For many car owners, tire inflation isn’t a concern until their tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) triggers a warning light. While TPMS has become a very useful feature in modern vehicles, you don’t want to solely rely on it to know when your tires are underinflated or overinflated. Reason being, your TPMS is configured to only warn you if your tire pressure drops below a certain threshold. This is typically 25 percent below the recommended tire pressure, which won’t account for slightly underinflated tires. You should really depend on your TPMS to let you know when you have a fast leak or a flat tire, while using a tire pressure gauge and a portable tire inflator to keep your tires properly inflated.
In the past, we’ve covered the importance of tire pressure and how it can affect your Porsche’s performance, as underinflated or overinflated tires can negatively impact your driving experience. Owning a portable tire inflator ensures you’re always able to keep your tires properly inflated from the comforts of your own driveway or garage. These are relatively affordable products and we’d argue in the long run, you’d make your money back by not driving on underinflated or overinflated tires.
Below are our top picks of the best portable tire inflators or air compressors, followed by more information about tire inflation and why we recommend tire inflators.
1. Top pick: EPAuto portable air compressor pump
This portable air compressor from EPAuto checks all the boxes of features you’d want from a quality tire inflator. It’s got automatic shutoff, which will turn off the pump once your tire reaches the desired pressure that you set, a built-in digital gauge that displays tire pressure in multiple units, an LED flashlight, and it’s powered by your car’s 12-volt cigarette lighter receptacle. Although it isn’t the fastest tire inflator money can buy, with an inflation speed of about 30L/min, and it won’t support truck tires, it offers great performance and reliability for the price.
You can choose from a variety of colors, including red, blue, green, and yellow. EPAuto also includes adapters so you can use the inflator on various household items, like inflating a basketball. Using this tire inflator (and many of our recommendations) couldn’t be easier. Screw the air chuck onto your tire’s valve stem, set the desired tire pressure, and let the pump do its job.
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2. Best for trucks/SUVs: GSPSCN heavy duty tire inflator
If you require something heavy duty, GSPSCN’s tire inflator is designed to inflate an 18-inch tire in about 1.5 minutes from zero-to-40 psi. It features a double cylinder design and is capable of inflating up to 150 psi, though we imagine no Porsche owner needs that capability. Unfortunately, this tire inflator has a mechanical gauge and as a result, you can’t preset your desired tire pressure and let the pump shutoff on its own. Instead, you’ll have to keep an eye on the gauge and turn off the pump yourself once your tire is properly inflated.
With this recommendation, you have the option of using your car’s 12-volt cigarette lighter outlet or connect it directly to your car’s battery using the included clamps. It’s not as convenient to use as our other recommendations that have an automatic shutoff feature, but it’s the price you pay for something that’s more accurate and heavy duty. Another plus, it has a maximum flow of 70L/min, which should make quick work of your tires. The GSPSCN tire inflator is available in red, titanium, and silver finishes.
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3. Best cordless tire inflator: Avid Power tire inflator
If you prefer a cordless, handheld option then consider Avid Power’s portable tire inflator. It’s similar to a handheld drill and uses a battery pack for power, which makes it easier to inflate all four of your tires without getting tied up by a power cable. It does have an auto shutoff feature to turn off the inflator once your tire reaches the desired pressure, and there’s a convenient digital gauge located on the back of the tool. The 20-volt rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack can be swapped out for the 12-volt power supply if the battery runs out of juice — you’ll just have to plug it into your vehicle.
As you can imagine, there is a small price to pay for the convenience of having a handheld tire inflator. It has maximum flow rate of 30L/min, which means it’ll take around three minutes to inflate a 14-inch tire, and up to five minutes for a 16-inch tire. If you’re willing to sacrifice time for convenience, then this is a solid recommendation for you. Other minor features worth mentioning include a built-in LED light and the ability to use the battery pack as a portable power bank to charge your handheld devices.
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4. Best multipurpose inflator: BLACK+DECKER cordless inflator
If you want a multipurpose inflator that can be used at home, in your vehicle, or completely cordless, take a look at this recommendation from reputable brand BLACK+DECKER. With this option, you can use BLACK+DECKER lithium-ion batteries if you’ve already invested into the company’s tools, your car’s 12-volt outlet, or a standard 120-volt household outlet. It’s a versatile option with an automatic shutoff feature and a digital pressure gauge.
