Is there an easy way to check tyre pressure?
There are handheld pressure gauges, some of which have little digital displays, but many people find them too bothersome to use as they have to manually check all four tyres – five if you include the spare tyre.
Yet, not checking tyre pressures is criminal. Thankfully, there is technology to make the task easier. You can consider aftermarket tyre pressure monitors – from simple pressure warning caps on the tyre valve stems, to an electronic monitoring device. For Bluetooth gadget lovers, Fobo has an app-based system called Tire Plus.
The Fobo app (downloaded from the company’s website) displays the info on your smartphone. Tire Plus has four sensors, which have plastic treads and a plastic lock nut with a special plastic wrench.
The sensors’ signals are picked up by a central transceiver and sent via Bluetooth to your phone/app. The transceiver has its own power supply (two AA lithium batteries).
The coding/pairing needs to be done by the user, who has to follow an installation sequence for the sensors. The requisite Fobo app provides on-screen, step-by-step instructions as well as the downloadable instruction manual, which is impressively detailed but tedious to study.
Once everything has been installed, just launch the app, turn on your smartphone’s Bluetooth function, and the tyre pressure info goes live. Being app-based, Fobo Tire Plus enables the display/update of other pertinent info apart from psi readings, such as date, time, temperature, battery status and, most pertinently, recommended tyre pressures.