Viair has been around for yonks in the 4wd space, but 4x4s aren’t the only things that roll on air-filled tyres. GoActive Outdoors, who also look after Thule, has just started bringing in these portable air compressors, and the compact EveryVehicle Carry Rechargeable Portable Tyre Inflator —rolls off the tongue doesn’t it — has just landed at Flow HQ.
Pitched as a solution for nailing your tyre pressure on the go, is it a viable alternative to grabbing a track pump on your way out the door?
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Overview
Measuring 7.01 x 4.85 x 20.24 cm and weighing 665g, the Viair compressor has a 3in LED screen that can display pressures in bar, PSI, and KPA. There are five preset modes, so one can be set for, say, a gravel bike, road bike, MTB and your car. Viair says it maxes out at 120 PSI.
The hose is 12cm long and is natively set up for Schrader valves; however, in the box, Viair includes a Presta adaptor, a ball needle and a fitting for air mattresses or that giant swan pool floaty you use for river floats. There’s also a carry bag and a little integrated torch to the top, which is handy for seeing the valve you’re trying to connect to in the dark.
It charges a USB-C plug, and the 18Wh internal battery takes about three hours to go from empty to full.
Viair Every Vehicle Carry Rechargeable Portable Tyre Inflator Impressions
Since the Viair compressor arrived, I’ve used it exclusively instead of my floor pump. Of course, this isn’t its intended purpose, but it highlights what it does well and where it falls short.
Thus far, I’ve filled north of two dozen tyres, ranging from top-ups on my gravel and mountain bikes to a couple that had gone fully flat and even seating an enduro casing Goodyear Newton on a carbon rim. For that last one, we’re talking about a pretty darn tight-fitting tyre that required a bit of wrestling with a tyre lever to get onto the rim, not some blown-out, loosey goosey bead that needs a blast from an actual compressor or a flash charger to snap into place.
At the time of writing, I haven’t drained the battery all the way, though I am down to one bar.
Five “modes” are available — individual, car, motorcycle, bicycle, and ball — and each has a different minimum pressure.
- Individual | 3psi
- Car | 26psi
- Motorcycle | 26psi
- Bike | 30psi
- Ball | 16psi
These pressures are the lowest where the inflator automatically cuts out, but you can stop it manually when you hit your desired pressure. Comparatively, a bike tyre has a smaller volume than a car tyre, so the auto shutoff function is probably better it that use case, so you don’t have to sit there for 15 minutes and watch it.
For reference, filling a 29×2.5in tyre from zero to 21psi took 1 minute 15 seconds.
Pressure gauge accuracy
As far as the accuracy of the pressure gauge, every time I check it against the Topeak Smartgauge I use daily, it reads 1.5psi higher. I can’t say with certainty that either one is actually correct, and I have no idea whether 23psi on the Topeak gague or the Viair Inflator is really 23psi.
But the important thing here is consistency; the difference was the same at 21psi on the front tyre on my mountain bike and 36psi on the rear tyre of my gravel bike. My baseline is set from the Topeak gauge, and with the consistency offered by the Vair inflator, I was still able to achieve my desired feel and tyre characteristics across bikes once this trend became clear.
With the inherent design of Schrader valves, the screw on the Presta adaptor is a little fiddly to use. However, given that Schrader valves are standardised you could potentially slot in a Presta chuck. I borrowed the Silca chuck from my track pump to see if it would work, but this adds to the cost of what is an already expensive item.
All compressors make noise, and according to a free DB measuring app I found in the app store, the Viair inflator registers 81db — take that number with an appropriately sized grain of salt because we are talking about a free iPhone app. It’s quieter than my full-size compressor, but I won’t be faffing about with it at 4:30am while my newborn is asleep in the room above me.
Flow’s Verdict
There is no beating around the bush that the Viair Every Vehicle Carry Rechargeable Portable Tyre Inflator is an automotive item that works for bikes, too.
It is definitely not a full-time replacement for a track pump — nor is it designed to be. It’s not compact enough to go in your downtube storage or a pocket like the Fumpa Pump and others like it. But for something to live in your bike duffle, for a weekend away riding, it takes up way less space if you’re doing top-ups in the morning.
It may also seem a bit slow, but for the time it takes to pump up a tyre and then check it with a gauge — and inevitably bleed the excess or keep pumping — the Viair and a track pump are largely a wash.
It’s also not a terrible thing to have in your car for when you do have a low tyre for one reason or another.
