REVIEW – I have a nice air compressor in my garage to maintain my car and motorcycle tires. What it can’t do for me is easily blow up inflatable objects by my pool in the backyard or inflate my tires when I am traveling. Then there are plenty of folks who don’t have a garage or access to a large compressor and need to maintain their car tire pressures without having to shell out quarters at a local gas station. I think I have come across one of the most perfect tools for those situations. Read on and see if this portable air compressor can meet your air pumping needs.
What is it?
The AstroAI is a portable air compressor that can power itself via AC/DC or by a lithium battery. It has a plug for a standard US outlet, a car cigarette lighter adapter, and a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. It can inflate car tires, basketballs, bicycle tires, and large inflatables.
What’s in the box?
- AstroAI Portable air compressor – pictured at the top of the review
- thank you card
- user manual
- charging cord for lithium battery
- 1 20 volt lithium battery
- replacement fuse
- assorted nozzles
- two valve stem caps
Hardware specs
- 12 volts
- AC, DC, lithium battery
- 95 db
- auto shut off when it reaches set pressure
- 7.13 lbs
Design and features
Weighing in at only 7.13 lbs, this little air compressor seems to do it all. It is packed with a ton of features. The AstroAI has a built-in carry handle at the top of the pump. In front of that is the LCD display. There is a button to turn on the light that will shine out from the side of the pump (more on that later). Below the light button is the stop/run button to turn on and off the pump. Below the display is the power on and off button for the display. Press and hold that for a few seconds, and it will power on and off. Pressing the button quickly will change the pressure modes. The button to the right of the power button is the exhaust mode. It defaults to pushing air out of the hose on the left to pump up tires. Pressing the button once will turn the left hose on and open the outlet for the larger hose to use on the right to pump up large inflatables. Finally, the plus and minus buttons let you set the pressure on the pump when pumping up things like car or bicycle tires.
On the left side of the pump is the tire hose wrap. On the side of that holder is a plastic slider that will expose a storage compartment where you can keep all the small adapters, tire caps, and spare fuses. In the very middle is the LED light that gets turned on and off by the light button in the front.
Here is a close-up of the tire hose wrapped up for storage. The holder has plastic clamps to hold the hose each time you wrap it around. It holds it snugly, and I have yet to have it come unwrapped by itself. The holder for the large inflatable hose is on the right side of the display. It has a clamp at the top and bottom of the holder to hold the hose in place. The tire hose is 2.9 feet long, and the large-volume hose is 7.67 inches long.
Underneath the AstroAI inflator are two storage compartments for the AC plug and DC cigarette lighter cords. These cords are very long but still tuck in under the inflator nicely. The AC and DC power cords are 9.8 feet long. Both cords come with some reusable velcro wrapping, which is a nice touch.
In the back of the inflator, you will find the lithium-ion battery pack insertion point.
To the left of the battery pack is the large volume hose outlet. It has two notches built into the outlet and you twist the hose to lock it into place.
The other end of the large hose has a screw on adapter that will let you use one of three caps to inflate larger objects.
Here is a picture of the light on the inflator shining on my car tire’s valve stem.
The AstroAI air inflator supports up to four different pressure readings. It defaults to PSI but will also display BAR, KPA, and Kg/cm2. The top number of the display is the pressure you want the air compressor to inflate the tire to. The bottom number is the current pressure reading of the item. Turning on the air compressor with nothing connected will show a zero reading. The icon to the right of the top reading indicates that the compressor will be using the tire hose to push out air.
To use the large volume hose, you press the button to the right of the power button. The display changes to show the larger hose icon. Pressure readings do not apply on the large volume hose. You must stop the pump manually when your floaty is fully inflated.
Setup
The only initial setup required was to charge the lithium-ion battery. I plugged it in and the charger displayed a red LED. It turned green when the battery was fully charged.
Performance
First, I used the AstroAI to set the air pressure on my car’s tires. I inflated two of the tires using AC power by plugging the unit into the wall. The other two tires I inflated using the car’s cigarette lighter adapter. The cords were long enough to meet my needs. The cigarette adapter cord easily reached all four of my car’s tires. I set the pressure to 39 PSI and pressed the play button below the light button to start the pump. When the pressure was reached, the pump turned off automatically. Since my car is electric, I could see that the pump’s electricity was negligible. My car uses 1Kwh when idling and running the AC on the low fan. The usage did not change at all when I ran the pump. Here is a video showing it pumping up one tire.
After the pump was done, I checked the tire pressure with my stand-alone tire gauge. It read a touch high. I tested this on all four tires and found it tended to over-pump just slightly.
Next, I decided to try to pump up a large inflatable volleyball net we use for our pool. The pictures below show me hooking up the large hose to the inflatable.
The video below shows the net holder getting pumped up, then I move the hose to the suction side and deflate the item. I could not deflate it all of the way because the net holder is too long and air gets trapped at the end. Both times I had to manually stop the pump because you can’t set a pressure for the large hose.
What I like
- It has three ways to power the pump – outlet, cigarette lighter, lithium battery.
- When pumping up tires, you can set the desired pressure and it will stop.
- It has a great design, allowing you to store all the cords and hoses on the device.
What I’d change
- Nothing, I love this thing!
Final thoughts
Look no further if you want a portable air compressor that can pump up almost everything. The AstroAI pump pretty much stores everything you need on board in a portable 7 lb device. The only thing you will have to keep track of is the charging cord for the battery and the large item adapters. This would be a great item to have for anyone who does not have the space for a large compressor. You can take it to the beach and pump up all of your items there.
Price: $99.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by AstroAI.
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Their brand of hand-held pump is still serving me well since I reviewed it, as we flatten tires once a month lately.