Portable 12v electric air pump for tires... Any gems out there under $50?

First Impressions of the air pump in use

I dropped pressure in one tire from 35psi to 25 psi and began using the inflator to bring it up to 36psi.

The pump ran for a long time, I did not time it. The noise level was low. The tire looked like it was fully inflated, when the pump said 31psi. It was actually 39psi… iow, the pump reads 8psi low…

I then used the pump to add 2 psi to the 3 other tires. The pump stopped working a few times, probably cause it was hot. I burned my fingers on the metal part of the hose.

The buttons are absolutely terrible, I cant tell when Im pushing them, and a lot of times they dont seem to work at all.

I think this pump is handy for adding a couple psi to each tire, but I would not expect it to be capable of adding 10 psi to each of 4 tires.

I brought the pump into the house and plugged in to charge. The display said the battery was at 60% capacity. The total psi added to the tires was 16psi… to my mind, the unit would be out of battery after providing a total of 32psi…

I like the convenience of being able to add a couple psi to each of 4 tires, without having to run the car motor, and without having to run a cord from my cig lighter to the pump. I tend to change my tire pressures a few psi up or down depending on the time of year.

This unit will not replace my Viair, for those times when I am offroading, I take 10 psi out of each tire when im on dirt and rocks… But the Viair requires running the motor, and clamping direct to the battery. Not very motivating when I just want a couple psi more air, to fine tune the ride of the car on highway.

trivia, the pump comes with fittings to inflate a basketball and bicycle tire. They store in the base of the unit. However, the charging cord has no storage location… I put a rubber band around the body, to hold the charging cord.

I do not recommend the pump, for 2 reasons, the buttons are really difficult to use, and the air pressure gauge in the pump is off by 8 psi.

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next test pump…
I ordered this pump with a Vipon coupon for $22
CODE:LNNJ-GUWJXH-4YW5AS

Im hoping the pressure gauge is more accurate, and the buttons easier to use.

I have one of those and a model 88 and a 300 as well. They all work when asked to work, but have different capabilities.

What do you need the pump to do?

Note that these pumps will all have a duty cycle and that info may not be easy to find. I need/want to be able to reliably re-inflate four 32x11.5 tires from 8 or 9 PSI to 25 PSI and don’t want to have to wait for the pump to cool in the middle of the process.

Thanks for your impressions, Jonathan. I just received mine. I plugged it in to charge. It was showing 78 … then after about 10 mins, I checked and it was showing 76! Weird. Well, another 10 mins later, and it was at 79. Within 2 hours it was at 100.

I went to test operate it without attaching. TERRIBLE UI. The light was the only thing that worked OK. I experimented with the modes, set pressure levels… then tried to turn it off. I could not get the LED display to go off. I kept activating the pump. Finally, I pressed and held the power button “just the right way” and got the display to go off. When in pump mode, it wasn’t bad for noise level, but it didn’t feel like it was delivering a very strong burst of air. I’m going to test it out on tires tomorrow. Frankly though, I’m going to see about an Amazon return. I’m not happy with this.

EDIT: Even MORE unhappy with this one. The LED is faint… and that’s fine for night. But daylight use? IMPOSSIBLE to see the menu. Total joke. LCD is the way to go…

Try this:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006JG5BDA/ref=twister_B01N5OAUML?\_encoding=UTF8&th=1

Thanks. That’s a more conventional design. Wired. Analog gauge. $36 is too much. But it spiked up with interest from this link, I think… because resting price was about $28 just prior and for the past year. Put a Camelizer watch on for $28 and it should sink back fairly soon. The next model up is just a few bucks more and it has a programmable feature, despite the analog display, for auto-shutoff at a selected PSI. But a good bit larger in size.

…and a perfect stoichiometric air/fuel mix in your tires. :laughing:

I received my 2nd air pump (the first was sent back, because the display was unreadable in moderate daylight). It’s actually just a little wider and heavier than the first one.

The LCD display is READABLE. This was a major deficit with the previous one. The menu is a little more intuitive, although “R” for turning on the light makes me think of the “R” sound in place of “L”, common with Chinese folks not fluent in English. Oddly, when you plug in to charge the pump, there’s no light indication on it at all. It’s on the cable USB-A plug! The LED illuminates as red while charging, then turns green when done. The 6000mAh battery showed 3 bars out of 4 out of the box… but charging took about 6 hours. I hope that’s not much longer when charging from one power bar indication.

