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

Off-topic Chatter
50

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
51

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
.

52

OK, my update on this pump:

JOY!

It works well! And reasonably fast. My “50% louder” claim above was exaggerated. It’s really only slightly louder than the previous pump. I deflated one tire to 10 psi low, then refilled it. Did it in just about 90 seconds. Pump body was barely warm, and the air hose only moderately warm. Color me pleasantly surprised.

I double-checked the PSI detection compared to my SLIME air gauge. Reading is only 0.1 ~ 0.2 PSI over actual, compared to the 0.7 ~ 1.5 PSI over actual discrepancy of the previous pump.

So it’s fast, not too loud, and VERY stable. Does not jump around. Plus, the LED light is reasonably bright (not enough for a walk, but good enough to illuminate for an inflation or tire change task.

No, there’s no “car, bicycle, basketball” mode, but changing the PSI setting is quick & easy. Definitely not returning this pump. I think I’m done for now. :sunglasses:

53

Yay!
Thanks for you detailed feedback.
I dont mind specifying the inflation target, dont need a preset for basketballs, bikes, and cars.

I have the same pump ordered.

when you pumped for 90 seconds, how many total PSI did that deliver. (I dont know what your target PSI is for your tires…)

54

You’re welcome. I mentioned that I lowered my tire to 10 psi below its normal pressure, so that was the amount I inflated in about 90 seconds. But I’ve tested it again just to be sure, timed it with a stopwatch. My car tire pressure went from 26 PSI to 36 PSI in exactly 100 seconds. Body of pump barely got warm. Braided hose was fairly warm. Nothing hot.

55

excellent data

when my unit arrives I will do that test Four Times in a row, as that would be my actual intended use case scenario.

If the new pump can handle that task, it will let me reduce Cargo by removing the much larger and heavier Viair kit, that includes a loooong airhose, plus battery clamp wiring, and requires running the motor.

the new tech battery powered pumps have auto shut off… thats a big plus

not having to run the car motor is also a big plus for me

56

There is a $10 off coupon right now, so $29.99.

57

^ It’s a very good value considering what else is out there and respective pricing.

Yeah, for my previous corded air pump, I’d have to use a 12V socket in the armrest console, hit front/back of one side, then pass the pump through the cabin to the other side to do the other two. VERY nice not having to deal with a cord, and… if by some chance the battery is low, the 12V power cord is a fantastic backup. The other thing is, the backlit LCD is so very visible in any light. Frankly, the engineer who designed the previous air pump we tried (silver cylindrical shape with LED display) should’ve suffered a reduction in pay for that hugely glaring mistake. Obviously no one did any real world testing of the pump before putting into full production.

58

I just got the same pump and tested it

dropped a tire by 15 psi and pumped it back up. Did not time it.
My handheld tire pressure gauge said the tire was at 40psi and I dropped it to 25psi… the airpump said that was 18psi.

I then set the pump to stop at 36psi, it stopped at 36.5, and that measured 43psi on my tire gauge… the gauge on the tire inflator reads low by 7psi…

—

likes
the pump is rather quiet
the hose is long enough to easily reach the tire valve
the unit stands stable on the ground
the auto stop works great
love the battery operated feature, super convenient not to run power cords and not to run the motor.
there is a lighter cord coiled into the bottom of the unit and the hose also fits in that gap… convenient storage.

—

room for improvement:
the pressure gauge in the unit reads 7 psi low
the hose got hot after 15psi, and battery dropped to 1bar

—

When I did the test I had not fully charged the battery, though it was at 4 bars.

Immediately after the test it had dropped to 1 bar and a few minutes later it had rebounded to 2 bars.

Although I has originally considered doing a total of 40psi inflation test, I did not contiue the test after 15psi, to avoid overheating and overdischarge… I waited 1 hour for the unit to cool down, then plugged in to charge

Im not sure it is realistic to expect this little pump to put out a total of 40psi, without a recharge or at least a cooling break.

I like it and want to keep it, just for the convenience of adjusting my tires by 5psi, if not 10.

Am wondering if I should ask for a replacement with a more accurate PSI gauge?

@xevious is your tire pump PSI meter reasonably accurate?

59

Please note that you need to fully charge the battery fully before using.

I think there may be a “recalibration” necessary for the charge indicator by fully charging. When I got mine it was showing 3 bars. It took 8 hours to achieve the 4th bar. The whole pump shouldn’t take more than 10 hours to charge from depleted. In any case, I used my pump a few times now. Still showing 4 bars.

As for accuracy, mine tends to show 1 ~ 2 PSI above actual. It does this pretty consistently. So when I pump, I just add a couple PSI for good measure. I normally do this anyway with other pumps as I know detaching and manually checking air levels can lose about 1 PSI.

I would be unhappy with a full 7 PSI off. That’s too much. I’d see about a replacement. You might want to try your luck at ordering a 2nd one, then if it’s more accurate, just return the previous one.

60

Just an alternative… If you’re primarily topping off tires on sedans or motorcycles, a high quality bicycle pump is pretty quick and doesn’t have much to break.

