12V high pressure air pump recommendation

SouthFL_RIBing · 26 June 2019, 01:19

Hello everyone,
I'm in the market for a 12V 11psi or higher high pressure air pump to inflate my Saturn 15' dinghy. Inflating that boat with the hand pump is quite a lot of work. So far I was looking at this pump, which Boatstogo.com website sells, and it seems can be found at Amazon under different branding names..
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...=AVG1OG8NA8VS5
Just wondering if I'm in the right track or you all think there's something out there better for the price. Your recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

DiabloLoco · 26 June 2019, 01:31

A friend of mine has that same one. It works great. When the pump starts it will be on a HIGH VOLUME (Turbine) pump until the pressure reaches 2-3 PSI. Then the pump will automatically switch over to the HIGH PRESSURE (Piston) pump and inflate the boat to its set pressure. Once reaching the set pressure the pump will automatically turn itself off.

Only problem I don't like with this model is how the pressure dial is used. it reads in a way that I had to look up the formula. The measurement is kpa. I had to figure out the 20 kpa is 2.9psi. I didn't like that. So, I bought this one.
You can the read and set the dial in PSI or BAR.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Bravo-BTP-1...4AAOSww4JcfbSK

Bigplumbs · 26 June 2019, 03:29

Don’t get the Bravo get the Itiwit electric pump from Decathlon £39.99

I have both Bravo in the pic above and also 2 of the Itiwit. The Itiwit is far far superior and less than half the price.

DiabloLoco · 26 June 2019, 04:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bigplumbs

Don’t get the Bravo get the Itiwit electric pump from Decathlon £39.99

I have both Bravo in the pic above and also 2 of the Itiwit. The Itiwit is far far superior and less than half the price.

I got my Bravo 12 new on Amazon for $95 US delivered. Do you have Amazon in the UK?

The Itiwit electric pump is a little over $100 US on Ebay and takes a month to get here. You guys get it a lot cheaper over there. Looks like a nice unit

Dry Run · 26 June 2019, 07:29

I agree with Bigplumbs. Have had bravo pumps and they break (frequently) and customer service from Bravo is SH1t. The decathlon is just as good and half the price.

PS neither pump likes being run over by a 40 tonne forklift

ShinyShoe · 26 June 2019, 07:41

Is there a Decathlon in the US? The OP is i Florida...

Fenlander · 26 June 2019, 08:39

>>>had bravo pumps and they break (frequently)

In the past I've sometimes called the Bravo a bit flaky because of what others have said and mine seemed to be erratic a couple of years ago.

However I discovered it was the portable battery I was using slowly failing and it seems Bravo pumps with the electronic display in particular don't like low voltages.

Also with lower voltages... poor portable batteries, extending the leads or using without the car running... the second stage HP pump seems less happy as it will run slowly and struggle rather than spinning over nicely.

But mine is now 8yrs old and works as well as new... never needed to take it apart.

The advantage of the Bravo is its output on the initial turbine fill stage which is 6x greater than the Itiwit meaning it's working far less hard to get the tubes to shape and even in HP mode it has 3x the output of the Itiwit.

I've also know folks using valve adaptors that don't properly open the valve which causes the Bravo to go straight to the high pressure pump mode which makes it so slow to inflate a SIB and burns out the HP pump fairly quickly.

I think RIB owners who have used Bravo pumps (Willk?) to inflate massive tubes might have actually worn or burnt them out but in my experience for leisure use sibbing given mine has reached 8yrs I'd just buy another if it failed.

On Itiwit's own site almost 20% of the review are poor/very poor usually because of failure, slow operation, inability to make pressure or overheating so they are not without their problems. But they are very good value and probably would be my choice for a second carry aboard 12v pump for on the water top ups.

The Black Pig · 26 June 2019, 09:30

I have a bravo pump for my sib, after a year when it stopped running I had it apart only to find its own vibration had caused the male/female internal elec tabs had set free, it was an arms distance away from the bin

Fenlander · 26 June 2019, 10:02

I am tempted to take mine apart to extend its life as I think I remember Willk saying his failed on a ball and socket that melted or failed which might be prevented by a blob of grease.

SouthFL_RIBing · 26 June 2019, 16:04

Thank you all for the replies
That first eBay link for the Bravo pump states a price of $189! Pretty hefty price for an air pump.. I was looking to stay around $100 as I have many other things I need to buy for the boat yet, so we’ll see.. not sure if some of the pumps you guys mentioned are only sold in Europe as my search returned other results.. I don’t want to wait a month either fir it.
I found some videos on YouTube with the one I originally posted, it seems like a pretty good pump for the price. I’m not liking the Bravo’s 20% failure rate. Once I get it, I’ll follow up with my thoughts and short review of it. Thanks

Fenlander · 26 June 2019, 16:33

As it was in my mind had the Bravo pump apart today.

I see the main cables connect to the board with push fit terminals but these have been tacked with solder from the factory. There are only two other non-soldered connections inside and they are the wires to the turbine pump so I soldered those.

Also greased the three potential wear/overheat points on the HP pump... the flywheel bearing, the conrod/crankpin and the "small end" in the piston.

DiabloLoco · 26 June 2019, 16:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by SouthFL_RIBing

That first eBay link for the Bravo pump states a price of $189! Pretty hefty price for an air pump.. I was looking to stay around $100 Thanks

As I stated before, I got my Bravo 12 on Amazon for less than $100. There are a lot of different brands. All of them have issues. A good one is going to run you $90 to $125. Cheaper ones will fail you. Just make sure whatever you decide, that it is a two-stage pump.

DiabloLoco · 26 June 2019, 16:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fenlander

As it was in my mind had the Bravo pump apart today.

I see the main cables connect to the board with push fit terminals but these have been tacked with solder from the factory. There are only two other non-soldered connections inside and they are the wires to the turbine pump so I soldered those.

Also greased the three potential wear/overheat points on the HP pump... the flywheel bearing, the conrod/crankpin and the "small end" in the piston.

That is awesome. Thanks for posting that. I will do this myself. The big reason they fail is overheating. the grease will help with friction and reduce or even stop the overheating.

Fenlander · 26 June 2019, 18:16

Cheers. Easy to do... four screws to release the bottom of the case and two more to release the whole "works" from the upper case. Just watch you don't pull off the turbine motor wires and don't strain the connection to the digital display which is simple to unplug.