OTOH, the replacement of coin-op air with tap-and-pay air has been a real boon to society. Now you can be 99% sure the damned thing will work.
As mentioned upthread I carry a 12v inflator in the car. For as low as my tires get before the car warns me, the whole process is a minute plus to get it out & hook it up, 3-5 minutes pumping, and a minute to unhook everything and put it away.
A couple weeks ago I had the car warn me of a low tire (very very slow leaker) when I was about 40 miles from home. And it’s 85F & sunny that day. Sigh; gotta do it now outdoors, not at home in the shade after a 40 mile drive on the freeway with a low tire.
Spied a gas station, pulled in and noticed they had a nice new-ish pay-to-inflate device. Tapped my CC, paid my $2, spent 2 minutes outside in the heat not 6, and felt pleased with that decision.
You’re a fan of convenience much as I am. The inflator is great in an airport parking lot. Plenty of gas stations around here have reliable higher volume and higher pressure air than my inflator. Just not free air.
If you park outside, in a place that actually has four distinct seasons & don’t use it for five years it’s not necessarily the equipment’s fault when it’s dead when you go to use it for the first time. Pull it out of the trunk at least when you do your annual inspection &/or registration & make sure it works & has a full charge before putting it back; that couple of minutes of maintenance could save your bacon when you eventually need it.
Just like to point out that Sheetz (convenience store chain) has free air. Most Costcos with tire centers have free air. I don’t have a recommendation, my garage pump clips onto the battery terminals and is from the 1980s. Still works.
Wawa & QuickChek (also convenience store chains) do, too. I’m guessing there are others as well because anything driving you to their property is a chance to make a sale on other stuff.
I use one of the corded ones that plug into the cigarette socket. I got given it when someone died. It was old even then. I’ve repaired the cord and plug a couple of times. They are made in in Far East under numerous names.
Never has one of those little 12V jobs worked for me. They must be improving them.
For myself, I stick with the real deal. A 120V tank compresor. But I have other air tools so I need it anyway. And I use it to blow out my sprinkler system.
I was coming back this morning to make this point / ask this question of the OP and here you are. Great intro! Thank you.
A “tire inflator” is a different device with a different and much more limited mission versus an “air compressor”. The OP is talking about “air compressors” but his mission seems to be limited to inflating tires. So which is it really?
IMO …
If it’s tire inflation you want, then get a dedicated device for that purpose which you can use away from home. So one that runs from an integral battery or 12V car power.
If power tools, sprinkler clear out, spray painting, dust blasting, etc., is in your mission set, then get the air compressor sized (both CFM throughput and max pressure) for that. Then tire inflation comes along for free. At least at home.
IMO / IME (sadly) what works least well is buying something like a 120V pancake compressor that isn’t strong enough for non-tire uses, but isn’t optimized for tire inflation either. And isn’t useable except in your garage.
Most tank compressors will leak down if not used for a couple months. So you break out your pancake and notice the tank pressure is 10psi. Now it needs to run for several minutes to get the tank pressure above 35 so you can begin to slowly inflate your car tire to e.g. 32psi. Not convenient at all versus a tankless tire inflator. The tank is a liability, not an asset.
Fancy! Yours has a pressure setting? Mine’s just got a janky dial gauge. Of course, mine’s the Wal-mart Campbell Hausfeld branded version that’s probably 20 years old by now.
I only use it for situations where I’m not near a gas station or at home- boy scout camping trips, traveling, etc…
When I’m at home, I’ve got a small portable-ish compressor (~4 gal, 120 psi) from Harbor Freight that I use for car tires and other stuff like that. Bike tires and sports balls typically use the bike pump though; it’s a lot easier and faster to use it.
I got a nice one from Auto Zone that works off the car battery, can fit inside a shoe box, but yet has the power to pump up your tire before you freeze to death waiting. It’s a good balance between size, cost, and performance.
I guess I could do worse than being confused w/ enipla…
Apologies for using incorrect terminology in my thread title. The ONLY function I am interested in is tire inflation.
GOnna see my BIL on Sunday and will discuss this. You all have certainly given me plenty to think about. If I had to pull the trigger today, I’d likely buy one of the NOS Craftsman inflaters from ebay (link above).
I’ve had a couple of the ‘tire only’ 12V inflaters. They just never worked for me.
