My car’s tires recently registered as under-inflated in the cold weather. My hand bike pump does not affix to the valve stems, so I am looking for a portable compressor.
I borrowed my BIL’s old Craftsman, and it seemed perfect for my needs. It was small - easily held in 1 hand, no more than a couple of pounds, plug in, corded, mostly made of metal …. It did not have a tank. Of course, they don’t seem to make anything resembling that today. It seems that what is available today are either very small rechargeables or ones with hotdog or pancake tanks.
It seemed to do the job. But it was very loud, slow, impressed me as underpowered, the battery charge was used up topping off all 4 tires, and was mostly plastic. Sure did not seem durable.
Looking on-line, the corded versions I see have either hotdog or pancake tanks. Much larger and heavier than my BIL’s. I suspect they would be loud, and might require the tank to re-pressurize when using.
My preference is for something very much like what I borrowed from my BIL - but I can’t find anything even close to it. Wondering if you might have any ideas. Note: the ONLY thing I want this for is the occasional topping off of car tires. My preferences are small, durable, and corded.
I have several Milwaukee battery powered tools and find their M18 compressor to work very well. You can set the pressure and press the button. It will fill to that pressure and shut off. I had the M12, 12 volt, version and it did not work nearly as well.
I also have several large tank type compressors, but this is my go to for topping up and inflating tires.
I did add a lever actuated locking chuck which is really nice.
I’ve got a VIAIR 85P that works well. The screw-on chuck and the somewhat inaccurate pressure gauge are the major negatives, but the pump itself works great.
I also have a wireless jump starter/air compressor with automatic shutoff, but I usually just use the VIAIR for the tires.
I keep one of these in each of our cars. They work well, just plug into the 12V port that every car has, top off the tires, and go. There are myriad versions of these of various quality, but I haven’t had any issues with this brand.
I have the ones like @DCnDC and @Dorjan , different brand, but still just a 12V plug into the port type model. Plenty of juice, though loud, but does a good job.
Most cordless tool lines have a compressor. If you have cordless tools already, check out the compatible compressor. I have a Ryobi compressor that’s shaped like a drill and it works great. The battery lasts a long time. And if it runs out, no problem. I have a few batteries I can swap in. I know you said you preferred corded, but the cordless ones are pretty good. And it’s easier to inflate tires when you don’t have to deal with cords.
I know you said you wanted one with one-handed operation, but one disadvantage of that is having to stand there the whole time. My handheld compressor is loud and it takes a while to fill up a tire. I ended up using a rubber band to hold down the trigger so I wouldn’t have to be right there. If I were to do it again, I’d get one like this:
You can set the desired pressure and it will stop when it reaches it. You don’t have to stand right there listening to a loud compressor.
That looks very much like my BIL’s - except for the need to plug into the car, rather than a wall socket.
Great idea. Unfortunately, we have gone Ego. But I’m seeing one “coming soon.”
If. You. Read. The. OP. You. Will. See. That. It. Is. An. Old. Craftsman. Model. Which. I. Tried. To. Describe.
Why the formatting?
At the moment, I can imagine sticking with the rechargeable we have. It only cost $70. It worked once, and I can imagine hanging on to it and hoping it works when we need it next. That saves the (admittedly minimal) cost involved in returning it, as well as the cost of continuing to search for something better, when it does not appear that what I prefer is available. Maybe ask my BIL to leave me his old compressor in his will!
We just had a raffle at work this week; from the practical side, I wanted to win the Cat jumpbox/tire compressor which can help you out in more ways than inflating a low tire.
Many years ago I worked for a large company (low teens-thousands employees); they gave out these very nice etched Christmas tree ornaments. Even at only $5 per, you’re talking in the neighborhood of $70,000; IOW, someone senior had to signoff on that purchase amount. The problem was, anyone who doesn’t put up a Christmas tree had absolutely no use for it, & that’s before those that do celebrate but don’t want work at their family/religious events. A couple of people literally screamed at HR & many people returned them as insensitive. In an effort to do better the next year they sent out a catalog allowing you to pick your own $15-$20 tchotchke. I chose the plug-in-to-the-cigarette-lighter tire inflator. A couple of months later I have a low tire at home. Great, I can fix that here & not need to drive somewhere to put air in. I pull it out, hook it to the tire & plug it in. It was such a worthless POS that instead of inflating the tire it deflated it because it didn’t have enough power to push air in but it was depressing the plunger in the Schrader valve thereby letting air out of the tire. Two years of failed gifts!
As noted above, there are dozens of brands and qualities to choose from. Mine lives in the trunk of my car. Nothing more fun than returning from a multi-day trip to find a tire too low to safely drive home.
The Lithium-Ion battery really changes the game on rechargeable tools. Stringing an extension cord and the hose then wrapping everything back up again after your done is a part of the task I could do without.
Last year for Christmas, I received a Fanttik S100 Apex. You set the pressure and press start. There is no need to hold the button. It vibrates enough that you need to hold it. A year later, it took about a minute for each tire to add five pounds on the SO’s Rav4. The battery indicator went from full at four bars to three during the third tire.
Those small, portable inflators will be pretty weak, but they may help out in an emergency. If you’re considering one of those, get one that is also a jump starter. For instance:
With these kinds of devices, you get what you pay for. Really cheap ones may not be able to do the job when you need one. If you’re getting a device like this to have in the car to help when you’re stranded, make sure you get one that will actually be able to perform when you need it to.
Yeah - I guess this is just another example of how out of touch I am. For me, my preference would be corded, for use in my garage. I have several outlets in my garage, so all I’d need is a 20 foot or so cord. Takes all of 30 seconds to plug in and extend and another 30 secs to coil up. Can keep one handy in the garage.
Modern batterys are impressive, but I have already had issues with the one for my mower - and replacements aren’t cheap. Batterys are definitely the way to go in many circumstances/situations. But for reliable use in my garage, not sure a cord can be beat.
And I’ve let this thread get this far along without commenting on how the elimination of free air at nearly every gas station is a sign of the downfall of civilization!
The Project Farm guy just did a review of portable tire pumps two weeks ago. His top three picks are linked below.
There are tradeoffs with all of them. None of these are as fast as a good quality pancake air compressor, but they are much more portable. A big question is what your use case is. Do you need to add a bit of air when the temperature drops, and keep some bike tires inflated, or are you mounting your own snow tires, and need to fill them from flat?
For adding a few pounds, and small tires, the battery powered portable ones can be very convenient, and being slow isn’t an issue. If you routinely have to fill car tires from flat, then get a big compressor.
That looks like what I have. Plugs into what we used to call the cigarette lighter. You just set the desired pressure and screw the hose onto the tire valve and just wait for the thing to stop filling the tire.
