POLL: What TPMS Tool are you using?

[TPMSProAlbert]

Which tool, if any is your shop using for TPMS reset/relearn and programming?

[the tpms guy]

Bartec500 for me - that thing is amazing!

[Lg auto]

I have a shop in Michigan. I am very good Friends with Eri. The moment he showed me the VT55 model i fell in love with this tool. ATEQ tools are the best!! Very easy to use. Give it a try and you will share the same opinon! I am yet to see a car that i cannot reset with this tool!

[TPMS4U]

NAPA Echlin scan tool is the best!!

http://www.napaechlin.com/upload/NAPAEchlin2/Documents/Library/NAPA_TPMS_Relearn_Tool.pdf

[ATEQRocks]

ATEQ has the best tools around! Can't wait for the VT56 release!

[forza juve]

ATEQ !!! VT 56 is just incredible.

[MikeA4]

ATEQ !!! VT 56 is just incredible.

Did you get the vt56 or are you just making a statement? I'm curious how it plays against my bartec400. :)

[Godoy]

The ATEQ VT 56 is an excellent tool!

[minimac]

It so happens that I have used them all (i.e: the ones in the poll).

ATEQ tools are very easy to use.
Bartec tools are second to that, but are still very good.
Both brands are excellent when it comes to vehicle coverage, or feature list, but I always had a sweet spot for ATEQ, because of their user friendliness.
Now, the new ATEQ VT56 I saw at SEMA has no competition. Way ahead of anything. I don't know about its price though.

The SnapOn tool is basically a rebranded ATEQ.

The rest is either real crap or limited by the company that sells them (a Schrader tool will not be compatible with non-Schrader sensors).
Autel's looks good but is nowhere near the 2 first ones in terms of coverage, quality of the workflow or programmable sensors.
Autel now has its own programmable sensor, so their tool will never be as universal as ATEQ's or Bartec's who don't sell sensors.
All sensor manufacturers will see Autel as a competitor and move away from them

Someone should make a Youtube video of all of them so people can see for themselves.

[minimac]

Did you get the vt56 or are you just making a statement? I'm curious how it plays against my bartec400. :)

This is really an unfair comparison. You should compare the ATEQ VT56 with Bartec's new Tech500.
Now, I have made the comparison myself at SEMA and the VT56 is in a league of its own.
Again, I have no idea how much it cost compare to Bartec's.

[Bartec USA]

Lot's of new members lately - doing a LOT of TALKING. How about a real challenge? Car for car, tool for tool - let's get away from opinions and look at how the tools REALLY stack up. The Tech500 is on the shelf and ready to roll, let's do this....

[Bartec USA]

"Comparison at SEMA"

To be fair, a color screen in a booth looks cool...but let's go fix cars and see which tool is more robust, faster, more accurate and has more coverage....and if EZ, Cub, Alligator, Orange, Huff or Redi is your sensor brand...not to worry, the Tech500 is the ONLY one that covers them all [fact].

[Robmastertech8207]

Glad I found this place .. I've been doing this a long time .. been using and comparing tools with me fellow techs for years .. what else are they good for if you keep your mouth shut and listen.. ya learn chit .. scan tools are one thing.. but dedicated TPMS tools are another .. dorman (joke) Autel (snicker) smp (laughable) Ateq ( a step up) .. snap on (retarded Ateq .. as another member put it.. ) but what.. look at that stupid cord .. how long is that gonna last .. I use and try not to abuse my stuff .. but chit breaks .. color screen or no.. still has that stupid cheap cord and ya can't see color screens in bright lights anyway so whats the point .. Bartec hands down.. sorry.. Its fast.. its accurate .. has relearns built in .. my D tech's can use it.. I don't want them turds touching my Solus.. has OBDII relearns for Ford, Chevy and more and it clears DTC's .. had the 400 and just upgraded to the 500 and just did my first Mitsubishi .. be damn if I'll send work down the road .. I want one TPMS tool to do it all .. !! welp my 2 cents .. hope ya don't waste your money on jokes like I did at first ..

[Doc Inzo]

I have used most of all the tools out there, and what it comes down to is the same old thing, "you get what you pay for". Ateq works ok, but the Bartec tools are by far the better choice for diagnosing and repairing a TPM system. The Ateq tool will likely accept any sensor you put in front of it, right or wrong; if you happen to read the wrong sensor, the Bartec tool will give you either a question mark or an X, stating that it's either close or completely not the correct sensor for the selected application. Ateq and some of the other tools do not work on every vehicle they say they do, or give false results, where as my Bartec tool doesn't.

I would like to see more DTC reading / clearing, but over all, I'm a Bartec fan. 400SD.

[TKiz]

Bartec is a better tool. And tech support is spot on. Sorry, but I won't waste my time with anything else.

[Bartec USA]

Kevin and Willie B talk about the Tech500

http://twoguysgarage.com/?p=8132

[TPMS_Topgun]

This is really an unfair comparison. You should compare the ATEQ VT56 with Bartec's new Tech500.
Now, I have made the comparison myself at SEMA and the VT56 is in a league of its own.
Again, I have no idea how much it cost compare to Bartec's.

I was not aware I could get a VT56 yet? Would really like to see them run side-by-side in actual scenarios.

