working perfectly in my rig. 

Now, since they could not get it to fail they would have been in their rights to simply send it back.  But they swapped it out for me,  Now I'm very happy.  I would say they went a bit beyond in insuring I stayed happy.

By the way, I suspect the problem with my unit is marginal voltage tolerance, The replacement is a bit more tolerant.  this is something easily fixed if I'hd had to
 
I've had a few times where a sensor failed to show a pressure while the others continued OK. It always seems to correct itself after moving on, so maybe it is something similar to what Ned observed. 
 
caltex said:
Has anyone experienced the failure of the batteries in the Pressure Pro sensors? If so what happened?

I have one sensor that started giving me interimmet low pressure reading (alarm sounding and displaying a specific pressure that was below the target). This happened once or twice over a period of a week.  The next trip the sensor failed to show a pressure, although it would correspond with the display panel.  Then two more sensors started giving false reading and alarms.

I am assuming that the batteries are going, but thought maybe some one else has experienced this and could confirm the diagnosis.

I have somewhat that situation. I believe I set up with 36 pounds in my toad. But the tolerance is such at in the cool mornings the pressure was down to around 32 and had three tires giving me an alarm. So looked at the car and it was fine after hooking up so went down the road a few minutes and all turned to normal after they heated up a bit. I was on a short run and my toad tires are fine at 32 and above. I probably should have done the initial setup with pressure around 34.

You might air your tires to a specific pressure and reinstall.  I could but its not worth the effort. On cool mornings I know I must  have over 34 pounds in each tire.

Bob

 
I have just returned from an eleven week trip to Alaska (13k miles round trip) and am extremely unhappy with the pressure pro.

I have a tag axle so I have 12 sensors employed, including the toad.? I purchased the system in March or April of this year and it worked perfectly for about three weeks while sitting in my driveway or on short test drives while awaiting the start of my trip.? Unfortunately, I can't see Alaska from my driveway so I headed northwest.? I have yet to see the entire system function for more than a few hours at a time since May.? Nearly every morning, at least one sensor would fail to provide a reading.? So, it's outside with the ole tire thumper.? There is nothing worse than a tool or test device that you can't trust.

The most common situation is to have one or more sensors not sending a pressure reading at all.? The failure is not generally from the toad so it's not a distance problem.? In fact, the toad sensors seem to be the most reliable.

As I started my trip last June, Bernie assisted me in getting a replacement sensor for one that failed to register a reading when installed in any tire position on my rig.? (Thank you Bernie,? I need to return the original now that I am back home) Since then I have two more sensors that respond the same way (which is to say they DON"T respond) and one sensor that says I have 46lbs of pressure in a tire that measures 80lbs on two different gauges.

I can't say that I'm happy to hear that some other folks have experienced anomalies with their systems, but at least I know that I'm not alone or going nuts.? I probably won't be making a big fuss over this, and I may, or may not, purchase replacement sensors, but one thing I WON"T be doing is recommending this system to anyone.

P.S.    The Alaska trip was AWESOME.....  We got many beautiful pictures and many more great memories.  The only thing I missed was a flight to Barrow.  They over-booked my flight and there were no more available in my time frame.  We did the usual tourist things and much more.  The old Bounder came through with flying colors but the Honda took a beating (my fault... not enough front end protection)
 
OnaQuest,  I think I need to explain how Pressure Pro's work.  There is communtaiton one way, from the tires to the computer/display, Each tire sends it's pressure report ABOUT (This is key) once every five minutes,  They are all sent by radio and all on the same frequency,  As you can imagine it happens from time to time that two or more tires will "Collide" that is, send their reports in at exactly the same time,  When this happens the display computer says "Opps, no report" and if it happens more than 2 or 3 times it will light the LED for that tire constant to indicate "No report"

However give it time and since the different senders all send at very slightly different intervals one will pass up the other and the collisions will stop and the report will get through

This is but one of the ways a report can fail to get through.  Sometimes it's just a matter of the transmitter being too far away, Though mine seem to work over a longer distance than my combined vehicle length times two.

