ok,, heres the deal,,,

it would appear that gary is much smarter than he looks (just kidding gary).
i checked my gauges against my bottle of 404a i brought in from outside. it is 26f and my high side gauge read 150 psi. well,, thats not right. so i checked the low side gauge and it read 65 psi. that sounds more like it.

i purged the gauge set and retook the readings and both sides measured about the same (correct) pressure .

i double checked this against my bottle of 134a and both sides measured correctly

what do i gather from this? is the lossless fitting not letting the gas back out of the high side fitting? is there something in the high side of the gauge set thats not letting the pressure equalize? is this normal for a REFCO set of gauges or are they broke. this wine cooler is the only system ive worked on in the last week,, so i had no reason to purge the gauge set each time i used it. and why does the low side equalize properly each time? the fittings are the same and they are all brand new.

thanks again gary for your sage and intuitive advice.
mike

ps,, i will retake the readings tomorrow when the restaurant is closed