Editors Rating
4.5/5
4.5 stars
There are some car accessories that are very useful at all times and make our lives easier. These include Mobile Phone Holders and Chargers, Boot Organizers, and Vacuum Cleaners among other things.
But there are some car accessories which we hope never to use them but often come very handy during emergencies. One such accessory is a Tire Inflator. Whether you get a low-pressure warning on your dash or you have a flat tire, a tire inflator can quickly refill air into the tire and make your car move.
We recently got our hands on a tiny little tire inflator, the TUSA A6. It is a compact unit with an ergonomic design and decent build quality. Apart from car and bike tires, you can also inflate balls and small mattresses (air cushions) using this inflator.
This is a review of the TUSA A6 Tire Inflator. We are writing this after thoroughly testing the unit for different possible scenarios such as how long it takes to fill a completely flat tire, how long can you run it, accessories, and many more. Continue reading to find out more about our thoughts and impressions of the same.
Let us kick off this review by taking a look at the contents of the package. As soon as you open the outer cardboard box, you get a black carry case with a grab handle on the top and TUSA branding on the front.
Opening the zipper of the bag, you get a tiny zip-locked plastic bag with a user manual in it. Next, we have the Tire Inflator itself (which is wrapped in a similar plastic bag, only slightly larger). Let us keep the main event aside for the time being.
The user manual has all the basic information about the tire inflator. There is a neat diagram with labels for all the buttons, display, LEDs, and other attachments.
At the back of the inflator, you have four tiny accessories. Of those, one is a spare 15 Amp fuse. The other three are nozzle attachments for the inflator. Using these nozzles you can fill air in balls, bikes, and even small air cushions or mattresses.
We will talk more about the elements of the tire inflator in the next section. But that’s it for the contents.
Coming back to the TUSA Tire Inflator, when you first hold it in your hands, you can feel its lightweight and compact design. It weighs around 800 g (about 1.77 lbs.) and the dimensions are roughly 20 cm ×17 cm × 8.5 cm.
On the front, just above the TUSA logo, you can see a wide white strip. This contains the LEDs. It has three white LEDs and two red LEDs. The white LEDs act as the main flashlight while the red LEDs light up for SOS mode.
Speaking of modes, the lighting on the TUSA Tire Inflator has three modes: regular flashlight mode (all three white LEDs glow), flashing mode (all five LEDs flash on and off), and emergency SOS mode(two red LED flash in SOS).
On the top, we have a digital display in the center and four buttons, two on either side of the display. With the TUSA logo facing away from you, the buttons are in the following sequence from left to right: Inflator ON/OFF button, Pressure Mode Switch Button, Pressure Increase Button, and Pressure Decrease Button.
Surrounding the buttons and display section, we have the air hose. We liked the design of this entire top section as you can completely recess the air hose so that it doesn’t flap in the breeze.
If you turn the inflator to its back, you can see four little attachments neatly pressed in their positions. We will talk more about these attachments in a later section. Another interesting thing about the back is the Orange Strip just above the Accessories compartment. First we thought this as a design element to improve the aesthetics. Later we realized that you can use this rubber strip as a handle to hold and carry the inflator. Nice touch.
While the mechanism holding the four attachments/nozzles in the back is good, we thought a tiny plastic cover/lid would be a better way to conceal them.
Next, let us focus bottom part of the inflator. If you notice, we haven’t come across the lengthy wire that we plug into the car’s cigarette lighter port. That’s because, if you look at the bottom, you can see a tiny latch to open a door. Inside this, there is a special place to place the 12V Adapter and its wire.
We measured the length of the air hose and the adapter wire at roughly 70 cm (2.3 ft.) and 305 cm (10 ft.). When you combine the two, you get about a 12.5 ft. distance between the adapter and the tip of the air hose.
While we are looking at the bottom of the inflator, you can see four rubber feet that hold the inflator in place (or at least, they try to). Overall, we liked the compactness of the design. All the wires, hoses, and attachments have their respective places and nothing flaps around.
If you used any tire inflator before, then you will find this familiar as the operations are more or less the same. Take out the TUSA A6 Tire Inflator from its carry case and remove the air hose and adapter wire from their places.
