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.

This review is for the Autool Model SDT103 Smoke Leak Detector. I did a lot of research before buying this product. I opted for this unit, which has no internal compressor, because it has less parts to break and I have my own compressor. (It uses almost no air; just a trickle.) I also liked that it has flow control and a flow indicator. Please be aware, I've only used this unit one time, so I can't comment on its long term reliability.I read the instructions before using it, and the instructions are pretty well written, and describe how to operate it without a whole lot of difficult-to-understand broken English. The unit is pretty simple, so its operation is straightforward.I bought a little 3 ounce bottle of baby oil from CVS for a couple bucks. I put 20mL into the unit before turning it on (the instruction booklet said 10mL, but there were two stickers on the actual unit that said 20mL, so I used 20mL). I let the air flow through it for a minute or two before I turned on the smoke switch. The smoke took about 30 seconds to start coming out, and maybe 2 minutes before it got really thick. I used this for diagnosing a vacuum leak in the intake of my Ford Ranger. The smoke was nice and thick and was easily seen (see picture).The packaging is very good on this product. All accessories are in separate ziplock bags, very organized, very neat. All the accessories (hoses, wires, oil bottle, etc) seem to be very high quality. I was expecting a one-time use throw-away item, but this seems to be well made and has quality accessories.I'm surprised to hear that some people write reviews complaining about the smell of the unit after using it. It burns oil to generates smoke. The smoke smells like burning oil. Why would someone expect this unit to not smell like burned oil?This product saved me a lot of money going to a mechanic to diagnose the problem in my car. I'm also going to use it in the future to find exhaust leaks, and leaks in other sealed systems in my cars. I'm not a mechanic, but I do almost all the work on my cars and I think this will come in handy in the future.I recommend it.

The unit works amazingly well. I have seen mechanics use these in videos and always assumed they were very expensive. This unit was a great price and it came with a surprisingly large number of accessories. Even simple things like velcro straps attached to the power cord and hose make it feel like a quality unit. It also feels nice and solid. I bought it and used it for the first time to find an Evap leak in my Jeep. Within a few minutes I found the suspect fitting that was leaking. Saved a ton of time and money.

Unit does not come with oil but works as needed and does not take long to start pushing smoke out. Very small compact unti as well. The lead wires to 12v power could be bigger but for the price can not complain.

This is a life saver and so easy to use. Find vacuum leaks or boost leaks in no time. The added leak gauge( flow gauge) is very helpful to know when or if there is a leak in the system you are testing. Doesn't burn through oil much at all. Works great!

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!