Tire Inflators

[leehljp]

Do you use tire inflator that you carry in your car or truck? I'm checking to see what might be the best overall. The one I have found that works best and easiest for me so far is the newer Ryobi 18V,

Although I have a shop air compressor with a long recoil hose, I have used a few different portable/cordless inflators over the years in my vehicles. But in the past 2 years, I have purchased 4 of the Ryobi inflators seen here: https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-ON...001B/327406129

I purchased one for me first, and then one for LOML's car and then one for one daughter, and then purchased one for a second daughter. I really like this version of Ryobi's since I can set the pressure on the gauge and it inflates to that number and stops. I have checked the pressure with a JACO pressure gauge and the Ryobi has only been off by a single PSI so far.

Your Inflator of choice?

[LCHIEN]

I've got some cheap 12V inflator that plugs into the cigarette lighter plug. Haven't used it for years. I just run a 50 ft PU air hose to the car from the garage pancake compressor and inflates very fast.

I imagine an 18V cordless one doesn't inflate a whole lot faster than my 12V unit... very slow.

The PU hose combo gives me a PSI per second, If its 3 PSI low I give it 3 seconds and then fine tune it from there.
Even with an auto set the 18V unit is still probably slow.
I laugh at the Bulls Eye lithium inflator TV ads showing them topping off a completely flat tire in a few seconds.

[Holbren]

I have both a cigarette lighter plugin one and the Ryobi 18V. I bought the 12V from Giraffe when I was buying a 130' retractable hose, they had the inflators on special so I bought a few to use and give away. The 12V one is what I leave in the truck because I have use for the Ryobi around the garage and I'm not tying up one of my batteries in the vehicle. They both work and only thing I'll say for the 12V version is it seems to overheat quicker. Don't think you're going nonstop inflating 4 tires that are completely flat. Need to bump up a few pounds because it got cold or a slow leak, no problem.

[leehljp]

I know that the old 12 cigarette plug inflators were slow; and previous Ryobi 18V were somewhat slow, but this new one is fairly fast for a cordless, and accurate at that.

I like to keep my tires at 35 psi usually at 95°, but on cool mornings and low 80's for the high, they drop down to 30/31 in the early morning, and my sensing unit comes on until a solid 32 psi is reached as the tire heats up from travel. Even in cold winter when the temperatures drop down into the mid to low teens, I have to pump them up from about 21/22 to 35 psi.

This pump does each tire in less than a minute and cuts off at the right psi. My TACO pressure gauge confirms that it is within one psi of its reading.

I should say, that the primary purpose of this is NOT for home but when on the road. I have helped more people with mine than I have used for myself.

[cwsmith]

I've been using an old Black and Decker for decades now.

It has a black, toolbox-like case and plugs into my cigarette lighter receptacle. It's been quite depandable, inflates within a few minutes.

A year or so ago, I bought a Harbor Freight unit that came in a nice storage bag. Upon purchase I tried it and it worked well. I kept it in my van, and last winter I went to use if for the first time and the plastic hose was so stiff that it broke off instantly. Out of warranty!

But unless I'm out on the road, I use my little "hot dog" Craftsman portable. I have to plug it in of course, and I primarily purchased it for my nailer and other shop tools. It's not a 'pancake', but a 2-gallon lubricated unit with two outlets, gauge, etc.

CWS

[dbhost]

I have a cheap 12v inflator that I got at Walmart years ago and honestly hate it. Planning on a Ryobi One+ inflator as it would use the same battery as my onboard vacuum and chain saw in the camper...

[twistsol]

I carried a Craftsman 12v corded inflator in my car when I was in college. It was OK for bike tires but far too slow to do anything for the car. The only flat tire I've had this century, was on my wife's Volvo last summer and a piece of rebar went through the sidewall so it wouldn't have been of any use. I might need to look into one again for bikes and keep it in the truck for when we head to the trails.

I have a pancake compressor in the garage and check tire pressure frequently particularly in the winter when temps drop below zero and tire pressure drops accordingly.

[LCHIEN]

this SDZ post I posted a chart of how car tire presures vary with temperatures. approx every 12 deg F makes a PSI difference.

https://www.sawdustzone.org/forum/di...ature-my-chart

[Jim Frye]

I have an older Ryobi 18 volt One+ inflator. It’s a hyper green unit, but old enough not to have a digital gauge. Works just fine and even the 4 ahr batteries last quite a long tome when just topping up tires on the cars.

[leehljp]

I had those for LOML, myself and my single daughter. I used a gauge to figure out how much was in the tires, but my wife and my daughter didn't. The NEW rectangular digital is also confusing to my wife, but my daughter figured it out and likes it. It, and the one you have (which I used often in helping people and myself) are much faster at airing up than the older cheaper plug ins that you have to wait 10 minutes or so. MY experience with the older Ryobi and even better wth the new one is that it takes about 2 minutes at the longest to air up a car tire from almost flat on the ground to 32 psi. The new digital cuts off at the psi that I set before airing up, but upon checking with my particular unit is that it is about 1 psi below what my stand alone gauge shows, so at least it is consistent.

[Jim Frye]

Mine reads two psi low and always has, so I inflate to 2 psi over and remove the chuck while the pump is still running.

[capncarl]

I purchased a couple of YaberAuto 8000 amp 160 psi portable jump starter/tire inflator for our autos. I have used the inflators several times on each vehicle. None were flat but my truck sets unused quite a bit so it was in 20 psi range. Not much more than a minute per tire, just set max pressure and it shuts off. And I didn’t have to drag the air hose around or move the car/truck. The jump starter was awsome, where I left the hood open overnight after checking the oil and the hood light drained the battery dead. It started like a new battery! I had to jump off my 25hp zero turn, 5yr old factory battery, it spun the starter like it a jet starter. I’m sold on the larger amp portable jump starters vrs the older low amp ones.
I really liked my old Craftsman lunch box size portable jump starter, it had 120 volt inverter that enabled me to run a DigiQ temperature controller and 120 v lights on the Big Green Egg for overnight cooks. It had a replaceable sealed gel battery that lasted 6 years and cost as much as 2 new lithium battery jump starters. It was too big and heavy to keep in the car anyway.

[capncarl]

I believe that most people on this site do realize the importance of proper tire pressure and maybe they actually check the pressure occasionally, even if the tire doesn’t look like it’s going flat. A lot of people that I talk cars to don’t realize that tires naturally lose about 1 PSI every month due to permeation through the rubber. Or that tire pressure drops 1 PSI for every 10-degree Fahrenheit decrease in ambient temperature. This means a tire set exactly to 32 PSI in September could easily drop to a dangerous 26 PSI by December, they probably think that the little red tire low symbol on the dashboard will tell them when to add some air to a tire. The tire pressure monitor on my Honda does not actually monitor tire pressure, it compares wheel speed differences and “thinks” that a low pressure tire has smaller circumference, thus turns slower, or something like that.

[Jim Frye]

My 2013 Civic will trigger the TPM light at exactly 27 psi. Has done so since new. I had an alloy wheel that had a leaky valve body and it would alarm about every 30 days even though I check the tires and fluids on the first of the month. Finally fixed the issue when I had new valves installed with a new set of tires.