With gas prices getting higher and higher everyday, I have been paying more attention to the maintenance on my car. FOr instance, I have been trying to make sure the tires are properly inflated.
I had a small tire inflator thing that plugged into the lighter socket. The pressure gauge was broken on it from have been in the trunk of my car, and been bashed around. I debated about getting a new inflator or possibly buying a regular air compressor with a tank. The little air inflator still works, but it is very slow, and noisy, and vibrates all over the place. I have to pump air into the tire, pull it off, use a tire gauge to check the pressure, and if it’s too low, pump up the tire some more. Very tedious!
I checked around at various places: Walmart, Target, Sears, Advance Auto Parts, Harbor Freight, Amazon, etc, trying to decide what I wanted. When I was Target, I noticed they had a Black & Decker air compressor (BDCP200) on clearance. And it was packaged with a small cyclonic car vacuum. It was priced 30% off at $69.99. I originally thought it was 30% off the marked price, till I re-read the sign. I saw this same package at another Target marked as a special buy and priced at the $99.99 price.
The compressor is just a small one, with a small 2 gallon tank. But it is portable. One of the things I don’t like about the small 12 volt tire inflators is having the drag the cord around as I got from tire to tire. With a small compressor with a tank, I can carry it around from tire to tire. Looking around, the $70 price seemed to be pretty good. I found a Campbell Hausfeld air compressor at Walmart for $72, and it didn’t come with a car vac. And I know the Black & Decker name. I have never heard of Campbell Hausfeld. Heck, Black & Decker make the DeWalt stuff!
Anyway, I was torn between buying a new tire inflator for $15, or the Black and Decker air compressor. I broke down, and bought the Black & Decker air compressor. I hope it is big enough to run some air tools, at least in a limited way. I wont need to run them for hours and hours. But it might be nice to be able to run them some.
I got the thing home, did the break in stuff like the instructions said. Then I inflated my tires. It seemed to inflate them quickly. On problem is the gauge is pretty broad. It goes from 0-200. It was difficult to pump them to 35psi. I ended up pumping them to about 40 psi, then using a tire gauge, letting air out until they were at 35psi. It was night being able to just carry the tank from tire to tire without having to drag a cord.
I saw a tire accessory thing at walmart that fits onto a air compressir hose that is made for inflating tires, and has a pressure gauge built on. It was only $15 I think. Or I might look at a digital air pressure gauge. Accutire makes some that look pretty cool. Or I might buy both.

Posted by Rob in Whatever on July 3rd, 2008 |