The pump motor seems to be stronger. It’s definitely louder, perhaps by about 50%. It seems to work just slightly faster than the other pump.

A couple of key advantages in addition to the LED and menu: The air hose is more than twice as long and it also stows in the bottom. The pump can operate from internal battery or 12V cord, also stowed below. The switch has 3 positions 12V-OFF-BATTERY. The built-in light is brighter, and the strobe is faster. It has a soft plastic handle for easy carry.

What I don’t like: The bottom storage area rather sucks. It’s just an open socket, no guidance flanges for cords or items. If you don’t use the 12V cord, it’s fairly easy to manage. But if the 12V cord must be used, you have to roll it up tightly. While there’s no dedicated hatch for the accessories, the ziplock bag can stow inside, tucked partly under the 12V cord so it won’t fall out. The valve attach point is not a screw-type. It’s a clamp. And unfortunately, the clamp feels cheap. I don’t know how long it’s going to hold up. The braided air hose runs inside the casing—no exposed detachment point, as with the other pump. I really would have preferred a screw type adapter instead of a clamp type.

The build quality is OK. Not super rugged. I suspect the plastic casing will get scuffed/scratched easily falling onto pavement. But the boxy design makes it very stable. It’s a small enough size to stow away fairly easily. Anyway, I’ll report back after putting it to the test.

> The pump can operate from internal battery or 12V cord

that is a good dual power option
thanks for your comments

I was under the impression that most 12v pumps under $50 run hot and take a long time to pump up the tire after reading a few reviews? I too am looking for one but it seems that one has to live with these pitfalls from a 12v pump. I can wait but seems to be a necessary evil from these 12v pumps.

I try to not spend over 20bux for a pump, and they always lasted quite a long time. No frills, no gauges, etc., and they just work when I need them, thankfully rarely.

The pænultimate one I got does have a built-in gauge which is pretty accurate (within 1psi or so, per my nifty GHMeiser gauge), can inflate even a flat tire in one shot (and top off the rest). I tend to keep that at home, though, as a backup.

The one in the car is https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078YS9VG9/ which is a combo vacuum/inflator that I viponned for 17-18bux or so. Works nicely for both functions.

Zero complaints for either.

I had one ages ago that I got at Pep Boys, mightta been a Red Devil or some name like that, which was by all accounts a junk inflator that looked like a car2n motorcycle engine, but you couldn’t kill that thing. It’d run ’til it was scorching hot and never failed. Even the braided hose would get too hot to touch. Got it for 10bux back then. Shouldda gotten 3-4 at that price. I’d still only be on #2 or maybe #3 at that rate.

Don’t recall what finally killed it, think something with the power cord, as it just went dead for no reason, and I never bothered to open it up to try to fix it.

The two Harbor Freight stores local to me have the 100psi pump that was in the video, in stock.

My ViAir 88P is a little more money than your price limit, but it is a fast pumping workhorse. It’s head and shoulders above any pump I’d previously had, and I carry it in the back of the SUV 24/7/365. Bought it 4 years ago, added an extra length of hose so I can reach the trailer tires, and it’s been rock solid dependable. My DS (a mechanical engineer) was impressed by it when I bailed him out of a flat tire one time, so I bought him one as a gift, too.

You’re welcome, Jonathan.

I bought a rather inexpensive 12v corded pump around 1999. I think it was something like $19, from Pep Boys. That thing was a champ. It was LOUD, but it worked. I’d lost attached feet on it a few times and had to glue on replacements. The original label fell off so I’ve no clue of the brand (not stamped anywhere). It got very gouged and scratched over time, but it kept pumping. About 10 PSI would take about 8~10 mins for a car tire (faster for a bicycle tire). And yeah, it could get hot. The only thing that failed is the clamp socket. It just won’t hold any longer. And I figured it was time to upgrade. NONE of these small pumps are designed to inflate a car tire from flat in one shot. But, in stages, it can be done. They’re really meant for topping off. Sometimes you end up with a slow leak tire. Or wild temperature swings that can cause air to compress and lose pressure. These are ideal for that, instead of paying $1~$2 for 2 minutes of air at the gas station air pump.

I would not go with battery only for emergency car use. That’s why I like this other one I got, with dual power sources. I plan to run it through its paces this weekend and see how it fares. But so far I’m liking it over the first portable one I’d bought (and then returned).

