PSI vs Bar
- Thread starter jay.c.litzinger
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i dont know, i prefer psi for sure .. youd think with a digital gauge it could switch between psi, bar, and mpa and give you the temp and time of day ..
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It would be nice if the world could standardize on a system of measure (Europe seems to think they have) but until we do, we will need to do conversions. My simple was of thinking of bar is it is "atmospheres". The air pressure on earth is 14.? psi. So if you multiply the bar value by the air pressure on earth you get the psi. I think it converts easier to megapascals but I like that system of measurement even less so I try not to think about it.
I don't think any measurement system is better than any other, but it is difficult to think in a system that you are not used to. I have to convert mm to inches to understand a measurement, for instance. If I really want to understand my P35s air pressure I have to convert it to psi. But for most things knowing it's regulator is set to about 125 bar and it's storage pressure is (hopefully) above that, is usually enough.
I don't think any measurement system is better than any other, but it is difficult to think in a system that you are not used to. I have to convert mm to inches to understand a measurement, for instance. If I really want to understand my P35s air pressure I have to convert it to psi. But for most things knowing it's regulator is set to about 125 bar and it's storage pressure is (hopefully) above that, is usually enough.
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PSI is smaller than BAR so, I would like to believe that if you are trying to get the MOST consistency per shot, you would try to get the most accurate measurement available??
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Personally, while I am most familiar with the Imperial system (inches, feet, pounds and ounces, PSI etc.), I find the Metric system much simpler. Everything is in multiples of 10. For Bar, 1 Bar is the atmospheric pressure at sea level. Everything else is a simple multiple of that. If I need more precision then i can simply use the next decimal, as in 1.5 Bar, or 245.5. Since none of our airgun gauges are actually accurate to within 1 PSI I doubt that the difference between .1 Bar and 1 PSI (which is 0.4 PSI difference) will matter in any event.
The old British (Imperial) system of currency used Pounds, Shillings and Pence. 12 Pence equaled 1 Shilling and 20 Shillings equaled 1 Pound! Funny how we Americans used to laugh at this “silliness” as compared to our “Decimal” system of 100 cents = $1, yet we cling to the equally bizarre and old system where 12 inches equal 1 foot and 3 feet equal 1 yard and 1,760 yards equal 1 mile!!
Having lived in various places which use the different systems I am pretty “fluent” with both. I must confess though, that I have no idea at all (without doing an actual calculation) what my height is in centimeters/meters or my weight is in kg. MPH/KPH, F/C, Liters/Gallons, all of these are fine. But measuring Miles per Gallon makes much more intuitive sense to me than Liters per 100 Kilometers.
And don’t get me started on living in the UK many years ago and trying to figure out what the hell they were talking about when they spoke of weight in “Stones”
Yup. Turns out 1 stone equals 14 lbs 
Chris
The old British (Imperial) system of currency used Pounds, Shillings and Pence. 12 Pence equaled 1 Shilling and 20 Shillings equaled 1 Pound! Funny how we Americans used to laugh at this “silliness” as compared to our “Decimal” system of 100 cents = $1, yet we cling to the equally bizarre and old system where 12 inches equal 1 foot and 3 feet equal 1 yard and 1,760 yards equal 1 mile!!
Having lived in various places which use the different systems I am pretty “fluent” with both. I must confess though, that I have no idea at all (without doing an actual calculation) what my height is in centimeters/meters or my weight is in kg. MPH/KPH, F/C, Liters/Gallons, all of these are fine. But measuring Miles per Gallon makes much more intuitive sense to me than Liters per 100 Kilometers.
And don’t get me started on living in the UK many years ago and trying to figure out what the hell they were talking about when they spoke of weight in “Stones”
Yup. Turns out 1 stone equals 14 lbs Chris
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1 bar equals approximately 14.5 psi. I don't care if it reads psi or bar as long as I can convert it to psi to figure Efficiency.
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Standardize indeed, BAR is the best unit and used worldwide so we should definitely make all gauges in BAR
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Correct me if I'm wrong ;
the vast majority of guns on this forum,...vast majority, are from Sweden, Easter Europe, Britain, China but you want them to change their measuring system to fit your preference ? ...me thinks you need to get on board with the worldwide system
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End of the day I don't care either way. But in general my preference is for the simplicity of BAR. I don't believe either the manometers or our airguns regs are precise enough to do things in psi to any level of detail that bar doesn't cover.
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Correct me if I'm wrong ;
the vast majority of guns on this forum,...vast majority, are from Sweden, Easter Europe, Britain, China but you want them to change their measuring system to fit your preference ? ...me thinks you need to get on board with the worldwide system
Yeah really, get on board pal. A bar is one atmosphere.
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Interestingly, the United States has never really used the Imperial measurement system. The current system, since 1959, is called United States customary units.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_customary_units
It is a very interesting history, worth a read.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_customary_units
It is a very interesting history, worth a read.
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Canada, the UK, and the US have the largest divergence in measurement, from the rest of the world.
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I guess all I was really saying is… if a more precise measurement is available, why not use it instead of bar. So if I “could” get my gun to consistently fill to 99.5 bar. Isn’t that better than 99 or 100.
I’m still new to airguns so if you’re telling me the regs still aren’t accurate enough, well ok. But consistently is the name of the game right? And more precise, consistent measurements should assist in consistent accuracy.
I’m still new to airguns so if you’re telling me the regs still aren’t accurate enough, well ok. But consistently is the name of the game right? And more precise, consistent measurements should assist in consistent accuracy.
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You're talking a difference of like 7-8psi here. When you're dealing with 2000psi of pressure per shot, 7-8psi isn't going to make or break you. I think you're overthinking it some.
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You don't need that level of precision in measurement for airguns. You see yourself setting the reg at 1494 psi? Rather than 1501 psi? Really doubtful.
Look at a 1 inch round airgun gauge in psi and tell me you can see the difference between those two measurements. Why aren't the digital ones in PSI, because they aren't made in America or for only Americans.
Holding the airtube for 5 minutes or the sun shining on it will change pressure more than your .5 bar example.
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And just to add the Imperial Standards are now calculated off metric standards anyway. There's an excellent Veratasium YT video which goes over it - very interesting stuff.
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When I bought my Coltri MCH-6 compressor from Nuvair they talked me out of the auto-drain and auto-stop. Their selling point being that by watching the compressor gauge one would be within 5% of the actual pressure in the tank. After 5 years of use I can say that none of the gauges- guns, tanks, compressor- actually show the same pressure. They are all an approximation. BAR is 'close enough.'
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Well the Sekhmet will do PSI or BAR whatever you prefer. But that's a very valid point about just holding the air tube or changing the ambient temperature. Just a change in ambient temperature can throw off your tank reading and your reg.
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