A good air compressor?
 

Can anyone recommend a good air compressor? I'd prefer one that has a cigarette lighter power adapter for trips, if not a regular power cord, too. I'd like it to be strong enough to do my car tires, too, but I'll use it primarily on my bike tires. I have an adapter for the new style bike tire valves, so a normal compressor spigot is fine (spigot..... what a cool word). Based on the reviews on Amazon for the 12V pumps, I'm kind of hesitant to shell out money, so I thought I'd throw it out here and see what you all think (that's "all ya'll" for you Southerners :D ).

I have a unit I purchased at Sharper Image, runs on 115 volt AC. It does the trick. I also have a WalMart 12 V model I bought in the auto dept that I take with in the car when I carry my bike somewhere. It was cheap, maybe $12. Works fine.

I'd recommend just a good old fashioned floor pump - costs less, faster, and more reliable. Those cigarette lighter compressors work about as well as the Popeil's pocket fisherman. Get a good one at a bike shop - not a cheepie at the hardware store or department store.

If you are interested in a method of inflating automotive tires as well as bike tires, then I would suggest this compressor- http://www.saleshound.com/saleshound...2&inlinezone=y . It has been very popular with the low dollar 4x4 crowd, as it accomplishes rapid inflation rates for about a quarter of the expenditure other products accomplish ($50-70 vs $200 and up). I have one, and it seems to be pretty well built, and for the occasional application It would do fine. Any twelve volt compressor on the low end will probably not stand up to hard-core, intensive use, but for bringing your tire pressure up on your car, or filling bike tires it would work quite well (lemons, excluded) I wouldn't buy it for frequent use, and I do think a floor pump (manual pump) for bikes exclusively is a better idea for low volume, higher pressure requirements.

I have an "Interdynamics" compressor 12v from Kmart. Nearly 20 years old now. I hook it up to my equally old battery charger as a power supply. I inflate the tires every Monday morning before heading to work.

I would also recommend a floor pump. You should be able to get a decent one for around $25. With this you can bring your bike tires up to pressure easily (most can get to 120+ psi without a problem).

A floor pump is also quite capable of inflating car/truck tires (most car tires only run about 40 psi). It just takes a LOT of strokes to bring a car tire up to pressure. If you think of it as a workout, it is just fine. ;)

God bless!
Wayne

The cheapie 12v compressors do seem to work fine, and at $10 you're not risking much. For high pressure tires especially, its great to just let the pump do the work. I'm using a portable 12v battery described in the "Total Geekiness" thread which also gets used for my home made 20w bike light.

There's something wrong with the world when you get an electric compressor with gauge and adapters for less than the price of a good floor pump.

Nothing wrong with the world at all- it's just basic economics. Millions of the cheap 12v compressors are sold, thousands of good floor pumps. Also, your cheap compressor isn't nearly the quality of a decent $25 floor pump.

I also recomend a floor pump. After letting the air out of a tire on a car that parked infront of my door, I lent him a floor pump. It didn't take him long at all, should have givin him a hand pump

x2 ... I dread my electric pump.