I've had a decent enough automotive compression tester. It was enough to tell me I had compression, but not accurate on small engines at all. For checking a cars compression it still serves me well enough. But it made small engine troubleshooting baffling. A new small 38-45cc saw only read around 100 psi out of the box. Turns out that translates to around 160 psi on the new gauge. Good news indeed. For better or worse, I'm glad to have some solid numbers finally. Btw, the gauge in question is less than amazing quality. It's fair enough for the $22 involved. Hardly a truly pro quality tool. The dial "glass" is plastic, ships loose with a cheesy press fit bezel. It seems to come apart pretty easy like it or not. My hope is it will last me a while in a hobbyist/ pro-sumer role. If you make your living working on small engines this probably isn't for you. For an occasional check-up, or pre-sale/purchase validation, I'm hopeful.
I was nervous about a couple saws. A new to me Homelite 550 shows 160 psi cold. Needless to say that was a relief. My new to me dirty Gerty 026 is a bit more marginal at a hair under 140 cold. Should make buying used saws a bit less shaky. I like numbers...
Dang, 110psi explains why this dang echo hedge trimmer won't run right. Cleaned the carb three times... Lol. Certainly explains why that was so unsuccessful.
