Bigblue&Goldie
Well-known member
I know brake bleeders and brake bleeding procedures are a hotly debated topic around here at times, but I thought I'd throw my $.02 in the ring.
Late last year I was doing a bunch of maintenance on my trucks as they were at significant intervals. At that time my 2015 F-150 had just over 100k mi on it, but I planned on keeping for a while, so I wanted to make sure it got the love it needed. At the same time, I had a new truck on order and my intention is to keep that one in top shape as it's typical haul is 2,000-3,000mi per trip. With time being a premium, and with the dealerships being ever backlogged, I've started to do my own maintenance again. Accordingly, I've been buying tools to make life easier/faster.
A thread popped up about brake bleeding tools, and I was in the market, so I listened to everyone's words of wisdom. Ultimately, I opted to go with a Speedi Bleed "Pro Kit". https://www.speedibleed.com/ I liked that it was made/assembled by the syrup jockeys in Canada, it was a pressure system, it was reasonably priced (especially on sale), and it was portable. In my case, 2 adapters covered all of my trucks, but they have a plethora of different adapters that likely cover any brakes/clutch you're working on.
Just to get it out of the way, yes, I do know about gravity bleeding, yes, I do know pumping the pedal works great, and no, I don't know how well any of the other bleeding tools work in comparison to this one as I've always used the aforementioned methods.
The beauty of this system is it's simple. Screw your adapter to the master cylinder, fill the bottle, hook it up to a tire, and push the quick connect fitting from the bottle output line to the master cylinder adapter. You then adjust your regulator to 15psi (close enough on my case). The only other tools you will need is a wrench for your bleed *******, a syringe to **** fluid out of the resevoir, and a bottle to catch dirty fluid. In my case, I use the Allstar Performance bottle with the check valve and find it to be worth every penny of the $19 it cost me.
I was doing a fluid flush, so I opted to **** as much dirty fluid out of the resevoir with a syringe as I could (without exposing passages to the air). I then did the standard bleed sequence of moving from furthest caliper to closest. When I was finished, I used the syringe to **** the extra fluid out of the resevoir to the "max" line. The Speedi Bleeder worked awesome; I didn't have to phone a friend, I didn't have to get frustrated with my wife’s lack of bleeding knowledge, etc. It really couldn't have been any easier. You crack the ******, bleed until clean, and move on. I did this on Easter Sunday, and didn't use the Lord's name in vain.
So what are the cons? Really, the only cons I can think of are you have to empty the bottle and line. I didn't "clean" them, but tried to empty them as well as I could. The other con is it uses some air in your tire (about 3psi). You could hook it up to a random spare tire you have laying around, or just pull out your Milwaukee inflator (you should own one of these also) and top off all of your tires while you're at it. While this is a con, It's still easier than firing up my compressor (like other tools require) and having to unwind/wind an air hose as I did this in my driveway. The other con is it does take a little extra fluid to keep the bottle at the required minimum than if you were just doing a pump and fill.
Who is this for? I'd say it's for a DIY guy, mobile mechanic, or racing enthusiast. While the resevoir adapters and other components are great quality, I don't know that it's the best option for a shop mechanic? If I was a guy that spent a lot of time at the track and was having to change out boiled fluid every day, I'd definitely throw this kit in with my track day tools.
In summary, until I inherit my dead grandfather's pickle jar he used to bleed brakes from 1951 to 2002, I'm going to keep using the Speedi Bleeder.
Late last year I was doing a bunch of maintenance on my trucks as they were at significant intervals. At that time my 2015 F-150 had just over 100k mi on it, but I planned on keeping for a while, so I wanted to make sure it got the love it needed. At the same time, I had a new truck on order and my intention is to keep that one in top shape as it's typical haul is 2,000-3,000mi per trip. With time being a premium, and with the dealerships being ever backlogged, I've started to do my own maintenance again. Accordingly, I've been buying tools to make life easier/faster.
A thread popped up about brake bleeding tools, and I was in the market, so I listened to everyone's words of wisdom. Ultimately, I opted to go with a Speedi Bleed "Pro Kit". https://www.speedibleed.com/ I liked that it was made/assembled by the syrup jockeys in Canada, it was a pressure system, it was reasonably priced (especially on sale), and it was portable. In my case, 2 adapters covered all of my trucks, but they have a plethora of different adapters that likely cover any brakes/clutch you're working on.
Just to get it out of the way, yes, I do know about gravity bleeding, yes, I do know pumping the pedal works great, and no, I don't know how well any of the other bleeding tools work in comparison to this one as I've always used the aforementioned methods.
The beauty of this system is it's simple. Screw your adapter to the master cylinder, fill the bottle, hook it up to a tire, and push the quick connect fitting from the bottle output line to the master cylinder adapter. You then adjust your regulator to 15psi (close enough on my case). The only other tools you will need is a wrench for your bleed *******, a syringe to **** fluid out of the resevoir, and a bottle to catch dirty fluid. In my case, I use the Allstar Performance bottle with the check valve and find it to be worth every penny of the $19 it cost me.
I was doing a fluid flush, so I opted to **** as much dirty fluid out of the resevoir with a syringe as I could (without exposing passages to the air). I then did the standard bleed sequence of moving from furthest caliper to closest. When I was finished, I used the syringe to **** the extra fluid out of the resevoir to the "max" line. The Speedi Bleeder worked awesome; I didn't have to phone a friend, I didn't have to get frustrated with my wife’s lack of bleeding knowledge, etc. It really couldn't have been any easier. You crack the ******, bleed until clean, and move on. I did this on Easter Sunday, and didn't use the Lord's name in vain.
So what are the cons? Really, the only cons I can think of are you have to empty the bottle and line. I didn't "clean" them, but tried to empty them as well as I could. The other con is it uses some air in your tire (about 3psi). You could hook it up to a random spare tire you have laying around, or just pull out your Milwaukee inflator (you should own one of these also) and top off all of your tires while you're at it. While this is a con, It's still easier than firing up my compressor (like other tools require) and having to unwind/wind an air hose as I did this in my driveway. The other con is it does take a little extra fluid to keep the bottle at the required minimum than if you were just doing a pump and fill.
Who is this for? I'd say it's for a DIY guy, mobile mechanic, or racing enthusiast. While the resevoir adapters and other components are great quality, I don't know that it's the best option for a shop mechanic? If I was a guy that spent a lot of time at the track and was having to change out boiled fluid every day, I'd definitely throw this kit in with my track day tools.
In summary, until I inherit my dead grandfather's pickle jar he used to bleed brakes from 1951 to 2002, I'm going to keep using the Speedi Bleeder.