I bought a Bonty Flash charger last june. Its been used for perhaps a dozen tubeless tyre installations, and general use. Just trying to setup my latest wheel/tyre combo, and it started to squeak when pumping, and then jammed completely. It will now move when nothing is connected, and only very slowly. Seems that a seal has somehow failed on it.

I’ve contacted the shop I bought it from, but has anyone else had a problem? Its been flawless up to now and is stupidly easy to use.

No issues with mine at all.

No issues at all with mine either.

No problems here either

If you can open it up the seal on the end of the plunger needs greasing. Had the exact same symptoms on a portable pump handle pressure washer thing. Opened it up. Cleaned and regreased shaft and seal and it works like new again.

I’m guessing the heat produced during use causes the seal to dry out.

Mines fine too. Gets used as a normal pump every second day.

I’ve had a response from Triton Cycles, and from Trek UK, they’re happy to replace it.
Sod’s law just as I’m trying to get new wheels setup for the Easter hols…

so why dont you spend 5 mins finding out if its the simple fix described above?

so why dont you spend 5 mins finding out if its the simple fix described above?

Had a look, no obvious way of taking it apart. I suspect to save costs its bonded/pressed together rather than screwed. If I try and take it apart and damage it, it’ll void the warranty and then I’m out of pocket by £85. If I send it back, I get a new one and Trek get feedback as to how its failed which hopefully they can improve on in future versions.

Fair enough, in my mind’s eye there are spanner flats on the seal head, obviously not

Hmm, you could be right, Google images is bringing some up. It was dark in my garage last night when it all went tits up, so I may have missed the detail. Either way, the grease surely shouldn’t dry out after such little use.

Depends a bit on how much grease was in there to start with.

Definitely spanner flats on it. Whip plunger out, reseat o-ring, smear of grease. Go.

I’ll see if I can do it subtly
” As long as there are no obvious signs of damage etc, we will get this replaced for you.”

Don’t want to get on the wrong side of Trek.

As an aside, when using it as a track pump does everyone elses piss out air after removing it from the valve? For this reason I can’t be sure my tyres are up to pressure or its reading pressure in its own hose.

Or, more likely its user error.

?

On the Charger? Yes, ours does that when you remove the head – lots of air gushing out.
Buy a digital handheld gauge for a tenner. You’ll thank me later.

Pressure gauge is accurate but is measuring for the whole system. It helps if you flip the lever down to lock the chamber before removing the hose, so it only loses as much as a normal pump.

You can then either keep the lever down to speed up your next tyre inflation, or release it whilst pointing at pile of dirt on the floor, puddle of water or the nearest pet or child (Disclaimer: but not in the face)

I must be using it wrong. When I connect the hose (lever up) it doesn’t register my – in this mornings case road – tyre pressure. I can pump away and the pressure gauge slowly goes up but appears not to be indicative of the tyre pressure.

?

The pressure gauge shows the pressure in the pressure chamber when the lever is down or the whole pump when the lever is up. If you are inflating the tyre it will also be the pressure in your tyre BUT until the pressure in the pump exceeds the pressure in the tyre you won’t be inflating the tyre (unless the pump head has pushed the valve open)

and what makes the Flash Charger less than ideal as a track pump is that you have to pressurise the chamber before you start putting air into your tyre. Great as the charger is I use a Joe Blow for inflation duties unless I’m going away and only want to take one track pump. Shut the chamber between inflations to save yourself some pumping unless you have some calories to burn (take-away curry, pudding, etc) 🙂

I bought this before I realised that I won’t be able to use it as a track pump easily – when you connect the hose the tyre deflates to fill up the big chamber and equalize the pressure.
I don’t think there is any way they could have done this differently, barring some complicated valve system that bypasses the reservoir.

So this is why I have two track pumps :).

So in my scenerio whereby I wanted to top up a road tire by 10psi this morning,
I’m pumping away from the bottom until it reaches 85-psi/what is in the tyre and only then am I topping up the tire?

FFS. I think I’ll carry on with my old park track pump to avoid all the effort.

I bought this before I realised that I won’t be able to use it as a track pump easily

Quite! 🙁

So this is why I have two track pumps

+1

It does however slightly detract from the advantages of the Flash Charger versus the Airshot. It’s quite comical using the Flash Charger on a road tyre though – you want to add 5psi, but attaching the hose takes 60psi out of the tyre!

Still a bloody good bit of kit!