Do I Need an Absolute or Gauge Pressure Sensor?

If you’ve landed here, you’re probably trying to decide between an absolute and gauge style pressure sensor. We’re here to help.

Aside from measurement range, one of the first things to consider when searching the DATAQ website for a pressure sensor, is how changing environmental factors might impact your readings. You’ll also need to decide just how precise your pressure measurements need to be.

Referencing ambient air pressure, a gauge sensor is a solid choice for general-purpose measurements, relative to atmosphere. Think pressure trending, where you just need to see pressure rise and fall. While measurements may not be as consistent, with changing environmental factors, gauge sensors are accurate. Most pressure transducers found on the DATAQ website are gauge sensors.

An absolute sensor is referenced to a perfect vacuum (in theory), without respect to barometric pressure (it doesn’t need to be vented to atmosphere). This means that your staring point when measuring pressure is zero PSI (vacuum). The result is a precise, consistent pressure measurements. If you need to acquire pressure data in a closed system (e.g. pressure in a sealed metal cylinder) an absolute sensor is the way to go.

With an absolute pressure sensor, your measurements would be the same at sea level on a warm sunny day, as they would on a snow-covered mountain top.

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