What Car? test: tyre inflators - 10th Halfords Tyre Inflator £19.99

Halfords Tyre Inflator
RRP £19.99
Best price £19.99 (Halfords.com)
Weight 1.00kg

For Accurate gauge
Against Painfully slow; expensive; lacks special features

Overall


Performance
The cheapest Halfords unit took an epic 11 minutes 30 seconds to pump up or test tyre from flat. When it finally got there, the analogue gauge was surprisingly accurate and read just half a PSI under (the true pressure was 30.5 PSI). That wasn’t enough to make up for the painfully slow pumping performance, though.

Ease of operation
No problem here. The unit didn’t sport a pre-set pressure cut-off function, but it was just a case of plugging in and switching on. The foam pads absorbed most of the vibrations when inflating, but the analogue dial was still harder to read accurately than a digital gauge. Considering the lack of features, we weren’t quite sure why the body was so bulky.

Buying
As with all the Halfords units, this one can’t be bought anywhere else. Considering the lack of features and poor performance, it’s expensive. For another £4 you could buy a Ring RAC600, which is far superior in almost every respect. It you want something cheap and compact, the Draper makes a lot more sense.

Quality
It shared the same plastic case as the Halfords Rapid Inflator, but comes in bright yellow instead of dark grey. The plastic casing was on the brittle side, but the unit’s large footprint stopped it from falling over and kept in steady when pumping.

Special features
There aren't any. The basic Halfords inflator was the only unit we tested not to come with a set of adapters for pumping up footballs and airbeds etc. Elsewhere it was the bare minimum, too. It was cheaper than the other Halfords inflators to buy, but still massively overpriced considering the lack of extras.