Can anyone recommend a decent foot pump? Preferably one that lets in more air than it lets out.
Thanks.
Last edited by: Clk Sec on Sat 5 Apr 14 at 09:50
|
I have a Michelin branded double-barrel foot pump from Halfords that does a reasonable job
|
|
Why? Why does anyone possibly need a FOOT pump these days, when you can buy three electric ones for the same price? You need it to rattle around in the boot with the starting handle?
|
>> Why? Why does anyone possibly need a FOOT pump these days, when you can buy
>> three electric ones for the same price?
Good point. Do you have an electric one worthy of recommendation?
>>You need it to rattle round in the boot with the starting handle?
And the spare battery. Do keep up.
|
I quite like my foot pump. Twin barrelled yellow thing. Good excercise too. Two cars and three bikes can be quite a good workout.
Fairly sure it came from Halfords a long time ago.
|
>> >> Why? Why does anyone possibly need a FOOT pump these days, when you can
>> buy
>> >> three electric ones for the same price?
>>
>> Good point. Do you have an electric one worthy of recommendation?
>>
>>
>> >>You need it to rattle round in the boot with the starting handle?
>>
>> And the spare battery. Do keep up.
www.whatcar.com/car-news/3rd-draper-12v-mini-1350/1202386
Not sure you could cope with the stress of it using your battery tho.
|
Can't go wrong with SKS, I've had mine about twenty years now.
As an aside, my Kawasaki GPZ500 is an import rather than a UK spec bike and has twin front discs while the UK models only have a single. The diameter of the discs makes it impossible to get the angled head of a garage airline to sit on the valve, as I found out recently while I suffered a leaking valve core and pulled into my local petrol station to top up. A very slow and wobbly ride home ensued where the trusty foot pump came into it's own.
|
Got a decent 12v and a double-barrel pump from B&Q.
The Forester has a very slow leak on 2 tyres, and to be honest it's less of a faff to just squirt a few pumps from the footpump than hooking up the 12v jobby.
I gave the footpump a few squirts of white lithium grease at each moving point to stop it wearing too quick and it is pretty decent (cost about a tenner).
I used to have a Halfords brand plastic footpump - absolutely awesome - the plastic body never wore out and I went through 2 or 3 replacement tubes - I guess they went back to metal ones so they could keep selling you a new one!
ps. for pumping up a flatty electric wins every time
Last edited by: Lygonos on Sat 5 Apr 14 at 11:46
|
|
Does the lithium grease stop you depressing it....sorry mixed medical/foot pump related joke..
|
|
Forester? Have you sold that Suzuki Sneeze thing then?
|
No I bought an X-reg Foz S-Turbo last year for bopping around (has a towbar).
Kizashi is doing fine other than it's getting a new set of alloys next week due to poor finish on these ones.
|
Anyone suggest why we don't have the foreign practice of a 'Y' join on garage airlines, effectively giving two airlines at an equal pressure.
I always have the same pressure across an axle and this arrangement simplifies it.
Bikes and three-wheelers can sort themselves out.
|
Electric wins hands down for pumping up a tyre from flat (but is still useless of course if you need to inflate quickly enough to spring the beads out to seal against the wheel).
But for just topping up a little air you have to balance the faff of taking the pump out of its bag, unwinding the wires, plugging in and dragging the wire round to the far corner without crushing it in a door or wedging it under a tyre, and then winding it up again and persuading it back into its bag.
Also for big cars or trailers the wire supplied is never long enough to reach the fiurthest wheel. But if you lengthen the wire it's more to tangle up and even harder to stow in the bag.
Then if you want to use it away from the car, such as inflating a tyre in the workshop, you need bulldog grips in place of the fag-lighter thing so that you can run it off a spare battery.
But the grips won't fit in the stowage hole in the end of the pump.
Everything has its place and uses, but for simple jobs a simple foot pump is best IMHO.
|
|
Michelin twin barrel with guage.. Mine is now 12 and going strong.
|
|
Single-barrel Michelin for me. Had one for each car that lasted ten years or so. Had to replace the second one last year and found that the current model has a threaded attachment for the valve that seems no more effective than the old snap-fit but takes much longer.
|
>> Why? Why does anyone possibly need a FOOT pump these days, when you can buy
>> three electric ones for the same price?
It seems my neighbours have taken your advice and bought 3 each.
The street on Sunday morning around here sounds like a noisy swarm of wasps. Orrible noise - and it goes on for so long. I can pump up 4 tyres in the time the next door chap takes to do one with his wasp simulator.
I quite fancy the look of this one:
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/vintage-Brass-Wad-foot-pump-working-order-/321370026445?pt=UK_Car_Parts_Vehicles_Automobila_ET&hash=item4ad32571cd
Last edited by: Dulwich Estate on Sat 5 Apr 14 at 17:11
|
These babies don't not 'alf shift some air ! Don't wear yer shoes out either. I had one kicking around somewhere....have to have a look.
tinyurl.com/pted3kk
Best non-electric pump I've ever used. Have to admit to 4 12 volt pumps and one 240v compressor with airline at Ontaltwin Abbey.
|
I thought I'd drag myself into the 21st century with this little beauty:
tinyurl.com/pr8jmtq
Last of the big spenders, me.