But I can guarentee with 10-20 sensors you WILL have data collisions occure every once in a while.  You have two choices when this happens. 1: The thumper 2: Give it time and let it clear

NOTE: On the following I'm not sure

I suspect when a tire goes into alarm state that it sends more often so it WILL get through, possibly at the cost of other tires getting through.  Someone from PP would have to verify this though
 
OnaQuest,? I think I need to explain how Pressure Pro's work.

John, I don't think you do.....? I can read with understanding.... as my teacher used to say.?

I studied all the literature I could find on the theory, installation and operation of the Pressure Pro.
I know how these things work.? Believe me, I gave this thing as much time as it needed to correct it's self (and some times it did just that).? However, I don't think it should be necessary to remove the sensor to restore it to operation, and as I said, two of them still will not send a report (this was an eleven week trip) and the one sensor gives a false reading.? How much longer do you think I should wait?? I'm a very patient man.....
 
If a tire loses pressure and triggers an alarm on the PP, the power is increased to the sensor transmitter and it sends the alarm immediately.  So even if you aren't reading a tire pressure at the moment, if that tire generates an alarm, it will indicate on the monitor panel.
 
Thanks Ned,

I did observe that phenomenon in the course of trouble shooting the system.  At one time I recall working with a specific sensor that didn't seem to ever be sending a report, yet when I removed it (reducing it's pressure to zero) it did indeed send an alarm.

This gave me a little more faith that I would be alerted of a blowout on the toad in sufficient time to minimize any resultant damage.  I'm not sure that an alarm (continuous loud BEEP - BEEP) would be nerve settling if I had just heard the explosion of a coach blowout.  Installing all new tires helped in that regard.

BTW - I was just doing a search on another forum on this subject and there were a large number of posts indicating a rash of defective sensors in the past.  i,e, 4 out of 6 bad, 6 out of 10 bad, etc, etc...  May be that I got a bad batch... Seems the little pink seal was a major contributor of failure at one time.  Everyone commented on how easy it was to procure replacement sensors.  I'll have to see if Bernie can be of further help in my situation.
 
The original red seals did have some problems with leaking.  I had that with one sensor and Doug sent me some of the new black seals to test and they did solve the problem.  I still have 9 of 10 sensors with the original seals that work just fine, however.
 
Bob Zambenini said:
I have somewhat that situation. I believe I set up with 36 pounds in my toad. But the tolerance is such at in the cool mornings the pressure was down to around 32 and had three tires giving me an alarm. So looked at the car and it was fine after hooking up so went down the road a few minutes and all turned to normal after they heated up a bit. I was on a short run and my toad tires are fine at 32 and above. I probably should have done the initial setup with pressure around 34.

You might air your tires to a specific pressure and reinstall.  I could but its not worth the effort. On cool mornings I know I must  have over 34 pounds in each tire.

Bob

Bob:

It only takes a minute to go out on a cool morning and loosen the transmitter for a moment and then retighten. That sets the reference pressure to the low setting and resolves the early morning alarms.
 
OnaQuest said:
OnaQuest,  I think I need to explain how Pressure Pro's work.

I know how these things work.  Believe me, I gave this thing as much time as it needed to correct it's self (and some times it did just that).  However, I don't think it should be necessary to remove the sensor to restore it to operation, and as I said, two of them still will not send a report (this was an eleven week trip) and the one sensor gives a false reading.  How much longer do you think I should wait?  I'm a very patient man.....

Lou

Send me a PM or email me, without a wi-fi or landline, it is difficult for me to read and respond to messages. Have you been in contact with the factory at all regarding your issues? They do an excellent job of trouble shooting and won't leave you with an unsolved problem. I don't think giving PressurePro a bad recommedation is appropriate yet.
 
Jeff Cousins said:
Bob:

It only takes a minute to go out on a cool morning and loosen the transmitter for a moment and then retighten. That sets the reference pressure to the low setting and resolves the early morning alarms.

Jeff

You have to have the sensors off for at least 60 seconds for them to reset.
 
An update on my Pressure Pro problem - I talked to the factory and they walked me through a dagonistic proceedure while I was on the phone.  Comclusion, I had some bad sensors.  I am sending them in for new ones.  Good support and fast response from Pressure Pro.
 
Robert, thanks for the update.  I'm going to do the same thing tomorrow morning. 
lou
 
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