Staying on top of tyre pressure (pun intended) is important. Too high and your teeth feel like they are falling off, too little and every little bump seems to be becoming directly intimate with your precious wheels. Especially in wet road conditions or cyclocross dialing the correct pressure can mean the difference between the perfect line rather than flying out of a corner. If you haven’t experimented with tyre pressures I highly encourage you to do so.
While experimenting you will inevitably notice a couple of things. First, your floor pump dial is usually reaaaaly far away for you to see small increments and second, the gauge has no small increments; 5psi and 0.5 bar is the finest you can go…again if you can see it. Of course you can get a nice tyre pressure gauge and pump-check-pump-check again, but I mean, pumping tyres shouldn’t be a multi-step activity.
I was watching the “8 Ball Diaries” cyclocross movie and I saw one of the mechanics there using something that looked like a cordless drill, it had a hose attached to it and he was pumping tyres. The unit had a nice backlit display. Where do I get one of these?!?!?!
What I have seen was the green Bosch PAG unit, long discontinued (as of end 2012) and not appearing on any sites like eBay. Tough luck… But no! Apparently there is an alternative – the Craftsman Cordless Inflator available from Sears in the US or eBay for the rest of the world (price ~EU35/$45). Similar to the Bosch in function with a 200psi (13.7bar) max pressure. The unit’s main purpose is inflating car tyres and various things like beach balls, air mattresses so it came with a hose for a Schrader (car) valve. All accessories attach to the Schrader head, so not ideal for bicycle use.
You can use the provided screw on Presta adaptor, however, neither convenient, nor elegant. I have heard of people simply cutting off the Schrader head off and attaching a bicycle pump head of their choice such as the Silca. Again, not optimal. So with some modification I put a Lezyne pump hose to the Craftsman Cordless Inflator. I have been impressed with the durability and the usability of all Lezyne pump accessories so it is no wonder it was my first choice for my conversion. For this project the Lezyne hose is a perfect fit into the head of the inflator. You can use the standard included Flip Thread Chuck for either Presta or Schrader valves, by just…unscrewing and flipping it. Car or bicycle tyres, no problem. In addition the Lezyne Slip Chuck is super fast and compatible with disc wheels as well! So read on…
The Conversion
- Craftsman Cordless Inflator
- Hose nipple – 4xM5 or similar that you can find in a hardware/air compressor store, go small rather than big sizewise.
- Lezyne floor pump replacement hose with a Flip-thread chuck
- M5/6 steel washer+a similarly (over)sized rubber ring
- Lezyne Slip Chuck (Optional for convenience and for disc wheels)
The Steps
- Unscrew the red cap and remove the provided hose.
- Remove the rubber bushing.
- Cut the Lezyne hose to the desired length; 30cm (1ft) is plenty.
- Slide the red cap onto the hose, than the rubber washer onto the chuck; than the steel washer; insert the hose into the chuck assembly
- The rubber washer should be able to cover the whole front of the inflator
- Slide the red cap over the chuck assembly, it is a tight-ish fit; make sure the rubber washer fits square against the inner surface of the red cap.
- Screw the cap back on; finger tight is enough
- Go pump your tyres and ride your bike! (the gauge reads 2psi higher accounting for the pressure in the hose)
You can use the Speed Chuck so you never have to unscrew the Flip thread chuck should you need to pump up a disc wheel.
So far I pumped 4x car tyres form 22 to 32psi, 4x2in wide bike tyres from nothing to 60psi and I have been using the inflator daily on my bike. Battery is still going strong.
NOTE: The Craftsman Cordless Inflator does NOT come with a battery or a charger so you need to order that separately, it costs 2x the price of the tool. I recommend the Li-ion battery. Also the charger is 120V ONLY!!! Get a converter before you connect it to a 220-230V socket!
P.S. I wondered what is the difference between the Red and Yellow Flip-thread Chucks. All I could see is that the internal parts of the Red one are metal rather than plastic so in theory they should be more durable.
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7 replies on “The Craftsman Cordless Inflator”
I have been using the Craftsman Inflator for 3 years now and love it. Often thought of doing the conversion for a long hose and presta valve ease of use.
My question is have you had any issues wittiest he hose blowing off the the barbed fitting since there is no hose clamp to hold it? I ask because I have had issues with replacement bicycle pump head blowing off at increasing higher pressures. Thanks!
Brian
Hi Brian,
Thank you for your comment. To answer your question, I have had the hose blow off the barb fitting on the rare occassions I had forgotten to unscrew the presta valve…we have all done that at one point or another…=) Than I see the pressure instantaneously shoot to 155-170psi and the hose just pops off really quick. This is more operator error than a problem of the design. Nonetheless I found that by roughing up the polished surface of the barb fitting, it makes the hose more difficult to remove/install; whether that makes a difference, I am not sure. I have used the inflator successfully for tires up to 160psi with no problems. Of course it might depend on the barb fitting/hose combination you have but as long the air has somehwere to go, the hose should stay attached.
Good luck with your conversion!
-Nikola
I’ve been looking for a hose barb for a while now here in Canada and haven’t found any that fits properly. Can you tell me where you find yours and if there’s a place I could get it on the web?
Thanks
Hi Luc,
I’ve been trying to find the invoice of the parts that I bought, unfortunately unsuccessfully. I do remember though that I ordered the barb from a supplier that specialized in pressurized/compressed air systems (it was a dutch supplier since I was living the Netherlands at the time; not very handy in your case) so they had all kinds of parts to connect air hoses and such. I think you can do a google search to find somebody in your area that specializes in those type of installations and they can assist you further; ideally you can go to a physical shop and test what you are getting. I couldn’t do that, so I had to order a couple of barbs at once since I wasn’t sure exactly what I needed, however, they were relatively cheap so it was all part of the experiment. Good luck with the project and let me know of your progress!
-Nikola
Hi Nikola, what’s the battery life like when pumping up road tyres? I work for a bike hire company and something like this would be great if it can do a fair few bikes on one charge.
Cheers
Blake
Hi Blake,
To be honest, since I don’t come close to the volume that you will be doing, I never really paid attention, though for daily pressure checking i can say 2-3 weeks for sure. You can always get an extra battery since it charges quickly so you always have one available, Craftsman has a 12V car charger available as well I think. In your case the handheld inflator would definitely be of great help if you don’t have a shop compressor/airline.
Best,
Nikola
Hi Nikola, Thanks for the reply, fingers crossed it could be a huge help for us during the summer when we’re out and about!