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Found out my surface supply panel gauge reads 4% high and I've been running 8 feet deeper than logged for two years
Last Tuesday I finally sent my OTS panel out for calibration after the primary gauge started sticking around 80 psi. Got the report back Thursday and the tech told me it had been reading about 4% high since whenever it was last checked, which for my panel was 2022 over in Long Beach. Do the math and on a 160 foot job I was actually sitting closer to 168, and on a 60 foot pipe run I was deeper by 2 or 3 feet the whole time. Scary part is my deco tables were built on the gauge readings, so my stops were a touch longer than needed, which is the good direction to be wrong in, I guess. I called two buddies who run the same panel and neither one of them has had theirs calibrated in over 3 years. So now I'm writing the date on a piece of tape on the panel with a sharpie after every check, and I want to know if anyone else keeps a spare gauge on the truck and swaps it out mid job or do you just send the whole panel in and work shallow for a week?
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anthonykim1mo ago
A 4% gauge error sounds scary but it's really not that big of a deal when you break it down. On the deco side you already said it, being deeper than your tables think means longer stops, which is the safe direction to be off. The real risk would be the gauge reading low and you thinking you're shallower than you are. Plenty of guys run analog gauges that drift way more than 4% and never notice. Getting it checked every couple years and marking the date is fine, swapping gauges mid job seems like a whole lot of extra work for a problem that barely moves the needle.
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