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The question isn’t if you should buy a portable tire inflator as much as it is which one. They’re cheap insurance to keep you or whoever’s driving your car out of trouble. There are a ton on the market, though, and you’ve got a lot of homework to do. You really want to make sure that you can truly trust the model you decide to purchase. I’ve recently had the chance to test out the Astro AI C1 tire inflator to see if it’s worth your consideration.
The Astro AI C1 portable tire inflator is a middle-of-the-road option targeted at the average car owner. It’s certainly not as expensive as some. It also isn’t so cheap that red flags immediately go up when you see the price. Still, it packs plenty of value on account of the versatile power solutions and included attachments, which are all packed neatly into a storage case.
That’s all well and good. But, whether or not this thing’s worth it for you comes down to how well it performs for your situation. I’ve used this thing long enough to know it’s a solid choice for motorcycles and small cars but you’ll want to skip it if you’re rolling on bigger rubber.
AstroAI C1 Portable Tire Inflator Specs
As per the standard, let’s crack into those specs first. For starters, the AstroAI C1 tire inflator has a retail price of $51.99. That includes the inflator itself, a 20-volt battery, 12-volt adapter, some inflation accessories, and a carry case.
A nice detail about this inflator is that it will run on either a 12-volt supply or a rechargeable 20-volt battery. The flexibility is great, and ultimately provides means of tire inflation in more circumstances. That said, the power supply does have a considerable impact on performance—we’ll come back to that in a minute.
The AstroAI C1 portable tire inflator uses a simple digital display to set your parameters. More specifically, the five buttons on the back allow you to toggle power, display brightness, presets, and pressure settings. It does come with four pressure presets, but it is quicker to just manually set the desired pressure yourself. Speaking of which, AstroAI claims it to have a pressure range of 3-150 PSI. It also has a nice LED built into the head to help you illuminate tires should you be caught inflating them in the dark. Chances are you will be.
Putting the AstroAI C1 Portable Tire Inflator to the Test
The AstroAI C1 portable tire inflator is a very straightforward device, and I really like it for that reason. You turn it on, set your tire pressure setting, hook it up and pull the trigger to start the compressor. A single pull is all it takes to get the compressor running, and pulling it again turns it off. It’ll also automatically cut the compressor when the desired pressure is reached.
I give it props for simplicity and ease of storage. It comes with a nice pouch that you can easily set in your trunk and forget about until you need it. It’s a perfect companion for the portable jump starter that’s hanging around in there, too.
Performance is where this thing starts to fall off for me in particular. But let’s be perfectly clear, the car I drive every day isn’t exactly what this tool’s designed to compete with. It’s a classic muscle car with meaty tires all around. The literature tells us the AstroAI C1 portable compressor can inflate a 195/65/15 tire from flat in under 5 minutes. I have no doubt it will. However, the 275/60/15s on the rear of my ’69 Charger are a far cry from a fair match for this thing.
During testing, I deflated my 275s completely to time how long this thing would take to inflate them from flat. I started by running it on the 12-volt power supply. I went into this knowing that it wouldn’t perform nearly as well as it would with the 20-volt battery. Still, I didn’t expect it to take 18 minutes to inflate the tire to 32 psi. I repeated the test on my 245/60/15 front tire, which took 13 minutes to complete.
Obviously, filling a tire at any rate is good when you’re stranded, but that’s still a long time to sit on the shoulder. Things do take a step in the right direction when switching to the 20-volt battery.
Repeating the exact same test resulted in the rear tire reaching 32 psi in about 10 minutes, with the front taking 7 minutes. Unfortunately, however, the AstroAI C1 portable tire inflator will only refill one tire for me on a single charge. I had to repeat testing of the front tire, because it only filled the tire to 24 psi before the battery died when attempting both tests without recharging. Refilling that front tire on a full charge also consumed more than half the battery.
The performance results of the front tire test aren’t very far off from what AstroAI quotes in the description. It’s performance there tells me that, while it’s not right for this application it’s a viable choice for cars with smaller tires, especially with bigger wheels. Out of curiosity, I deflated the tires on my Suzuki DRZ400 to see how it performed with a smaller tire. It inflated both in under a minute each. This confirms to me that this affordable tire inflator isn’t a bad tool, just not the right one for the Charger.
The Verdict
Overall, the AstroAI C1 inflator is a pretty solid budget-friendly inflator It’s easy to use and it will ultimately get you off the side of the road. Any actual complaints I have about it regard the battery life. Some users report being able to refill multiple tires on a single charge of the 20-volt battery, but that didn’t happen here. Again, I’m outside of what I’d consider normal parameters for this pump, but I still think there’s room for improvement. Recharge times are also considerably long as it relies on a USB cord connected to up to a 5-volt/2-amp wall charger, which isn’t included. This doesn’t prevent it from filling a tire, considering the option to run on 12-volt power, but it is something to be actively aware of.
As for the AstroAI C1 portable tire inflator’s struggles with my car, that’s really at no fault of its own. It’s just not meant for applications like this. That said, I have no reservations when recommending it to someone with a small car or motorcycle who needs an affordable tire inflator for emergencies. It’s not leading the pack, but it’s definitely not a bad choice on a budget for those applications. Those of us rolling on bigger tires just have to accept, once again, that our choice in vehicles comes with the tradeoff of having to rely on bigger, more costly tools.
| | AstroAI C1 Portable Tire Inflator |
|---|---|
| Value | 8/10 |
| Performance | 7/10 |
| Battery Life | 6/10 |
| Ease of Use | 9/10 |
| Overall | 7/10 |