Having a compact car tire inflator is a necessity in today’s world. No one has the time to go to an air filling station or wait at the queue in the fuel station to get their car’s tyres filled. This necessitates the owning of a portable tyre inflator.
What is a portable tire inflator?
A tyre inflator is a device which is used to fill air into the tyres of cars or motorcycles or footballs etc. Tire inflators are for personal use and unlike air compressors don’t have an air storing tank.
Pros
- These are portable and you can easily carry these around in your car. A tire inflator can come in handy at any point of time. So, it is wise to keep them in your car. These are very portable in today’s world and surprisingly some are even pocket sized with in-built batteries.
- Another convenient feature of the tyre inflators are that they can draw power from the car’s charging socket. This solves the problems like connecting it to your home’s socket for usage. This point also contributes towards portability as because of this feature, you can use it from your car’s power.
Portable tyre inflators can also work on battery power. Like the Tyre inflator is battery powered and you can charge it up and use it.
- The auto-cut feature ensures that you do not overinflate or underinflate the tyres. Sometimes, people also end up bursting their tyre which too is prevented with tyre inflators. You just need to set your desired air pressure and start filling the air. Upon reaching the level, the tyre inflator will shut down automatically.
- The digital or analogue tyre gauge can be used solely for checking the air pressure in your tyres. Yes! You can just plug the nozzle and it will show the current air pressure. You can then decide if you want to fill in the air. But make sure you get a good quality tire inflator otherwise the gauge will show incorrect readings.
AmazonBasics Tyre inflator was found to be extremely accurate when we cross-checked it with Michelin Digital Tyre Pressure gauge.
- A built-in torch or flashlight is helpful in dark highway sides or remote places where there is no street light. This can save you from a number of dangerous insects which may be lurking around your feet.
Cons
- Portable tyre inflators are not meant for heavy use. Many of the portable tire inflators need to take a break after 10 mins which imply that you will need to shut it down just after filling two tyres. This is time confusing especially if you are in a hurry.
- They are quite slow in filling air. Each tyre can take about 5 mins to fill and sums up to a total of 20 mins for all the tyres and considering the break you need to give it, it is terrible.
How does a tire inflator work?
The working mechanism of a tyre inflator is similar to air compressors but differs in the fact that tyre inflators don’t compress the air and store it in a tank. Instead, tyre inflators convert the electrical energy to force the air into the tyres of our cars etc.
Best tire inflators
There are two or three tyre inflators which give neck to neck competition to each other and hence announcing a winner is a hard task. Let us study about them:
Advanced option
Michelin High power tire inflator
This tyre inflator retails for around 3.1k and is quite fast which fills 0-30 PSI in just 3 mins. Now, many times your tyre pressure won’t be at 0. So, it will take just around 2 mins for each tyre which is great.
It has the usual features like any other tyre inflators like auto-cut off and LED lights. Well, not all tyre inflators have LED lights though. It also comes with a large digital display and also has a USB mobile charging system. The product is Amazon’s choice which can be considered as a token of assurance of quality.
Value for money option
Heavy Duty Bergmann Typhoon Metal Car Tyre Inflator
Bergmann’s heavy-duty car tyre inflator are cheaper and faster when compared to normal tyre inflators. It retails at around 2.3k and I think it is the best tyre inflator that this price range can buy you.
No doubt, heavy-duty tyre inflators look ancient and dated but they are good at what they do. This tyre inflator can fill 0-30 PSI in just 2 mins which is 1 min less than the Michelin high power inflator.
Bergmann’s tyre inflator has a full metal body which will last you a lifetime and durability won’t be a worry. This becomes eco-friendly too. It has a flashlight.
The tyre pressure gauge is old school analogue and there is no auto-cut off function. The lack of auto-cut off function is probably the reason why people prefer the normal tyre inflators. But it is not much of an issue as the pressure gauge continuously shows the pressure.
That was all regarding the best tyre inflator. I think you should go for the cheaper yet better Bergmann Typhoon Heavy Duty Tyre Inflator. You can buy the best car accessories now sitting from any part of the country and get it delivered to your preferred location.