Making sure you have your tire pressures at their recommended levels is not only important for your safety, it also helps you save on fuel and it reduces the wear and tare of your tire rubber.
So unless you check your tires regularly, you may not know if you have a slow puncher, or even a flat tire, until it’s too late. By having a gadget that monitors and informs you of the status of your tire pressures, it can be super handy and also be potentially life saving.
The Gocomma EK215 / SO Mini Tire Pressure Monitor from GearBest.com is such a gadget that monitors your tire pressures in real-time and reports them on display console that you place inside your car.
Many more modern cars are coming with tire pressure sensors and low pressure alerts as standard these day. But my problem with many of these systems is that some just don’t display the actual live pressure of each tire. You usually have to drop over 10 psi before your car begins to report it. Being able to see the pressure dropping much earlier can extend the life of your tire, and in extreme conditions it could help with the performance of your vehicle when you need it the most.
The Gocomma EK215 is a tidy little device that simply attaches to either your windscreen using the bundled screen suction mount, or on the dashboard using the bundled adhesive matt. Either position allows an easy and clear view of its very bright (and brightness adjustable) LCD display, which displays between all four wheel pressures or their temperatures. This particular monitor requires a cable connection. Using the bundled 12v connector you simply connect it up to the micro USB port on main display unit. You can power the unit via a 12v USB port adapter, but due to its low voltage tracking, you will get a low voltage warning every minute.
Four pre-paired tire caps are screwed on to each tire valve, and once they are connected each of their pressures and temperature readings are sent, in real-time, directly to the display console. The LCD display console shows each of the four wheel’s pressures either in bar or psi, and by pressing the SET button located on top of the display unit you can view the temperatures of each wheel in Fahrenheit or Celsius. As soon as pressure or temperature is too low or too high, the display unit will flash the corresponding wheel on the display console along with an audible alert. If one of the sensors are lost in transit or disconnected, this is also displayed on the console, along with an alarming audio alert.
Each tire sensor cap is simply screwed onto the valve of the tire. To prevent the theft of each sensor cap, a set of nuts for each cap is supplied that screws first on to the value and is tightened back up with the supplied spanner to prevent their removal. This security is a nice addition, yet without the display console to connect to they are pretty useless on their own if anyone is thinking of stealing them. Each sensor battery is stated to last between 1-2 years, and the battery can be easily removed from each cap with the use of the supplied battery removal tool.
Thanks to the act of physics, pressures and temperatures rise whilst you wheels are in motion, so I was soon alerted with an audible warning of my recommended rear 44 psi pressures going over the default 47 psi threshold. Although this was reassuring to see the system working as intended, as a first time experience it was pretty alarming. Luckily the low and high alerts of pressure and temperature thresholds can be altered on the display console via its three function buttons.
During my test of the Gocomma EK215 I noticed that I had a slow puncher in my rear left tire. It was something I was already aware of, thanks to the built-in tire pressure system of my Volkswagen Golf, but I wasn’t aware of the severity of the pressure drop until I could see it reduce each day on the display console of the Gocomma EK215.
Currently retailing for £30.49 ($38.99 US) from GearBest.com the Gocomma EK215 is a relatively cheap car gadget that can prove to be highly valuable in certain circumstances. Be it saving fuel, prolonging the life of your tire, to even saving your life. With its pressure, temperature and b battery voltage monitoring, the Gocomma EK215 is one handy gadget that you just don’t think you need in your vehicle until you have it, even if your own vehicle already has a tire pressure checking system.