[DruryTiresNZ]

I was not aware I could get a VT56 yet? Would really like to see them run side-by-side in actual scenarios.

As someone who is about to buy a first TPMS diagnostic tool, has anyone tried both VT55 and VT56 and is qualified to comment on the differences, improvements, let downs etc... between them??

[TPMSProAlbert]

Keep voting!!!

[TPMSProAlbert]

Looks like a close race between Bartec and Ateq...

[DruryTiresNZ]

Drury Tires in Auckland, New Zealand. I have had the Ateq VT56 for one full day now. I haven't had much time to play with it yet but I will share my impressions so far. The quality and feel of the tool, accessories and packaging is very good. The colour screen is clear and easy to view. Using the tool to read sensors on a real car was easy peasy. On a Ford Explorer it read 3 out of 4 sensors within seconds each but couldn't detect the fourth - not enough experience to know what the source of this error is yet but the vehicle comes in regularly so I should get a chance to re-test with the tyre off sometime. Printer is easy to operate. The cradle is designed to mount on a wall (good idea) as well as sitting on a bench but I am not sure if I would trust the cradle to hold the tool mounted vertically and I would hate it to fall out of the cradle onto the floor. Maybe an angled bracket (45 to 60 degrees). The charging adapter plug seems quite vulnerable to me as it is not shielded from any impacts. It could have been recessed more so only the cord trails out from the cradle. I will post more as I test.

[TPMSProAlbert]

Yes, please keep us posted.

[DruryTiresNZ]

Just tried out on a Hyundai Veloster 2014 with very little trouble. Easy to find make/model in menu and sensors read very quickly each (10-15 seconds total including walking). The pressures were not correctly displayed though. I am giving VT56 the benefit of the doubt and assuming it is the sensor that is sending incorrect data. 40psi showed 74 and 38psi showed 70. What are the forum members experiences with other sensor and tool combinations? VT56 showed a picture of where the OBDII socket was in the car and there is an LED inside the VT56 plug module to illuminate the socket as you are plugging in. Sensor data uploaded successfully in seconds. Job done except for the earlier question. Printout of data easy and effective but does not include the customer Name, licence plate number etc... that you might have entered.

WiFi is not super-easy to set up so I cannot give feedback on this yet.

I have sent Ateq a few requests for information so far, like why are some of the menu options like RF signal not available and I am still waiting for response so not a very fast customer service reaction.

Feel free to ask questions or request photo's, information etc...

[Wrenchman]

I've been a casual visitor to this site for a while now. I've never felt the need to contribute until now. Some of the information in this thread, especially the first few post are completely biased and seem to be obviously posted by people who are affiliated to the tools and as such completely misinform those who forums like this are created for.

Rant over, here is my experience.

I had a tech400+ for a few years but it unfortunately went missing a couple months back. I should add that this tool always did the job and really was the only suitable option at the time.
I went to my distributor to get a replacement and was shown a vt56. My immediate impression was that it looked great and was told that it did everything that my old tool did and was "the next generation". I was ready to buy there and then but was told it wasn't available for a couple of week. I decided to wait and thought I could dig out my old tech300 in the meantime.

2 weeks past and nothing. I called the guy and explained my business was suffering and he assured me it would be here next week. This went on for two more weeks. Finally it arrived and I was immediately struck by the OBD adaptor which look poorly made also the OBD coverage was worse than my old tool. The color display was nice however so I gave it the benefit of the doubt thinking that I'd discover more gems as I used it. Indeed had some features like showing if a sensor was a duplicate and displayed relearn procedures after making vehicle selection, but my old tool had done this too. For the first few days I had no problem and was using it on every car that rolled in to try out my new toy, tpms light on or not. Then a GM came in and it failed to read two of the sensors but didn't say why. I got the old tech300 out and that read all 4. Feeling a little concerned I called the support line... Three times until someone answered. When I explained the problem I was told I wasn't using the tool right. I explained that I've been using tpms tools for years and that my old tech300 could read the sensors but they were unable to help and just suggested to try again, the car had long gone by then. Following that I came across two more vehicles it failed to read sensors on and wasn't able to get an answer on support and sent emails which were ignored.

I went back to the distributor who told me that he was sorry and was surprised that ATEQ was unable to help as they had a good rep for support.

I replaced it with a tech400sd. This is quite different from the 400 I had and took some getting used to the way it worked, but once I did it made perfect sense that you diagnose the fault before fixing it and get a report of before and after to show the customer. One nice surprise was the extra OBD support it came with and though the screen is still black and white it was improved and displayed perfectly in daylight. What is odd after reading this is that I was never shown a tech500 and now I'm wondering what else I might be missing...

So in conclusion, maybe I had a bad tool from ATEQ but if you've had a Bartec tool before, are used to it just working, being designed well, having regular updates and being supported very well you'd be foolish to try any other tool. I know I was.

[Mike@TPMS.com]

Neck and neck on the Bartec vs. Ateq!

[TireBarn AZ]

We have a VT55 from ATEQ at our shop, which it appears I cannot use if I move to 31inc smart sensors. Im happy with the performance on the VT55 though, it seems to do everything we need.

[Admin@TheTPMSForum]

We will be updating this for 2016 and some new tools!

[Admin@TheTPMSForum]

Looks like we need to start a new poll to include a few new tools like the Corghi, Thread closed!