Portable Air Compressor

Jerry713

Jerry713

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Joined
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Elgin
I’m looking for a portable air compressor that is capable of inflating tires to 100 psi. I would love a battery powered air compressor but not sure they exist. I have tried a cheap (Amazon) 12 volt compressor and it does work but after airing up 2 tires it gets so hot I can’t touch it. I also bought a battery powered Dewalt combo air compressor/jump starter. This thing is a piece of junk. I had to replace it under warranty once because the compressor stopped working. Then one month later after warranty expired the replacement stopped working.

So looking for either battery powered or 12 volt.

Thanks!
 
I’ve seen the Viair units. For me seems like the design requires you have to walk back and forth from one tire to the battery under or near the hood to turn it on or off. Maybe I’m misunderstanding how it works? Also airing up tires on a 38’ RV would require an extension or installation of an additional terminal port near the wheels of the RV. This is the main reason I would love to find a battery powered unit that actually works well.
 
I've been using this 18 volt compressor ($25.00 - $40.00 depending if it's on sale or not) for over a year and it works great. You can set the pressure to what you want and it stops at that pressure and it goes up to 160 PSI. I have 3 one for the tow vehicle and 2 in my other cars. I have a few spare batteries and chargers for the compressor and for misc other tools. They also have a bigger compressor ($150.00) if that is what you need.
 
I have a 12V Viair single cylinder compressor that I carry in my Jeep and use it to inflate the tires after off-roading, I also have used it to inflate a flat tire on my MH from 0 PSI to 80 PSI. It works well, but it is pretty slow. I don't know how long it took on my RV, but it was a while. It takes probably 5 minutes to increase each of my Jeep tires (285/70-17; 33") by 10 lbs.

Yes, it requires you to clip directly to the battery, but it has an on/off switch on the body of the pump. It gets VERY hot. So hot that I have to be careful to set it upright in my floorboard after I use it on my Jeep tires, lest it melt the seat.

I intend to get a dual-piston All-Top compressor, which should work A LOT better through significantly increased CFM. All-Top Dual Cylinder

ETA: This is the one I'm currently using: Viair 88P; can't wait to go from ~1.5 CFM to over 12. But unlikely DW will "clear" the $200 purchase price for it...

Also, if I'm on a cross-country journey, I've been known to bring my 120V pancake compressor. Which will be removed from regular service as I just purchased a Fortress 2-gallon ultra-quiet unit from Harbor Freight the other night.
 
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I am going to give the battery powered one from Rigid a try, it was like $45 bucks. we will see if it works
 
I’ve been doing some digging. Here’s a test video Project Farm did on battery powered air compressors. If you haven’t heard of this guy he’s a reviews are by far the best and most in depth I’ve ever seen. And he buys all of the items he tests with his own money so there’s no biases. Looks like I’m going to give the Milwaukee a shot.

 
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Well I did pull the trigger on the Milwaukee 18 volt battery powered air compressor. It was delivered this morning and I did a quick test on my truck. My front tires on my F250 were a little low at 58 psi (I normally run them at 65). But since they can hold 80 psi I set the Milwaukee at 80 psi and turned it on along with my stop watch. It took about 4.5 minutes to get it from 58 to 80 psi but it put 80 psi in the tire no problem. On my wife’s car it only took about 10 seconds to put 4-5 lbs of air from 31/32 to 36 psi. I like the automatic shut off and I really like that it doesn’t dance around while running. It stays in the same spot due to the rubber feet. It’s not as compact as other brands but it’s still lightweight. The only thing I would like to see added is a small LED light.

To be clear this is not comparable to an electric air compressor in terms of performance. But for me the trade off is being cordless and still having the ability to get a tire to at least 80 psi.

It’s early but so far I think this is going to work well for me.
 
Regardless of which battery inflator you purchase, and I have purchased many, if you let them run too long and get too hot, then their lifetime will be significantly reduced. I have a Viair and it is a good one and says that it can run continuously on the box but in the instructions it said something else, 1 hour and at a certain pressure (I don't recall) and while that is much better than most, it is not continuous.

My recommendation is to make sure it has full voltage going to it (maybe run the engine if connected to the engine battery), and if you need to run it for more than ~15 minutes, especially at a high pressure, then check it to see if it is getting very hot and if so, let it rest until it cools back down and then continue inflating the tire. ~CA
 
craigav said:
Regardless of which battery inflator you purchase, and I have purchased many, if you let them run too long and get too hot, then their lifetime will be significantly reduced. I have a Viair and it is a good one and says that it can run continuously on the box but in the instructions it said something else, 1 hour and at a certain pressure (I don't recall) and while that is much better than most, it is not continuous.

My recommendation is to make sure it has full voltage going to it (maybe run the engine if connected to the engine battery), and if you need to run it for more than ~15 minutes, especially at a high pressure, then check it to see if it is getting very hot and if so, let it rest until it cools back down and then continue inflating the tire. ~CA
Click to expand...

Yes, "duty cycle" can become important. Depends on how you use it...

