UView 550500 Airlift II Economy Cooling System Refiller

Damn fast Collent refill
Was a bit skeptical, but it worked like a charm. I will use for all of my collent refilling jobs.

M20 coolant fillup
I used it yesterday to fill up the cooling system of a 1990 525i with the M20 engine. Pretty soon after pressing the button, the hoses collapsed as expected. However, I was not able to bring the vacuum down to -25 inches as instructed. I am guessing that my 50 foot 1/4 inch hose is the culprit. I increased the line pressure to 100 PSI and the vacuum improved a bit. Since the tool takes 90 PSI maximum, I decided to continue with 90 PSI per instructions. The vacuum hose sucked almost two gallons of coolant and distilled water in no time at all. It is a good idea to keep an eye on the level, so the tool doesn’t suck in air. Being one of BMW’s finickiest engines to fill up with coolant, I still had to open the reservoir and thermostat bleed screw to let out some remaining bubbles of air. Overall, It worked very well and I am happy with the purchase. I wish the form factor of the tool was more compact, because it takes a lot of space in my tool box.

GOOD AS IT GETS
HAD 3 OF THESE THAT REALLY DID NOT LAST MORE THAN A YEAR, HOPEFULLY THIS ONE IS BETTER

Very disappointed
I’m a tech at a dealer so after reading a lot of reviews I thought this tool would be solid.. I was wrong. Received the tool and when I put it to use the switch that opens valve broke right away, plastic.. decided to give it another try and requested a replacement. Once I received replacement I tried it again. Even though the switch for the valve didn’t break this time, the tool did not work as expected. Have used similar tool when borrowing from co-workers (snap on, matco) and you can tell the difference to say the least. Gauge is inaccurate and as those other tools take 1-2 minutes to fill coolant system, this one takes about 10min. Not worth saving a little money, save yourself the trouble and invest in better quality tool if you plan on using this often.

Light weight product using on Ford vehicles at the dealership. Looks cheap but it’s working well. Always does good vacuum and fill. The valve it’s not greatest but I’ve used it 10 times already and no problem.

This is the best thing since sliced bread. If you’ve ever had the opportunity to refill a finicky cooling system you know how aggravating it can be. See if any of these sound familiar:- Drilling a hole in the thermostat- Wedging an aspirin in the thermostat- Massaging hoses- Disconnecting radiator/heater core lines and using a funnel to fill them directly- Jacking the front of the car up, then lowering, then jacking the back, then lowering then just giving up and sobbing in the cornerSome vehicles just don’t want to be filled. I thought I’d dealt with the worst that you could get until recently I picked up a mini truck with a rear mounted engine that needed the steel coolant lines replaced. It was borderline impossible to fill. After spending hours trying to burp it I finally gave up and ordered the Airlift. It seemed like a bit of an expensive gamble for what it is but it was SOOOOO worth it, especially when you compare it to how much would I’d have to pay for the psychiatric treatment after fighting with this monstrosity for the next few weeks.Let me first off mention the one negative I have about this, although it’s not the fault of the Airlift: You need the coolant system (nearly) completely drained to start. So if you’ve started at a refill and it hasn’t worked well you’ll need to drain everything, which may require disconnecting hoses depending on your system. In my case I actually used the AirLift to help drain it – I unscrewed the rubber cone on the bottom and the hole that goes through it is just about the same size as the tube on my air blow gun. So a few wraps of electrical tape and it was wedged into the radiator filler neck and 15PSI was shot through the system to blow the coolant out of the drain.Related to that: You can use that setup to find leaks if you think you have some. Spray water mixed with dish soap on the hose connections and fittings and blow 15PSI or so through the system while a helper checks for bubbles. I had 3 leaky fittings found that way before starting the refill.The first step too refill your system involves vacuuming the system down and wait 20 seconds to ensure there are no vacuum leaks. As mentioned above I had leaks – my vacuum was very slowly dropping. Mine is a small vehicle so it has a small cooling system (compared to a large bus or truck) and it wouldn’t get below 24 inches, which was still in the good range, and it dropped down to about 23 within 20-30 seconds, which was borderline. If I had a large cooling system this might have been fine, but with such a small system it should in theory vacuum down faster and deeper and leaks would tend to be smaller and less noticeable. So I decided to test the system as mentioned above and found 3 leaks which were easily repaired. There’s no way I would have found them without this unit without driving a significant distance and noticing the coolant drop.After any leaks are fixed you fill a bucket with coolant – you’ll want more than required to fill your system as you do NOT want to go low and draw air in (and thus have to empty the system and start again). With the filler tube in the bucket open the valve a bit and draw up some coolant to fill the hose, close the valve, pump the system down again to 24-25 inches, then re-open the valve and within a couple minutes the system is filled. Close the valve, remove the AirLift, and fill the overflow tank and you’re done.So the moral of this review is: If you’re like me you’ll look at the price and say “that’s a lot of money to pay for something that can be done without any special tools.” It is, especially if all your doing are simple, forgiving systems. But if it’s a troublemaker ask yourself: How much is my sanity worth?