









First is a clip I was trying to show the Thermal besides being a different mold is made from a stiffer / harder material.
Yes this is a thread showing off the Thermal hoses
As far as hoses and gaskets on what I would call typical hoses these have had the best durability and function I have used.
Hopefully guys will add some with o-rings and those heavy duty ones but this is typically what I get.
What usually happens for me is by the time the gasket goes bad the hose is leaking also so I have to get a new set rather than just change the gasket.
I’ve had a Thermal set for 10 months and so far I must say these are the best I’ve owned so far.
The next set of pics have a Yellow Jacket gasket on the left and thermal Engineering on the right.
Besides the core depressor on the Yellow Jacket set the J/B and NRP use a similar gasket as the yellow Jacket.
The J/B, NRP and Thermal hoses use the type of depressor that will pull the whole gasket out if you pull it and the Yellow Jacket has a depressor that slides in and out independently of the gasket.







This next set of pics go from left to right J/B, Yellow Jacket, NRP and Thermal Engineering.
Just showing the brass fitting and not the failures here.
Two things that are obviously different with the Thermals is the smaller diameter and they have a continuous internal thread where the others have some groves cut across the threads
Not sure if this is for managing dirt or whatever but I haven’t had any issues with spinning or cross threading problems with the Thermals that have no perpendicular cuts.






Here is a low pressure control
While adjusting I was looking at the temperature value and not the pressure
If you have the refrigerant selected right who cares what the pressure is, no ?
Here is a little comparison with my old 523
Remember the control was already set and I was just trying to show the pressure setting already set
The Dynamic Offset Bar Graph does help with anticipating changes in pressure IMO
I have to say adjusting a low pressure control while it is connected to a running system and throttling the suction service valve is easier than the example with nitro with my old 523
What do you as a technician think of the relatively recently released Ritchie® Yellow Jacket® 49041 [Red], 49042 [Blue] Solar Gauges? It is not a pre-requisite that you’ve been around the internet long to acknowledge that Digital Zeus™ and HVACPROTech.com® are recognized authorities on the subject of the DMG – we have been referenced in trade publications, articles and RSES presentations as a result of our in-depth understanding of both the DMG and it’s components as well as our intimate relationships with the DMG OEM’s and our exclusive 100% raw in-field evaluations, testing and reporting.
We were the first to bring you the unbiased evaluation and subsequent rejection of both the Refco® Digimon® and the similarly constructed Mastercool® versions, so it should come as no surprise that our interests were evoked with Yellow Jacket’s decision to discontinue licensing the Digi-Cool® DRSA™ in favor of the Solar get up – even if only for the short term. Rest assured, and you read it here first – they (Ritchie) have more up their proverbial sleeves than this thing – and I have a pretty good idea of what that something is, but I am not here for conjecture so I will keep my opinion(s) to myself for the time being.
The Solar Gauge is – plainly put, at best a farce and holds absolutley no resemblance to a true DMG – in fact as the illustration below shows, it’s little more than a typical analog Bourdon tube attached to a very limited resource wafer board. And Ritchie’s own recommendation given to us at this year’s Chicago AHR, for use of this set in low light conditions – of using a flashlight to illuminate the collector cells was nothing short of laughable – and in fact we are still laughing. Be that as it may – we are interested in the opinions of our fellow technicians on this ill advised, albeit transparent attempt at marketing this as a “green tool” – and referencing it in the same sentence as digital is almost sacreligious. Do we as tradesmen really appear to be that naive?

Tell Zeus what you think…………