How well can Ryobi's One+ Air Pump inflate tyres?

WHILE we were playing with tyre pressures and compressors, we grabbed another unit that had recently arrived at 4X4 Australia HQ: Ryobi's One+ inflator-deflator air pump.

The unit is part of the brand’s One+ range of power tools, so it is powered by the same 18-volt battery packs that fit more than 100 different tools.

The cordless unit has both a low-pressure, high-volume pump for inflating things like footballs and air mattresses, and a high-pressure pump for inflating tyres. The deflator part of it is on the low-pressure side for sucking the air out of mattresses when it’s time to pack up camp.

A cool feature of the Ryobi pump is its digital pressure gauge that allows you to preset a desired pressure to inflate the tyres, just like the pumps at a service station. It makes getting the correct pressure easy and the readout can be set to show kPa, bar or psi to suit your needs.

We were sceptical of the compact battery-powered unit’s ability to inflate a 4x4 tyre, so we put it to the test. The tool doesn’t come with a battery and, instead, we charged up a 4Ah lithium One+ battery before we started.

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With a 265/75-16 all-terrain deflated to 10psi, we set the desired pressure to 30psi and switched it on. The first minute of operation added 5.5psi to the tyre which climbed to 8psi after two minutes, 10psi after three minutes, and 15psi at five minutes. As the pressure increased, the time it took grew longer and it took seven minutes and 18 seconds to reach the 30psi setting.

That’s slow-going compared to the 12-volt compressors most of us use, and it would take you more than 30 minutes to reinflate four tyres after a beach drive.

For that reason we wouldn’t want to rely on the Ryobi pump for our 4x4 tyre needs, but it does have the added uses of pumping up your sporting and camping goods as well.

If you need it for jobs other than pumping up tyres and you have other Ryobi One+ tools, it would be worthwhile carrying it in your kit. It will get you out of trouble in an emergency, but it takes a long time to do it and there are better compressors available for this task.

The Ryobi pump comes with an assortment of nozzles and attachments for inflating various products and the tyre chuck on the high-pressure line, all of which stow neatly within the unit.

ESSENTIAL INFO

AVAILABLE FROM: www.ryobi.com.au; Bunnings stores
RRP: $109 (sans battery or charger)
WE SAY: Handy for emergencies but not ideal for 4x4 tyres.