Water – Using a off-the-shelf pressure gauge to measure water pressure

gaugewater-pressure

I want to measure water pressure around my house, I can't find any pressure gauges made for that, so I will make do.

I've found some that are for Acetylene in the right range, but they have "use no oil" written on it. Now, I don't know if that is telling me to not use oil (glicerin) in the gauge, or if that is telling me that the pressure gauge can't be used with liquids, or something else.

Any thoughts?

Best Answer

The "Use No Oil" is a warning placed on the gauge that may have application in a pressurized gas setup. The most common example being on an oxygen / acetylene gas welding rig. Any of the fittings including the manifold, meters, pressure regulators and connection hoses in such application are always used with clean non-oiled threaded fittings. The reason is that high pressure compressed gas (oxygen) can explode in the presence of oil and any possible spark that may occur when assembling the components of the welding outfit onto the compressed gas bottles.