After struggling with a track pump on my latest tubeless conversion I am thinking about getting an air compressor for the garage.

Do the type you can find in Halfords inflate quick enough for tubeless tyres? Anyone got one, or have any recommendations?

I don’t want one of the track pumps that store air and release, I have a track pump so think a compressor would be more useful as I can use it on the cars also.

I use a 15 litre compressor (SiP I think).

It’s fine for inflation and running low consumption tools but anything needing a decent continuous feed (die grinders, sanders and most spray guns) need a higher CFM than it will deliver.

Ask yourself what other jobs you’ll use it for – if it’s just doing bike tyres and the occasional top up of the car tyres then it’s a reasonable (if noisy solution). Also, if you’re going to use other tools they may need oil added to the air to lubricate the tools – you’ll need separate feeds for tyres and tools if you go down that route so look for a compressor with more than one outlet.

Also look at getting a long extension for the air supply – I have one that means I don;t need to move the compressor to use it for tyres, compressors are fairly heavy and awkward to carry and bloody noisy right by your ear.

I bought an SGS one (similar to Aldi one that comes up here every so often). I wouldn’t be without it now. I grafted on the end of an old track pump to the tyre inflator and it’s brilliant. Used it for bikes, cars and our little trailer. Also use the air-line more than I thought, mainly for ‘drying’ fork seals, bearings etc after washing the bike.

Ended up buy-in an Aldi 10m hose which is encased in a drum. So can get the air anywhere in the shed and a bit outside as well

Whole setup was less than £100.

Airshot. It’s brilliant.

Maybe some links would help. Would this sort of thing be good enough??

http://www.halfords.com/workshop-tools/garage-equipment/tyre-inflators-pressure-gauges/michelin-high-power-tyre-inflator

http://www.halfords.com/workshop-tools/garage-equipment/tyre-inflators-pressure-gauges/halfords-rapid-digital-tyre-inflator

Airshot. It’s brilliant.

Maybe but I don’t want another track pump that’s only any good for inflating bike tyres. For similar money I can get compressor.

Ask yourself what other jobs you’ll use it for – if it’s just doing bike tyres and the occasional top up of the car tyres then it’s a reasonable (if noisy solution). Also, if you’re going to use other tools they may need oil added to the air to lubricate the tools – you’ll need separate feeds for tyres and tools if you go down that route so look for a compressor with more than one outlet.

Only for tyre inflation. That’s 6 – 7 bikes in the family, two cars, and a wheelbarrow with a slow puncture that I cant be bothered to fix!

No idea how effective they’d be for sealing tyres. For £40 more: https://www.sgs-engineering.com/air-compressors/sc24h-24-litre-high-flow-air-compressor

Also, I’d invest in a decent inflation tool, the free ones you get with the compressors aren’t much cop. I tend to use a separate guage and fine tune pressures on bike tyres using that, car tyres are much higher volume and seem the guage on the air tools seem to cope with that better.

Those two you have linked to will be completely useless for seating tubeless tyres trailwagger. You need something with a reservoir like Alex has linked to.

Maybe some links would help. Would this sort of thing be good enough??

http://www.halfords.com/workshop-tools/garage-equipment/tyre-inflators-pressure-gauges/michelin-high-power-tyre-inflator

http://www.halfords.com/workshop-tools/garage-equipment/tyre-inflators-pressure-gauges/halfords-rapid-digital-tyre-inflator

They might be a little low on flow rate to seat tubeless. For reference I have a more heavy duty 12V electric compressor with no air reservoir and a flow rate of 72lpm (2.5cfm) that will seat tubeless, but maybe not really stubborn tubeless combos.

Edit: Similar to this….

http://www.halfords.com/workshop-tools/garage-equipment/tyre-inflators-pressure-gauges/ring-heavy-duty-tyre-inflator-rac900

That doesn’t list flow rate but zooming in on the photos it looks like it says 55lpm (1.94cfm), so a bit lower flow rate than mine and into the price of budget compressors with reservoir and 4-5 times the cfm.

Those two you have linked to will be completely useless for seating tubeless tyres trailwagger. You need something with a reservoir like Alex has linked to.

Excellent, thank you.

yes, sorry hadn’t looked at the links.

As NRTom said – they’re no good for tubeless they probably deliver less air than a track pump used with little enthusiasm.

Those two you have linked to will be completely useless for seating tubeless tyres trailwagger. You need something with a reservoir like Alex has linked to.