I think though that some cars come with them instead of a spare tire. OK.
But there are a lot of them around, so they must work.
I’ve got a slow leak in my right front tire right now (again). I’ll just throw a couple of pounds into it from the air compressor once a week until I can get it taken care of.
If anyone is considering a portable inflator with a self-contained battery, one feature to look for is the ability to use it as a portable USB charger. I’m not sure if the one mentioned in the OP has that feature, but others do, like this one:
The inflators which are also jump starters typically will have the ability to act as a portable charger. That can be handy when you’re out somewhere and need to be able to charge your phone when you’re walking around or whatever.
No identity confusion on my part. Sorry if I wrote that bit confusingly for you.
I’d decided earlier that I was going to return to the thread and point out the difference to you (@Dinsdale) about compressors versus inflators. And ask you about your mission so I could more accurately tailor my advice bloviating opinions.
So today I read the thread to the end and the very last post then was @enipla talking about his preference for one over the other and why. Which made a good intro to my intended post about you choosing one or the other and why.
Clear as mud yet? If not I’ll “clarify” some more.
I’m an occasional off-roader, and a portable air pump, or on-board air, is a piece of gear that’s been on my shopping list for some time (off-roaders will air down the 4 tires for better traction on the trail, then air back up when it’s time to hit the pavement). The compressors from VIAIR are well known and good quality among the off-roading groups (➜ Compressors only – Viair Corp ■ ). There are some others, like ARB (➜ Portable & Vehicle Mounted Air Compressor Systems | ARB 4x4 USA ■ ). VIAIR is an American company and ARB is Australian.
Rechargeable battery compressors are a great idea for portability, while the ideal solution is a compressor mounted either in the hood with the engine or mounted elsewhere on your rig and can inflate all 4 tires simultaneously. It’s permanently connected to the vehicle’s power. Just attach the hoses to your compressor, inflate all 4 together, then go.
For off-roaders, reliability is utmost: when you need it to work, it better work because you’ll be far from civilization. Time is a close second: how long will it take me to inflate 4 large tires from 10 PSI back up to 40, especially if I have to do this several times a trip? Study the duty cycles. The higher the better.
There’s some good information in this thread. Also over on the Expedition Portal forum, that’s a good place for info. Some of the more recent threads there discuss:
I have a small compressor that runs off the car’s 12 volt adapter, that I keep in the car. I don’t know why anyone would get one with its own battery which might be dead when you need it, since your car already has a gigantic battery. The chance of needing to inflate a tire when the car’s battery is dead seems too remote to worry about.
The (small) advantage is not needing to fumble with the power cord that attaches to a cigarette lighter auxiliary power port that is definitely not in a convenient spot in your car versus the location of any of your tires. And that may need you to leave the engine running for it to have electricity.
My own inflator is 12V plug in, and connecting and using that side of the unit is far more hassle than is the hose to tire valve stem connection.
Setting aside the risk of a dead inflator battery, and the need to periodically recharge it, an integral battery inflator would IMO be about 1/3rd the hassle to use.
The need to recharge an battery powered version makes it virtually a non-starter for those of us who would “keep it in the car just in case”. The whole point is to set it and forget it, plop it somewhere unobtrusive and break it out in an emergency, or when you need to pump up the wheelbarrow tire.
If I have one that works with my current set of power tool batteries, it’s far more convenient for the wheelbarrow or if I get a flat in my driveway. On the road, no use at all. I’m not keeping a power tool battery in my car, just cuz, and I’ll never keep a random tool powered up for that one time a year I need it.
Yeah. The other issue is that the rechargeable one I bought says not to store where hot or cold. (Actually, it has some of the worst “English translation” directions I’ve ever seen.) Over the course of a year, the interior of my car here in the Chicago area pretty much typifies “extreme heat/cold.”
Mostly agree. I have a rechargeable jump starter in my car. I’m sure it’s dead (I should look at that). But it did help when there where times that I had two choices, run 100 feet of extension cord and put a charger on, or use the portable.
And I love the new power tools with rechargeable batteries. I’ve had a drill like that for ages of course, but now the batteries for my lawn mower, my snowblower, my string trimmer and my leaf blower are all interchangeable.
I’m never with out power and there is not a gas can in sight.
