Over the last 6 months the bike accessory market has seen a flood of “E-inflators”. These small rechargable pumps have been marketed as a replacement for the traditional hand pump. Those pumps have been around really since bikes changed from solid tyres to pneumatic rubber versions and are carried on the bike or in a pocket so in the event of a puncture or just a tyre pressure adjustment to cope with a change in riding terrain you can add or release air to suit.
The big thing that those traditional pumps have going for them is that they are mechanical. You as the rider are the engine that powers them. As long as you’ve made the required number of cake shop stops on your ride you should have endless energy to power them. The downside of course is that you need to carry that pump and pumping up a tyre, especially a road tyre to say 90psi takes quite a bit of effort. CO2 cannisters I hear you say! small, effective and they can seat a tyre onto the wheel rim easily. What I say is that they are mainly a one shot job, if you get the applicator incorrectly fitted to the valve you lose all the gas in one go, they can burn your fingers with the extreme cold the escaping gas produces and that cold doesn’t always play well with tyre sealant. They are also not refillable and become litter straight away.
So a small, rechargable pump sounds ideal doesn’t it. lightweight compared to a frame pump, can be used again and again and they work with any sealant on the market. The air being pushed out of them even creates heat instead of cold (there’s even a warning about this on most inflators). The fact that it’s powered by a battery (hard to dispose of) and charged by electricity that (in the UK) is generated by coal fired or nuclear power stations and so is bad for the enviroment is another thing to consider. Then again modern frame pumps are mostly plastic and lets not even go there!
So, with the positives and the negatives of the concept of an e-inflator laid out lets look at the Topeak E-Booster mini. I’ve tested quite a few inflators now (5 others in fact) but the Topeak version has come along as the first that has UK distributor backing when it comes to warranty etc. Obviously they are all manufactured in China. All the others were direct from China also and any issues would need to be dealt with by contacting a company overseas. So 1st point to Topeak and Extra UK.
The Topeak E-Booster Mini weighs in at only 121g on my unverified kitchen scales and is 5.4 x 3.2 x 7.3mm in size.. It has an electronic display showing battery status and switchable PSI/BAR, an on/off button and +/- buttons. it comes with interchangable parts to fit presta or schrader valves and some disassembly is requred to change these over, but that’s no different to any other pump. Generally you’ll adjust it to how your valves are configured once and never change it again. it also comes with a flexible extension tube so if the inflator doesn’t fit between your spokes because of deep section rims or weird spoke patterns you can still use it. Topeak also recommend using the extension on TPU inner tubes as the heat generated by the pump might melt the plastic valves!
Operation is simple, a long press on the “on” button to turn the pump on. then using the + or – buttons set the PSi you want your tyre to inflate to. Then push the pump onto the valve and press the “on” button once and the pump will start pushing air into the tyre. Here’s a warning, these things are LOUD! and that goes for all e-inflators I’ve tried. The Topeak E-Booster Mini then happily pumps your tyre up to the pressure you’ve chosen and then shuts itself off when the pressure is achieved. If you want to stop it before then then one press of the “on” button will stop the inflator.
I’ve not checked to see if the pump achieves the stated pressure as I don’t have anything accurate enough to check. What I do have though is my thumbs and they are never wrong! So a quick squeeze to see if it’s in the normal range I like and then pull the pump off the valve and you are good to go. An extra feature on the Topeak E-Booster Mini I’ve not seen on any other inflator is the fact it has a torch light. A double tap on the “on” button turns the light on or off, quite handy when you drop your valve cap in the grass on a night ride!
Topeak claim that the E-Booster Mini on one charge will pump 80psi into 700×28 road tyres 3 times and 25psi into 29 x 2.4 4 times. I’ve found that it’ll inflate a typical gravel tyre such as a 700 x 45 to 35psi 4 times. The inflator takes 45-50 minutes to charge from zero to full using a USB-C cable and a little longer if that’s via a laptop or similar. The box also contains a handy drawer string cloth bag to keep the inflator and accessories together.
So, would I choose to throw away my traditional frame pump and just use an e-inflator? Well, yes and no. For local riding which in my case is probably 85% of my riding I’d definately only take the electric inflator. With the reliability of tubeless technology these days I can’t actually remember the last time I had to use a frame mounted pump, in fact I’d better check it’s not seized up! So I’m more than happy to rely on an e-inflator when i’m not too far from home and know where i am at all times and I think 4 tyre inflations would cover any eventuality. If i was riding a multi day ride somewhere remote I’d want analog back up of a manual pump.
Would I chose the Topeak E-Booster Mini over all the other e-inlfators I’ve tried? Yes definately, it’s proved to be reliable and robust, it’s taken a few knocks and drops and continued to work as described but a big thing for me is the UK back up and the peace of mind that comes with it.
you can find more details on the Topeak E-Booster Mini here
UK GRAVEL COLLECTIVE 