I agree with the first part. The second part is an absolute statement that I don’t agree with. A reservoir helps but with a reasonably decent flow rate you don’t need a reservoir.

We bough one of the Aldi ones in their sale, does tyres to tubless easy and use the dust attachment for blowing out the brakes.

Works so go we bought another one for leaving in the camper. for £25 in the sale you cant go wrong.

Tracey, out of interest does that have a flow rate (lpm/cfm) listed?

Im a women so have no idea. What I do know is that it will pop tyres onto rims in seconds, even the 3.0 Purgatorys went up with ease. Never had one fail yet.
Its mounted on the garage wall out of the way. When we do the car tyres it just lifts down to reach into the drive.

Haha no worries 🙂 I might keep an eye out if Aldi have them in again. The only pain with my current one is it’s 12V, so ideal to keep in the van but a 240V one would be better in the garage.

Found this with 180 l/m

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wolf-Dynamite-Lightweight-Compressor-Inflation/dp/B073Q4KRSR/ref=sr_1_53?s=diy&ie=UTF8&qid=1511779391&sr=1-53&keywords=compressor

Whereas I tried one of those Aldi ones and it was crap. I can fart harder. Went back about 15mins after I’d bought it! Maybe it was faulty, but there was no poke to it.

I have 20l tank compressor a mate gave me now which makes the majority of tyres a doddle, but there’s still the odd one (generally older rims and tyres) that proves painful and needs oodles of neat fairy to make it seal enough to pop on.

Any other recommendations at all? The boyfriend has mentioned getting one for Christmas, got about £80 to spend really. It’s mostly so he can inflate his car tyres while he’s at home but I reckon being able to use power tools and potentially doing some spray painting may come in handy for him. He has access to a workshop grade airline and compressor at work but no spare time to do so. I’m pretty happy about it tbf as I can use it to mount tubeless easily!

Car inflators are useless, you need a receiver ie air bottle so it can build pressure. A 12v car rattler shifts less air than a good track pump (it’s just it can do it for a long time effortlessly)

My compressor is a £100 SIP, 50 litre, it’s waaaay more than you need for tyres but it wasn’t much more expensive than a little bottle.

Better track pump and use loads of soap suds around the bead.

Also wider rims and Maxxis tyres seem to be easier.

I’ve got the knack now and often can seat them without soapy water.

Alternative to a compressor is CO2 carts (seat before adding sealant).

I’m considering a vertical one because it will take up less space. Something like this:

AIRMATE HURRICANE V215/25 COMPRESSOR https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00JS1W622/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_k48iAbQZ49JH5

Northwind which do you have? Could justify spending a little more if its a worthwhile difference for what we’ll use it for. Rather be overpowered than underpowered.

You need something with a reservoir like Alex has linked to.

Not necessarily

We bough one of the Aldi ones in their sale, does tyres to tubless easy and use the dust attachment for blowing out the brakes.

Ones like Tracey’s this don’t have a reservoir – however they belt out a fairly decent CFM (with the disadvantage that they run continuously so they’re noisy). However they effectively have a reservoir in the hose – as you discover whenever you unplug the hose from compressors theres a fair old blast of air stored up in there – as much if not more as you’d have in something like an airshot, much more than you’d get in a CO2 cartridge.

The other thing about a proper compressor is that you can use it to quickly dry the bike, that’s probably the most frequent use for ours

Oh I stand corrected, I thought Tracy’s one had a little bottle inside the case

https://www.sgs-engineering.com/air-compressors/sc24h-24-litre-high-flow-air-compressor

Just ordered this one, should do the job they have good reviews. Tesco have just put the air pump price off so will cover cars and bike.

Oh I stand corrected, I thought Tracy’s one had a little bottle inside the case

no they’re just the compressor itself in a handy portable package so that the hose and lead can tuck inside it. No air receiver. They’re good for what they are – their only achilles heal is the air line is a permanent fit – emanating from somewhere inside the case rather than having a connector to plug into – so when the hose fails (they just degrade over time and start blistering) unless you’re prepared to dismantle and rebuild it its the end of the road.

It’s mostly so he can inflate his car tyres while he’s at home but I reckon being able to use power tools and potentially doing some spray painting may come in handy for him. He has access to a workshop grade airline and compressor at work but no spare time to do so

None of the ones above will be a patch on a workshop airline, and won’t be up to spray painting or running things like air sanders (none of the cheaper compressors will).