Recommendations for tyre inflator please

Hi,

The last tyre inflator I had broke on the plastic (and cr@p) bit that hooked on the valve. The petrol station I use is inconvenient for air.

Any recommendations please short of buying a "proper" air compressor?

:-) Charles

Reply to
Charles C
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If the only problem was the valve connector, they are available separately from Halfrauds.

If not, do you mean a foot-pump, or an electric inflator?

If the former, I have a Michelin one that is better than anything else I've used. The gauge is as inaccurate as all the others I've used though, and I would recommend using a separate one.

Can't help with an electric inflator; I bought mine too many years ago for a recommendation to be valid! For just topping up a couple of psi, I find the foot pump to be quicker.

Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

I think it might be long gone :-)

I meant electric, sorry. I do have a foot pump somewhere ... similar issues with clipping it on the valve AND if memory serves me right the tube was short (great fun moving the car to get the valves low enough to reach them).

Reply to
Charles C

one of my elderly customers complained that he had to pay for the air at the garage and queue, I found a free and convenient place for him to use: IKEA They have a free airline outside !!

Reply to
Mrcheerful

If you have the room, you can't beat having a 'proper compressor' and they have more uses than just blowing up the odd tyre. I used to use small portable mains powered one, then bought one of the Aldi/Lidl jobs about 7 or 8 years ago. Air from that is now plumbed around my garage and workshop with an outlet to the outside to blow the tyres up on the car - a total of around 40 tyres to be kept inflated, so well worth the effort. No waiting, no need for coins and I know my gauge is accurate.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

I've got a small on at the moment that plugs into the cigarette lighter socket. It's the "Nu Tool" brand. It's cheap and cheerful and does what it says on the tin. The gauge is not at all accurate but I have a small metal draper tool for checking the psi accurately. It does take a while to blow up the tires with this one and its very noisy but it does the job. It's small and cheap and fits nicely in the boot of my car in one of the holes securing the spare tyre under the floor.

I also have heard than the Michelin foot pumps are very good and that would be my choice as a mechanical backup. In the past I have blown the fuse using the cigarette lighter socket and its the small 15amp fuse that also takes out the CD changer and air con so I keep plenty of spare fuses in case it happens again.

There one BP service station I think on the M62/M61/M63/M6 sort of area that has those really good air pumps were you set the exact psi you want and it blows it up for you. Brilliant! And last time I was there it was free too. Some Esso and other garages charge you 50p or £1 for so many minutes of air. One place in Scotland I was at it was asking for £2 just for air. Outrageous! Should really be complimentary especially if they want you to buy their fuel and other stuff from their shops.

I'd love to know of any not too expensive (proper?) compressors either cigarette lighter or mains powered that allow you to set the exact psi you want and blow your tyres up for you automatically and don't take forever to do it. If you can recommend anything to me I'd appreciate it. Or even one of those all in one multi tool type of things for your car with battery charger/jump starter, light etc also included.

Great to know Ikea also has an air station. Is that at all Ikeas and whereabouts are they? In the car parks?

John

Reply to
John

The multi tool charger/compressor things are all very well, but the battery does die after about 2 -3 years, and is usually more than half the cost of the unit. I had a jump start only unit and cobbled a full size car battery into it, much better !! I also added a 1kw inverter to the bottom of it and now it can do almost anything. I have a separate 12v plug in compressor. I would guess that all Ikea have them, my local one has the air line at one end of the loading area at the front of the building, no big signs for it though !

Reply to
Mrcheerful

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Mrcheerful" saying something like:

Yep, the original LA batteries in them are fairly cheap units, but cheap enough to replace with better ones. Otoh, I think I might make up a pack of low self-discharge NiMHs to avoid the same happening all over again. The same pack can be used in various flashlight and cycle apps, so won't actually be sitting around unused for months on end, which killed the LA battery.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

Halfords have a deal on theirs at the moment. 3.5mins from flat apparently at something like =A332 and fully automatic.

I bought one to keep in my wife's car as piece of mind.

Cheers, Mark

Reply to
marpate1

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