I’m not talking about the Wmt special pump, I’m talking about the large, relatively expensive pumps by specialty brands that are meant to put high pressure into those road race bikes. I had two (can’t find one after moving twice), and the one I didn’t misplace is still going strong after 20 some years. If I remember tomorrow I’ll check the brand name of the one I still have/use.

I don’t recommend them for truck tires, but for tires on sedans it takes me about 10 pumps for 1 psi. when I’m going from 27 to 33 psi. Even quicker on motorcycle tires.

I did try one that I bought at Wmt (I think it was a Schwinn), and I gave it away after trying it on one tire it was so bad.

61

That reminds me… I do have a mini bicycle tire pump stashed in my spare wheel well. It’s just in case my main pump is missing or non-functional. Can do the job while also providing good exercise.

62

I just received a second Avid Cube pump.
The inflation pressure gauge reads 34.5

My first Avid Cube pump is almost identical, it reads 35psi

my handheld tire pressure gauge reads 41psi

It did take many hours to fully charge the first Avid pump… Im returning the second one.

At some point I will go test the Avid pump im keeping, and will find out if it is capable of airing up 4 tires by 10 psi each, without overheating.

thanks to all who contributed, to help spend money… lol
and for sharing your experiences

63

Sorry to hear of the disappointment. Interesting how the askew reading is consistent among 1st & 2nd purchases. I guess with these things, there’s a lot of “luck of the draw.” At least Amazon has unencumbered return processes. I’ll try putting mine through more challenging paces and see how it handles the load, then report back.

Frankly, for the price paid it’s not bad. But I would’ve paid double for the same air pump (design/size/performance) with more robust build quality, weight, and warranty.

64

its all good
I dont expect perfection from a cheap plastic pump

I think the only warranty is if it fails in the first 30 days… I can return it

so it is important to me, to do a thorough test promptly… just to know if it can handle pumping 40 psi total, in one sitting, without melting… LOL

65

update
I went softroading, dropped tire pressure by 13psi, and had a great time.

I used the Avid Cube inflator, on battery power to air up 3 of the tires. They took about 4 minutes each. The battery was showing 1 bar remaining. I decided to use the cig lighter cord for the last tire (with car motor running). It also worked great.

It was 60F outside, and the pump did not feel like it was overheated. Im quite impressed and happy to own the unit.

There were a couple of glitches.

  1. The unit kept shutting off after a couple of seconds. I learned that was caused by my failure to push the pump conne ction far enought onto the tire valve stem.

3. On the 3rd tire, the hose blew off the valve stem clamp on the pump. This started blowing the air out of the tire really fast. But, I was there watching.

Managed to push the air hose back onto the fitting, and completed inflating the 3rd and 4th tires without drama.

When I got home, I plugged the airpump into its charging cord and it took about 6 hours for the charge indicator to turn green.

Im keeping the little Avid Cube pump…
Recommended

66

^ Thanks for the update, Jonathan. I haven’t had any mounting issues with mine. Clamping onto the value works well, doesn’t pop off. I still find the clamp is a little cheap feeling, but hopefully it’ll hold up for the long haul.

.

I deflated each of the 4 tires I have by around 12 PSI. After the inflating the 2nd tire, the pump started to feel a bit warm, the air hose a little hot near the entry point into the pump. By that point, it was showing 3 bars. Inflating the 3rd tire showed 2 bars and the pump got warmer. A few moments after it was done, the power level went back up to 3 bars. I went right to the 4th tire, no waiting, and about 50% of inflation, the pump did an auto shut-off. The air hose near the exit of the pump was really hot, almost too much to continue touching for a few seconds. I waited 5 mins, then continued pumping. It finished no problem. 2 bars.

I did notice that as the pump got warmer, it became less accurate in showing PSI. Whereas when cool it showed more PSI than actual, gradually as it got warmer it became parity, and then started showing fewer PSI than actual… by about 3 PSI.

So overall, I felt good about the experiment. Given the duty I just put it through, It was comforting to see that it still had 2 bars of power left.

Stupid me, I forgot to bring with me the power cord for recharging it. Annoying that it doesn’t have a USB-C connector. Well, at least the 12V cigarette lighter socket cord can be used in a pinch for inflation. Pity that it doesn’t have a mode whereby you can utilize the 12V for recharging.

67

yes, car charging would be good

I have not tried but my guess is the USB charger cord would work in a car USB also…

but it takes a really long time…

fwiw, it was not the air hose clamp that blew off the tire valve, that stayed on… it was the actual hose that blew off the clamp… which meant the tire was blowing out all the air I had just pumped in… really fast

but I still really like the pump
this morning I used it to just match up a couple tires by a couple of psi… really easy and convenient :+1:

68

Whoa… so where the hose mates to the valve clamp—it came right off? How hard was it to reattach it?

69

This post when it came out got me interested in one. So I’ve been reading Amazon reviews a day here and there for the last week or so. What I get so far is…. “Got so hot, burned my finger”, “Can’t even blow up a soccer ball”, “Took forever to go from 28-32psi, “Shrader valve fell off” etc. So I guess I’ll keep reading till I find a good decent one. :smiley: