RapidAir K3015 Automatic Tire Inflator/Deflator Review

sab

"Semper Discens"
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Last year, when I plumbed my shop for air, I used RapidAir air lines and fittings, and it was great stuff to work with. Somewhere during this plumbing project, I found out about an inflator they sell. It's pricey, so I've had my eye on it, but didn't immediately buy one. Recently, I saw the price drop a bit, so I decided to give it a try. Here's a photo of it:

619zOomVaSL._SL1500_.jpg


I got it through Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09PLNC4MH/?tag=wranglerorg-20
The body of this thing is about 12" long by 4-1/2" wide at the widest point by 3-1/4" deep at the deepest point. It comes with a hose about 6' long that has a QD fitting on the end, and it weighs 2.85 lb with that hose and the QD air fitting I added (not included.) It runs on seven (yes, seven - very odd!) AA batteries. Seven cheap Chinese batteries came with it. I didn't use them because this will be in my currently-unheated/uncooled shop sitting unattended for long periods of time, and I've had cheap batteries leak under similar conditions in the past, ruining whatever the leaking acid touches. It's Duracells or Energizers only, for me! The instructions that come with it are pretty minimal, but adequate. It's pretty easy to use, but I found the interface a bit confusing at first. However, after using it for a few minutes, I figured it out just fine.

I tested it using my shop air. I went repeatedly from 26psi to 8psi and back to 26psi with the 285/75R16 tires currently on my LJ. The deflation takes about 3 minutes and the inflation takes about 20 seconds. I didn't expect quick deflation times. The tiny valve stems limit that. I will most likely still use my Coyote deflators because they can be put on all four tires simultaneously, which should save a good bit of time.

The CPU seems to do a test to see how fast the pressure changes because it starts and stops a couple of times at first, and then runs steady, stops to check the pressure again, and finishes up. The control scheme seems pretty good because it doesn't have to repeatedly start and stop at the end, and it never overshot while deflating or inflating. When it gets to the set pressure, it starts beeping to let you know it's done. I have some accurate InterComp 4" tire gauges (0-15psi and 0-60psi), and I checked it with them after each run, and it was always within about 1/2 psi (on the low side, presumably due to disconnecting it and connecting the InterComp gauge.)

Overall, in the brief testing that I did, I'm pretty happy with it, but time will tell. Hopefully it holds up, especially rattling around in my tire service bag in the back of the LJ! LockNLube, another company that I've had great success with (they make a great QD fitting for grease guns, and now air chucks, too), recently came out with something very similar, at the very hefty price of $399.99! If this RapidAir one holds up, it's a comparative bargain!
 
Love the convenience but holy sticker shock! And that was the reduced price?

That can buy about 55 bottles of beer to get me through the tire inflation process the old manual way. Just sayin'
 
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7 AAs! Are there any other power options (like plugging into a wall outlet), or do you need to haul around a bandolier of batteries?
 
Love the convenience but holy sticker shock! And that was the reduced price?

Yeah, it was $175 before that.

Are there any other power options (like plugging into a wall outlet), or do you need to haul around a bandolier of batteries?

AAs are the only way. Some of the reviews I read said battery life was pretty long.