This is one of the reasons I don't want to use a battery-powered unit in my situation. I'll inevitably let the battery die, and then I'll be stuck. Also, I don't want to be waiting around for it to cool off before I can finish inflating to "street pressure" and get on the pavement.

If you're using it occasionally to maybe fill one tire, and you're good about keeping charged batteries around (I use DeWalt 20V power tools, so I almost always have one of those charged up and on me. I was sad to read above about the DeWalt inflator), then battery powered units will work. I prefer to have direct 12V connection and really high CFM because I'm bad about keeping seldom-used batteries charged up, and I'm usually anxious to get moving after airing back up from being off-road.

So "use-case" is important as well when you're examining things like CFM and duty cycle.

Oh, and good point about running the engine when directly connected to the battery. If I'm running pretty much anything off the engine battery, the engine is running. I run my macerator and a 1000W inverter off the Jeep battery sometimes too.

Sounds like the Milwaukee unit is a good one so far. I'll be curious to hear how it stands up...
 
craigav said:
Regardless of which battery inflator you purchase, and I have purchased many, if you let them run too long and get too hot, then their lifetime will be significantly reduced. I have a Viair and it is a good one and says that it can run continuously on the box but in the instructions it said something else, 1 hour and at a certain pressure (I don't recall) and while that is much better than most, it is not continuous.

My recommendation is to make sure it has full voltage going to it (maybe run the engine if connected to the engine battery), and if you need to run it for more than ~15 minutes, especially at a high pressure, then check it to see if it is getting very hot and if so, let it rest until it cools back down and then continue inflating the tire. ~CA
Click to expand...
Yep with the auto shutoff I can connect it to a tire, hit start and being something else while it’s inflating the tire. After a short break I usually move it to another tire. This is what I would do with my Dewalt that didn’t last long. Hopefully this will last longer. At least the Milwaukee has a 5 year warranty on the tool.
 
Jerry713 said:
I’m looking for a portable air compressor that is capable of inflating tires to 100 psi. I would love a battery powered air compressor but not sure they exist. I have tried a cheap (Amazon) 12 volt compressor and it does work but after airing up 2 tires it gets so hot I can’t touch it. I also bought a battery powered Dewalt combo air compressor/jump starter. This thing is a piece of junk. I had to replace it under warranty once because the compressor stopped working. Then one month later after warranty expired the replacement stopped working.

So looking for either battery powered or 12 volt.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
I’ve been using a 20V portable one made by Worx for a few years now. It has worked well. Inflation times are fast and it does not overheat.
 
Jerry713 said:
I’m looking for a portable air compressor that is capable of inflating tires to 100 psi. I would love a battery powered air compressor but not sure they exist. I have tried a cheap (Amazon) 12 volt compressor and it does work but after airing up 2 tires it gets so hot I can’t touch it. I also bought a battery powered Dewalt combo air compressor/jump starter. This thing is a piece of junk. I had to replace it under warranty once because the compressor stopped working. Then one month later after warranty expired the replacement stopped working.

So looking for either battery powered or 12 volt.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
I use a Craftsman V20 portable. Good for 160 psi. You’ll have to buy the batteries/charger separately. I bought two after market 9 aH batteries. It has a 110 plug as well as a cigarette lighter plug. With the latest cold snap I had to fill all 6 tires quite a ways with no issues.
 
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Jerry713 said:
I’m looking for a portable air compressor that is capable of inflating tires to 100 psi. I would love a battery powered air compressor but not sure they exist. I have tried a cheap (Amazon) 12 volt compressor and it does work but after airing up 2 tires it gets so hot I can’t touch it. I also bought a battery powered Dewalt combo air compressor/jump starter. This thing is a piece of junk. I had to replace it under warranty once because the compressor stopped working. Then one month later after warranty expired the replacement stopped working.

So looking for either battery powered or 12 volt.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I use the Fanttik S100 Apex, sells for $49.99 at Costco. The psi goes to 150 easily. I use it for my commercial trucks as well. Great quality overall.
 
If you already have a certain brand of battery operated tools it would only make sense to stick with that brand of compressor as they are all very similar and as long as it meets max. PSI required
 
Jerry713 said:
I’m looking for a portable air compressor that is capable of inflating tires to 100 psi. I would love a battery powered air compressor but not sure they exist. I have tried a cheap (Amazon) 12 volt compressor and it does work but after airing up 2 tires it gets so hot I can’t touch it. I also bought a battery powered Dewalt combo air compressor/jump starter. This thing is a piece of junk. I had to replace it under warranty once because the compressor stopped working. Then one month later after warranty expired the replacement stopped working.

So looking for either battery powered or 12 volt.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
billcf7 said:
If you already have a certain brand of battery operated tools it would only make sense to stick with that brand of compressor as they are all very similar and as long as it meets max. PSI required
Click to expand...
I use a battery powered Dewalt portable air compressor. Works great. I have used it for over 2 years
 

Makita DMP181ZX 18V LXT® Lithium-Ion Cordless High-Pressure Inflator​

I was already a Makita user with plenty of batteries.
 

Makita DMP180ZX 18V LXT® Lithium-Ion Cordless Inflator​

This one little less $$ but only goes to 120psi max.
 
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