Incidentally, Amazon is showing a $10 off coupon that you click on in the detail page before adding to cart, so it can be had for $29.99 shipped in USA (that’s $6 cheaper than when I bought it).

Hilarious. I think that’s the one I bought at Pep Boys too. “Red Devil.” Long discontinued (Pep Boys deals with “Slime” brand pumps now). Yep, sounded like a 2 stroke motorcycle engine. I remember nearly burning my fingers on the braided hose metal ring. I thought it was close to $20. Mine still runs—just can’t keep it clamped on the valve any longer. If I could crimp on a replacement hose with a screw end, that would do the trick… but for the parts price & hassle… likely not worth it.

Actually I like the Ryobi one also, this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Function-Inflator-P747-Non-Retail-Packaging/dp/B081GBXWYT

…although I actually got mine at Home Depot on sale for a similar price. I have an entire ONE+ series of tools so I just move batteries around. It does screw on as someone mentioned further up.

Whatever you do, don’t bother with this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Ryobi-P737-Portable-Cordless-Inflator/dp/B017JIWT9U
it works, but it’s slow and gets hot as a mofo.

That does look like a pretty solid and well designed pump. I’ll keep that in mind if the present one I just got doesn’t work out—Thanks.

If it’s the one that had 2 “legs” that would slide out from tucked-in to straight-out, that’s probably the one.

Damned thing would vibrate so hard it’d “walk” around the tire if you’d let it off its leash.

I’m pretty sure I got mine for 10bux as I even debated back then whether/not I should get more.

Might’ve already been discontinued or just on a slash-sale or whatever. Been forever.

Ahh… Yes, In the time of fuel injection…
The pump had a lower intake pressure than the cylinder so it pulled in outside air in from a series of openings on the pump.
In the time before all the cheap electric pumps, this, some fix a flat cans, and one of those tire plug kits saved me some grief.
I had a spare tire, but if I had the time and ability to patch the main tire - I always did that.
I often used to camp alone off in the wild yonder. Always kept a good set of tools and spares.

All the Best,
Jeff

I actually have one of those slow leaks at one car tire. It’s a 1-1/2 week kinda slow leak. :smiley: I also have one of the E-Scooter tires that I need to pump up every week or so. I already patched it twice now. Anyways, a 12v compressor is using maybe 0.5A so it’s not gonna go super fast. Therefore I can live with the fact that it takes a little longer.

Another air pump tested, purchased with a Vipon coupon for $22
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08ZN9KJ92/

I aired up two tires from 32psi to 40 psi. This resulted in a pressure of 38 psi.

Pros
small, compact
the clamp on air hose works well
The buttons have good click feedback.
The unit has auto shut off at a set pressure
The unit displays accurate tire pressure when the pump is stopped.
The PSI indication is accurate when the unit is off.

Cons
Air line is very short, I had to hold the pump in my hand to keep it from rattling against the wheel.
There is no battery level indicator.
The unit will not stand up on its own, there is no flat bottom.
The buttons are black and the markings on them are hard to see.
Seems a bit louder than the previous pump I tested.
No option to power the unit from the car lighter socket.
Though indicated PSI is accurate when off, the unit undershoots the shutoff pressure by 2psi.

defect:
One of the LED numeric indicators does not light up, so a 9 looks like a 7.

Conclusion.
works well for topping off a few psi and to make the tire pressures equal on all four wheels.

I am returning the unit because

  1. there is no battery level indicator,
  2. will not stand on its own, the design is intended to be handheld while pumping.
  3. not dual power, battery only, no car lighter socket option.
  4. a defective display LED

I agree Viair makes great pumps. I have the 300P model. It is big, heavy, powerful, and I have to run the motor of the car to use it.

It was for use when I had a 4WD vehicle with 31” tires, that went offroad and after offroading, needed to air up each tire by 20psi.

For me, these small, inexpensive pumps with Internal Battery, are meant to replace my Viair, so I have the Option Not to run the car motor to air up a tire. This is for a Subaru Car, not an offroad 4WD vehicle. At most it would be used to air up each tire by 10psi.

That is still a tall order, and may create enough heat in the pump, that it will thermal shut down before the total of 40psi is delivered. Will report back when the pump I just ordered arrives. I chose the one xevious says works both on battery and on cig lighter socket if needed:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08XW3PT8T
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