BLACK+DECKER also includes a variety of accessories so you can inflate all types of household items: a ball needle, a Presta valve adapter, small inflator adapter, and a large volume hose. Use it on your inflatable mattress when you go camping, or keeping your bicycle’s tire properly inflated on your trail ride.
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5. Honorable mention: AstroAI portable air compressor
Our final recommendation is a good budget pick, as it’s often on sale. Although it is your typical portable tire inflator that’s manufactured overseas (like EPAuto’s tire inflator), it does come from a brand that has good customer support and tends to be more reliable than other brands. Weighing 2.2 lbs, it’s a lightweight option that will inflate a 15-inch tire from zero-to-26 psi in about two minutes. A standard car tire can go from zero-to-36 psi in four-to-six minutes, making it about average when it comes to speed (35L/min).
A built in emergency LED light, digital LCD gauge that displays multiple units, and automatic shutoff makes it an easy-to-use tire inflator, much like our top pick. AstroAI includes an extra fuse and nozzles, so you can also use this to inflate household items, although you shouldn’t for high pressure or large volume items like an inflatable pool or canoe. Choose from red, yellow, orange, or blue accent colors.
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Why do I need a portable tire inflator?
As we mentioned earlier in the article, driving on underinflated or overinflated tires can negatively impact your car’s performance. Even worse, low tire pressure can even cause your tire to have a blowout. For day to day driving, underinflated tires can result in lower fuel economy, which means ultimately costing you money at the pump. Low tire pressure can also affect your car’s handling since your tire’s sidewalls are flexing more. That means less traction and grip, and you might not even notice it until it’s too late. Finally, underinflation increases tire wear, shortening a tire’s life. That’s another hit on your wallet, since you’ll be replacing tires sooner than you should.
Overinflated tires can also increase the risk of a blowout, in addition to making your car’s ride a bit rougher. Excess pressure in your tires means feeling all the bumps in the road and your tires are more susceptible to damage that can be caused by potholes. And like underinflated tires, overinflated tires will wear out quicker, which means losing money.
Owning a portable tire inflator allows you to keep your tires properly inflated without having to hunt down a public air compressor at a local gas station. Keeping one in your car also means you’re prepared for an emergency, if you start getting a slow leak from a nail in your tire while on the road.
Where do I find my recommended tire pressure?
The easiest way to find your recommended tire pressure is to look for a label on your driver’s side door jamb or fuel door. Although it’s rare, it may also be in your car’s glove box. If you aren’t able to locate the label, refer to your owner’s manual.
How do I use a portable tire inflator?
If you purchased one of our recommendations with an automatic shutoff feature, using a portable tire inflator is pretty straightforward. Determine the recommended tire pressure for your car — pay attention to the front and the rear, as they are often different — set it on the gauge, connect the valve to your valve stem, and turn on the tire inflator. Although it should automatically shutoff once it reaches the preset tire pressure, we still recommend keeping an eye on the inflator to make sure it does. If your inflator doesn’t have an automatic shutoff feature, you’ll need to monitor the gauge and shut off the pump once your tires are properly inflated.
How does a portable tire inflator work?
A portable tire inflator is essentially a small air compressor but lacks a tank to store the compressed air. Unlike the proper air compressor you’ve seen at your mechanic’s shop, a portable tire inflator isn’t able to power pneumatic tools and its only purpose is to inflate objects, such as your vehicle’s tires.
How long can I run my portable tire inflator?
Each manufacturer will advertise different run times for their portable tire inflator, and from our experience, many of those estimations are generous. Depending on the design, the motor inside the portable tire inflator could heat up fairly quickly and will stop functioning until it can properly cool down. Generally, we wouldn’t recommend inflating more than 4 tires at once, which should take you anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes depending on how much air pressure is needed for each tire. But refer to your specific tire inflator’s manual and follow those guidelines so you don’t permanently damage the unit.
Do I have to perform any maintenance on my portable tire inflator?
You generally do not have to perform any maintenance on a portable tire inflator. The products we recommended should not require any maintenance, so long as you don’t overuse the unit and cause the motor to overheat.
Recent updates:
Updated (12:33 p.m. EST, 1/19/2023): Added eBay shopping options to our recommendations. Added a few more FAQs. Our recommendations remain the same.
