Smoke Machine Automotive Leak Detector,Evap Vacuum Smoke Diagnostic Tester,Pipeline Fuel Leakage Detector Compatible with 12V Vehicles

This is great! Easy to use! I used a small amount of mineral oil. It makes a very good amount of smoke, it's adjustable, I turned the dial about half way. It connects with clamps to your positive and negative battery cable so it's totally portable to use outside if you're not able to work on your car at home. If you're in an apartment or don't have 110 AC, this is great because it runs off 12 volts DC. If you needed you could connect it to a power bank but the car battery works well . I was using it for approximately 10 minutes and it did not drain my car's battery to a point where it would not start. There was plenty of cranking power after I thought. I'm not sure how many amps it pulls . As far as the Air supply, It does not have a built-in one. You need external Air supply but you do not need to have shop air compressor, I used a bicycle pump with some acrylic tubing, a tire valve stem, hose adapters and a quick coupler for an air compressor hose for the female end to connect to the smoke machine. The bicycle pump method worked perfectly. I could control the flow of of air by hand. Very easy and there is no risk of pumping in too much air during your testing. You do not want to have a high amount of air pumping into that machine and filling up your engine Chambers with the too much air could blow something. Only need about 5 psi. No worries with there the bicycle pump method and it was very cheap to rig up. This is a must have diagnostic tool for all mechanics. This has helped me find vacuum leaks with ease. I would have never found this leak I had, it was a massive leak of air my car has in the throttle body area. It's in a tight spot. This helped me to determine where the exact leak was coming from. The TB gasket turned out to be fine after 35 years, it was the gasket to the air tube that seals around the mouth, which was an easy fix. I also had a small leak around and after market CAI intake elbow joint. I confirmed the repairs with the smoke test and the car ran much better. I recommend this.

Get one of these to find the ever so annoying vacuum leak. Not sure how many DYI and techs rely or relied on ears and or the rubber hose stethoscope to find leaks, the worse being hidden intake manifold, or now hidden EVAP lines under the car, bad Schader valve or pinhole gas filler necks or cap gasket leak, remembering even a nicked filler neck rim can cause a leak; it's PITA, especially with old ears. Smoke testing is the way to go. Faster and easier. Don't forget to look at loose or broken air intake hoses either, especially the underside of the hose and broken brake booster diaphragms.

The media could not be loaded. This "smoke" generator is the best out of other 2 I had previously. One died and another one just sucked really bad. Poor design and quality. Everything was leaking and they just shoved a heating wire wrapped around a piece of cloth inside a paint can etc. it was bad and frustrating. This one is just freaking awesome!!!! It simply works with my car tire inflator!!!. Now don't get misled. I did convert it. Because my car inflator end had connection for the tire plug or whatever it called. I had everything for that. Now about the flow... Oh damn it is great flow of vapor it is so nice and visible!!! So much in the kit that comes with it I have no idea what for. And yeah I know on the picture I didn't need all that many adapters, I just had it like this in my later bag and I was lazy to redo them I know some are extra there . Anyway, great product! No leaks, works great out of 12V battery and it is fine with 21 psi of the car tire inflator!

As a mechanic at an independent shop, I'm always looking for tools that are simple in construction, quick to set up, and easy to use. I have had this tool for nearly a year, used it multiple times, and loaned it out a couple of times, too. For a DIYer, this tool (and others in this price range) are worth a shot. Smoke solution with UV dye did not work as well as regular mineral/baby oil did.My biggest gripe is the air line fitting. Because of the short gator clamp leads, you're probably going to deploy this in the engine bay, resting on a flat area, but the unit really doesn't weigh much, so any decently robust air line is going to encourage it to twist and tip over, especially if you're using a lift. I recommend using this with a smaller "whip hose" or using the regulator outlet hose as the whip (open it up and you'll see what I mean, it is quite simple). The second biggest drawback is there's no real way to determine how much oil is still in the unit, and whether it's a thermal or timed safety feature, it does shut off by itself after some time. Trying to find a very small leak (as in P0446, ~0.02") can be frustrating with this unit. You may have to stop and recheck the machine once or twice as you try to find the leak. Admittedly, that is not unique to this unit.The single feature that holds this back from five stars is the flow meter. While the regulator does reduce the overall pressure that flows through the system, the flow meter is adjustable and acts as a secondary control on the device. Professional diagnostic smoke machines, in my experience, use a non-adjustable flow meter that's calibrated appropriately. This flow meter, when wide open, exceeds its own range of measurement and even forces unburned oil/smoke solution down the outlet hose. Not a dealbreaker, but for the DIYer, it does increase the learning curve a bit.This may be a personal quirk to my device, but occasionally, if it sits unused for a while, it won't flow air at first. Blowing compressed air through the disassembled lines and ports takes care of that. I suspect that the flow meter ball gets a little sticky. A final note of caution: The size of the plug for the oil reservoir is not common. Take care not to lose it or drop it in an engine bay. It is not magnetic.If this device breaks, I'm more likely to upgrade than I am to repurchase it, but I would recommend this to anyone who needs a machine and doesn't have one.