Back when I was 16 years old, I got my first car – a small, used pickup truck. It cost $4,000 and I paid for half with money saved from working summers and my parents paid the other half. It was great to finally be able to drive myself places and just head out on my own without my parents. When I was 16, we were still in the Dark Ages – there were no cell phones and the Internet wasn’t around. Us computer nerds dialed up to local bulletin board systems to post messages on forums. Those were dark days, indeed.
The lack of cell phones meant if your car broke down somewhere, you had to walk to find a pay phone – another long gone relic – to call someone to come help you. To avoid that, I had some basic repair tools that I kept in my car. A spare tire and jack, of course, but also a small air pump that I could plug in to the cigarette lighter in case I needed to add air to my tires. That thing was bright red and had a short 1 foot long hose to connect to the tire. The hose was so short that if your car was stopped with the valve stem at the top of the wheel, the pump could barely touch the ground when the hose was connected. It was tiny and loud as jack hammer and took forever to pump up a tire. I also used it inflate beach balls, basketballs, air mattresses, and anything else that was too big for me to blow up manually. Using it was somewhat scary because if you ran it for more than 10 minutes, it got really hot and started to smell like something was burning. You had to let it cool before you could pick it up to put away.
I transferred that pump from one car to another as the years passed and other cars came and went. Believe it or not, it was only a few months ago, when I was transferring items from my old Prius to my new Tesla, that I threw it out. After hauling that thing around for almost 35 years, it was time to say goodbye.
Finally, An Upgrade
But I am pleased to say I now have a replacement. The Audew Portable Air Compressor is a portable 12V pump that is perfect for stowing away in your car for emergencies. Unlike my old compressor, this one features a digital readout of the pressure. You can also set it to your desired pressure and it will automatically shut off once that pressure is reached. Easy-peasy.The unit comes with a 2 foot long hose that can connect directly to a tire valve stem and three other adapters – two for inflating things like rafts and mattresses and a needle for basketballs, volleyballs, and the like, as well as a spare fuse.
As you can see from the pictures, the unit is fairly compact. It’s also lightweight and easy to carry. The air hose is stored on one side of the unit and the 12V power cord on the other. The air hose is sufficiently long enough to connect to a tire without any issues. There are two lights on the top of the unit that can be set to either flash or remain on continuously.
I let a bit of air out of one of my tires and used the pump to bring it back up to 45 PSI. Here’s a video of it in action. The pump bounces around a bit as it runs, but that might be due to the sloped and pebbled driveway I was using it on.
The lights point straight up, which may be good as a warning sign to other drivers at night when they are set to flashing. If you need to shine them on something, the pump is light enough to pick and point the lights wherever you need, even while it is in operation.
My sole complaint is the storage mechanism for the power cord. As shipped, the cord fits nicely in the side of the pump. But I know there is no way in the world I’m going to get it to fit that nicely ever again. As you can see below, the connector end slides nicely into an interior pocket, but the cord just ends up something of a mess that you have to jam into the slot. I would like to see a couple of posts that you can wrap the cord around.
 |
| The connector stores away nicely. |
 |
| The power cord, not so much. |
All in all, I think the Audew 12V Air Compressor is a good deal for the price. I plan on keeping one in my frunk for emergencies.
No comments:
Post a Comment