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New LED tire valve cap monitors pressure for you

 
5 4,598 views Apr 17, 2008
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New LED tire valve cap monitors pressure for you

New LED tire valve cap monitors pressure for you

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New valve-caps, called P-eyes, which monitor the air pressure of the tire they're attached to have hit the market. Pitched as a handy tool for commercial fleet owners, we don't see why the tire-pressure monitoring caps wouldn't work equally well on your personal vehicle.

The caps use LEDs combined with a sensor that causes them to blink when tire pressure falls below 95% of ideal. The system would make it possible to do a simple walk-around and know if your tires are properly inflated. Though you might think that's as easy as looking at the tires themselves, modern tires, especially low-profile radials with stiff sidewalls, don't show low-pressure symptoms as clearly as older tires once did.

Benefits of proper tire inflation are well known, including longer tire life, better fuel mileage and less chance of a blowout due to overheating or forcing the bead off the rim.

Pricing for the caps starts at £20 (US$40) for the standard version, while anti-theft caps cost £22 (US$44). Given that the blinking caps will draw attention to themselves whenever pressure runs even 5% low, it seems advisable to spend the extra 10% for the anti-theft version - especially on tractor-trailer rigs that could require as many as 10 or more of the caps.



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Comments (5)

  1. By Gus Posted: 4/17/2008 12:07pm PDT

    They already have these, but instead of a blinking light they just change color.
     
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  2. By chris Posted: 4/17/2008 12:19pm PDT

    oh AWESOME! like you dont have enough trouble keeping people from stealing ur stupid valve caps... now you have to make them worth something?!
     
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  3. By rnsaza Posted: 4/17/2008 2:18pm PDT

    "like you dont have enough trouble keeping people from stealing ur stupid valve caps… now you have to make them worth something?!"

    +100
     
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  4. By Raptor Posted: 4/17/2008 2:20pm PDT

    Where I live, those would be gone in about 3 minutes.
     
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  5. By SMC Posted: 4/19/2008 12:45am PDT

    $40 a piece? A little more than that is how much it costs to have a tyre pressure system for the whole car. One that displays warnings on the dashboard.

    Call me back when these LED caps drop to $1.
     
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