Thanks for the responses.
|
|
Ah yes, thats the one that vibrates so much you can't read the, wildly inaccurate, gauge.
|
You will probably have seen that the vast majority of the Amazon reviews are positive. However, as with my current foot pump, the gauge reading will be checked with this:
tinyurl.com/ov329z5
Has Dave done a moonlight?
Last edited by: Clk Sec on Sun 6 Apr 14 at 08:49
|
|
I will wait with glee till you get the vibrating with its ludicrously small inaccurate dial home and try it out.
|
Not in the least bothered about the dial / gauge, and for £12 I'm unlikely to fret about a little vibration.
Have you found an iffy 50?
|
No no iffy 50's (what the hell happened to him, thought he would be out on parole by now) just reminding you, you should have bought the draper for 3 quid more.
Cant wait for you to get the ring thing home.
Lesson 1 in the automotive world - you only get one thing out of Ring - (hint - its brown and smelly)
|
Dual approach here. The Aldi sourced jump start unit includes a compressor which runs off the battery and is not constrianed by a cable moving round the car.
Problems on road are resolved with a generic plug in cigar lighter jobby that we inherited years ago when Mrs B's Mum gave up driving.
Both are cross checked with a proper gauge when job looks complete.
Used to use electric one on bike too (Brommy tyres run at 100psi) but now have a decent track pump I just use that in 'workshop'.
>> Lesson 1 in the automotive world - you only get one thing out of Ring
>> - (hint - its brown and smelly)
Domestic stuff no better. Plastic turns to cheese when exposed to bulb heat although I comply with 'max 60w' or whatever sticker says. Three bulkhead lights and porch light at parent's old gaff and spot/flood unit in my kitchen all went same way.
|
|
We have a digital version of that Ring pump. Works well so far but only used occasionally, regular checks are done with tank compressor all at once with a long air hose.
|
>>
>> Domestic stuff no better. Plastic turns to cheese when exposed to bulb heat although I
>> comply with 'max 60w' or whatever sticker says. Three bulkhead lights and porch light at
>> parent's old gaff and spot/flood unit in my kitchen all went same way.
>>
From similar hard experience I only use metal fittings now.
Brass bulb-holders with ceramic insulator bits inside, and a pair of black outdoor gate pillar lanterns made of galvanised steel.
Alloy is useless too. It corrodes and then turns to dust.
Plastic watering cans etc also self-destruct in sunlight.
|
Plastic watering cans etc also self-destruct in sunlight.
We have a red plastic (? flexible .. seems more like a nylon type) 2.5 gallon watering can which is 35 years old. In regular use. Not original spout and rose.
We also have a green plastic (less flexible) 1.5 gallon one which it only some 25 years old. I stood on it some 15 years ago and mended it with araldite - (about two full tubes iirc) . Still works perfectly with a new rose.
Apart from my attempted destruction of the green one, neither has had any repairs and neither leak.
(Mind you we tend to keep things. My Hayter lawnmower is 41 and my wheelbarrow 40)
|
|
I have a mains powered version of that Ring. It's fine. The dial is plenty big enough for those with all their faculties in tact ! I bought a Draper brand tyre pressure gauge - this is used to double check pressures at the end of tyre checks. Big accurate dial (well as accurate as the electronic ones on the GS). Mind you I had to laugh at the comment on the Amazon review site..."the only thing that does work on mine is the fuse"
|
Electric ones are slow and noisy. You have to faff with the wire, unplugging it depending on which wheel you're doing. And then there's a nasty wet and muddy length of flex to tidy away after.
Don't buy one with a gauge. Foot slips off pump, gauge is knocked off. Trusty old hand-held gauge for me, thank you.
|
|
100% with Mapmaker on this one.
|
Even the gauge bit? The Michelin gauge seems fine, and has come to no harm on the four that I've had. (It's fatigue that gets them in the end, where the hose meets the cylinder.) Pencil gauge agrees with it, so I just trust it and no longer bother to confirm.
Never felt the need of an electric pump, though. What a faff to have to open doors to run a cable for something so simple!
|
|
My Michelin 12v tyre pump has lasted quite a few years now. It has a digital guage but I always double check with a manual guage to get the pressures (roughly) right.
|
>>I thought I'd drag myself into the 21st century with this little beauty:
>>tinyurl.com/pr8jmtq
>>Last of the big spenders, me.
>>Thanks for the responses.
Ring Automotive Analogue Air Compressor.
I tried this out a couple of days ago and it works very well. Some vibration, but that wasn't a problem and was no less than I'd expected. The gauge is for guidance only (same as my old manual pump) and there's a small variation between the reading on this and that of my Race Professional gauge.
Best thing about it is the screw stem connector which doesn't allow any air to escape, unlike the last clip-on type that I had.
Just over £12 from Amazon, with free delivery and plenty of positive reviews.
Last edited by: Clk Sec on Sat 12 Apr 14 at 12:27
|
|
= = > "Lesson 1 in the automotive world - you only get one thing out of Ring" - (hint - its brown and smelly)
|
|
Well the way they started out, Ring certainly were a name to avoid. However, while I'd never describe them as a quality brand, some things with that name on are ok.
|
|
I've had a couple of their lamps outside for the last few years. No problems with them so far.
|
Foot Pump Recommendation - borasport
