Safe Pumping Pressure Debate

The issue you state is the shitty gauges, not pumps and cylinders. All you need to do is set up all the gauges you want to test into the test system. Example: cylinder-gauge #1-gauge#2-gauge#3-pump. Then you just compare the readings on the gauges. All you need is a few fittings and a little extra hose.

Labs and companies (industrial/welding gas suppliers, etc.) that work with precision gauges have dedicated and calibrated testing systems. In theory you could have your $2.50 vac gauge tested so you’d have 100% confidence in its readings, but for most of is the cost is not worth doing so. The first time you banged or dropped the gauge you would be worried if it is out of calibration.

The best procedure is to pay attention to how your dick responds under vacuum and adjust time/vacuum level accordingly. Whether that is -3inHg or -5inHg or other is secondary to dick response.

I’ll be very open and honest. I’m pretty new to PE. And I started way too intense.
Especially with pumping. One day (3rd day, couple of weeks ago, I was pumping in the bathroom.
After I was done I felt “nicely” pumped but had a strange sensation in my bladder.
I tried to go to the toilet and I couldn’t pee.
It was just dripping out slowly.

Tried all day, nothing.
Luckily in the evening it started to get better.
Next day it was normal again.

I think it’s good it happened.
Immediately changed my mindset and wanted to do things right. So I actually started listening to the tips on this forum and even more, I started to listen to my body.

I’m still slowly building up, I consider myself a newbie, but I already made some gains. (0.5 cm BPEL, 0.5 cm girth)

Anyway, I don’t have a lot to add here, just that you should be careful.

32Q has it right. I have no doubt that some of these vacuum gauges are more accurate than others, beyond the common sense that would assume this.

I have a cheap hand pump that I bought a few years ago and used until I got a good deal on a brake bleeding setup that had a higher quality gauge. I switched and didn’t think much of it until I started experimenting with a micro controller to manage the vacuum. I was using the old pump/gauge to test my setup and I kept getting frustrated because, by my calculations and the pressure sensor I was using, I was maintaining -5inHg but the cheap gauge was showing -7 ish during my testing. That was too much of a difference for me to accept so I kept reworking my math. It wasn’t until I resorted to testing against my better gauge that I was able to confirm how crappy the cheap gauge was. My better gauge read exactly -5inHg when my controller was set to maintain -5inHG.

It makes sense that there will be some variation between measurement devices but the degree of inaccuracy of the cheap one blew my mind.

I’m happy to have my own shit sorted and I’m happy to share the result of my little ‘test’ but the lesson is that we should know that UserA pumping at 5 might be the same as UserB pumping at 7 or UserC pumping at 3 (or whatever). Like most things, pay attention to what works for you and don’t worry so much about others beyond ideas and general guides; their experience is best used as a starting point to fine tune your own system

This really summarises everything. I especially like the concluding sentence. Spot on.

It doesn’t matter so much what the numbers on the guage are; the benefit is being able to pump to the same known-safe level each time.

A friend of mine was an expert in real-time process control. He once explained what he called the Al Bundy algorithm - “Don’t know, don’t care.” In context, responding to feedback is much more important than seeking absolute values.

While many men are successful simply pumping by feel, I’ve found that even minor changes in vacuum level can have detrimental effects. Like so much else about PE, I guess it comes out to “whatever works for you.”

Yep. We’re all saying the same thing.

I mainly keep to 5-6hg and 30-35 minutes. I’m happy with that. But for an experiment I did 4hg for 60 mins. Came out very hard not bloated. Next day morning wood was crazy.

I share as it just goes to show you have to experiment and what might work for one might be the worst for another. Also that maybe there are multiple things that work for the individual.

I’m going to as a result of this see what happens if I alternate a 1 hour session with my normal 30 min session. Experiments are also fun 😊. My hypothesis is that it will work well.

I used to think and pump between 7- 12 Hg and didn’t think that I was doing any damage other than a few burst capillaries, but I was wrong!
Although I’ve had good gains over the years, my penis started to feel spongy, and my natural erections started to feel softer. As such I kept pumping to keep a full feeling. However, once I stopped and let my penis heal for about 3 months my natural erections started to get harder again and not have that spongy feeling even when I was completely hard.
I have started pumping again, but I only go to 5 Hg. I no longer get any burst capillaries, nor do I get that spongy feeling, and my erections are hard regardless of whether I’m pumped or not.
The Irony is that I actually feel like I get a better workout at 5 Hg than when I pumped higher.

As this is my experience with pumping over many years. I generally pump one per day and I really wish I would have listened to everyone on here that 5Hg is the right pump. I really believe that I would be further along my size goals if I had with much less pain.