What has happened to Inawise?

[nj swb]

I'm on my second Inawise tyre pressure monitoring system, and I have one sensor misbehaving.

Their website says

We are sorry to advise that Inawise is not able to supply any products or services at this time. We apologise for any inconvenience.

Elsewhere, google lists the business as "permanently closed", and I'm guessing that even if I could find a phone number I would be wasting my time calling it.

Does anybody know what has happened to them, or if I can find replacement sensors anywhere else?

[Scouter1]

When I bought my system, I rang them initially then ordered online. Could pay to give them a ring https://www.whitepages.com.au/inawis...=0&expand=true

Inawise Pty Ltd
14A Mareno Road
Tullamarine VIC 3043
tel: 03 93304998

Cheers,
Stephen

[Scouter1]

Bugger - off the air...

I think the system is also rebadged as Valor, may be worth trying that angle

http://www.valortpms.com/en/contact

[Pajshomoneroguntero]

Typical. I spent a couple of hours looking very closely at what Inawise had to offer, convinced myself that the price although high was worth it, about to purchase and this thread pops up. Yep there it is on the “contact us” page

Ordered a Masten for half the price so we’ll see how that goes.

[DrewXT]

The inawise is a rebadged Valor system, which is a Chinese manufactured unit that can also be bought on AliExpress.

I can't find my link to it, but if you search on AliExpress you should be able to find them

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[nj swb]

Update:

I checked the box from my second Inawise system, and found the name of a Chinese company. A quick google found a website, and an enquiries email address.

I explained in an email that one sensor had failed, and asked if they could direct me to a vendor who could sell me a replacement.

They very quickly offered to send me a replacement free of charge if I could supply my USPS or DHL import account number.

I replied that I didn't have one, or know anybody with one, and offered to pay. My email wasn't asking for a quote, or haggling over price, I simply wanted a replacement sensor.

No response.

Before my next big trip I had the dud sensor removed, and the sensor in my spare installed in the tyre on the road (due to uneven wear across tyres, my spare had less tread than any others, so I didn't want to run it).

On that trip, another sensor began playing up. Some time after the trip, it came back to life, and worked faultlessly around town. Then I had some work done on the car that required pulling that tyre off, and the sensor stopped working again. So I suspect there is something loose inside the sensor, that moves as the tyres is subject to shock, such as being dropped off the car and falling on its side on concrete? Regardless, two failed sensors out of five, no Australian distributor, and the help offered by the manufacturer didn't really help me. So I needed a replacement.

Posted elsewhere:

After seeing the Masten name here, then stumbling across it on Dig Options' website, I ordered aTP-16 Masten TPMS system, with an extra sensor for the spare tyre. At the time of posting this, these systems are out of stock, and listed at $9,166 - I paid a little over $200 delivered.

After a Simpson crossing, I'm happy.

The system comes with a cigarette lighter plug, with a micro usb plug on the other end. Perfect, I thought - I have a dual USB outlet on the dash with one spare socket, I wanted to mount the display on the windscreen, so it would all be really simple to install. Except the display wouldn't work plugged into my USB outlet. The supplied cable puts 12V onto the micro USB plug.

Running out of time, I routed the cable from the 12V socket in front of the shifter, under the dash and up the windscreen pillar, to put the display at the top of the windscreen.

First day of the Simpson trip I discovered a major flaw of my rushed install - the display was in the way of the sun visor. In camp that night, I pulled apart the cigarette plug to see what was inside - a resistor and LED. The device was running directly on the car's electrical system, with no regulation in the plug. So I cut the wires, and cobbled together some connectors to piggy-back the supply off another circuit I had already installed. The extra length freed up allowed me to reposition the display above the rear vision mirror, and there it still sits.

The unit requires a set pressure, then alarms for +/- 25% of that pressure. It has two settings, one for "light load" (two seats filled in the display) or "heavy load" (five seats filled in the display). Switching between the two settings is very easy (single push of a button) so I set them up for off-road and on-road, but of course, I was regularly adjusting tyre pressures up and down as road / track conditions changed, so I also adjusted the set pressures regularly. This too is quite a simple process - front and rear tyres can have different set pressures, although they don't always adjust in 1psi increments.

Particularly when set for lower pressures, the +/- 25% can get a bit "tight". From driving at 20 degrees to cold start around 5 degrees, it's tricky to find a set pressure that doesn't get upset at one end or the other. But that's a minor issue.

The internal sensors come with caps that have a yellow & red symbol on the top, to indicate to tyre fitters that sensors are fitted. The installer commented on that, thought it was a good idea. I'm still getting used to the look.

I have discovered that the thread on the valve stems is only just long enough for the caps, so my angled tyre inflation clip no longer clips on properly, and I can't clip on my inflation hose and do other things as my compressor does its thing - I need to squat by the tyre and hold it. I've done some research on the thread (quite odd - 0.305" by 32tpi, apparently), and found a die that should let me extend the thread enough for my clip to work again (5/16" UNEF is 32tpi, nominally 0.3125").