Start your car’s engine and plug the 12V Adapter into the cigarette lighter port inside the car. Do not use the inflator without starting your car as it puts a lot of strain on the car’s battery and even discharges it significantly.
If the valve of the tire has a dust cap, remove it. Now, take the air hose and insert it into the valve of the tire. Note that the air hose has a screw-type design, so, you have to screw the tip of the hose to the nozzle.
As soon as you insert the air hose, you can see the display on the tire inflator showing the current pressure reading. By default, the tire inflator displays the pressure in psi. But you can change the units by pressing the pressure mode button (this button has an ‘O’ on the top). Apart from psi, it can also display the pressure in Bar, Kpa, and Kg/cm2, if you are interested.
Using the Pressure Increase (+) and Pressure Decrease (-) buttons, set the pressure that you want to fill in the tire. We highly recommend referring to your car’s owner’s manual to get more information on the right pressure for the tires.
After you entered the desired pressure, the display flashes a couple of times and goes back to displaying the current pressure. Now, press the Power Button to turn on the inflator. You can increment or decrement the pressure in 0.5 psi steps.
The tire inflator starts inflating the tire. As soon as it reaches the set pressure, the tire inflator automatically turns itself off. Just unscrew the valve connector and remove the 12V Adapter from the cigarette lighter port. Don’t forget to place the dust cap back on the valve.
We found that the screw design of the air hose’s tip means you will lose some air while inserting and removing the air hose from the valve. So, we recommend you set half psi above the value you want to fill in the tire. For instance, if you want 30 psi in your car, set the pressure to 30.5 psi. This is to compensate for the pressure loss during screwing and unscrewing the valve connector.
You can roll the power cord and put it back in the bottom compartment. At the same time, wind the air hose in the top part so that it fits into the back and you can store it.
Let us talk some numbers now. To test the performance of the TUSA A6 Tire Inflator, we intentionally deflated all four tires of the VW Polo. Then, we noted down some timings during the operation. Here’s what we found out.
The tire inflator can fill the tire from completely flat (0 psi) to 35 psi in 3 minutes and 40 seconds. This is impressive. We did not give any break and immediately switched to the next tire (the only time gap is for removing the valve adapter and reattaching it to the new tire).
It could fill all four tires in under 16 minutes. Very good. While the inflator is working, we tested the temperature of the body and also the air hose. Some interesting results here.
The air hose became slightly hot to the touch. Its temperature crossed 65 °C. So, be careful and do not touch the air hose, especially near the inflator.
Next, the body of the tire inflator remained cool and the maximum temperature was around 32 °C. Even the area around the motor/compressor is not at all hot. The cooling fan attached to the motor is definitely doing its job.
An important point we noticed during our testing is that despite the rubber feet at the bottom, the tire inflator doesn’t stay put while inflating. The vibrations from the compressor and very strong and you can see it drifting away.
The LED lights on the tire inflator are useful during the night time but do not expect them to light up the surroundings. You can clearly see the objects in the close vicinity.
As a bonus, we have taken apart the TUSA Tire Inflator to see the internal construction and the quality of the components. You can see from the following image; everything is laid out neatly. There are compartments for the motor, compressor mechanism, the DC Wire and Adapter, and the main control circuit board. All components are fixed firmly to the outer plastic shell and there are a couple of vibration suppressing sponges as well.
If you notice the end of the motor, there is a fan attached to it. As soon as the motor starts spinning, so does the blades of the fan. This mechanism helps in dissipating the heat from the motor and aids in running the inflator for an extended period.
We would like to mention a couple of things about the tiny accessories that come with the TUSA Tire Inflator. You have four attachments located at the back of the inflator.
One of them is the spare fuse. If you aren’t familiar with tire inflators, then the 12V Adaptor has a fuse built into it. You can unscrew the front part of the adapter and replace the fuse, if necessary.
The other three attachments are different nozzle adapters. You can fill the air in balls (footballs, basketballs, etc.) using the thin steel nozzle. The tiny brass nozzle is suitable for small bicycle tires.
Using the black plastic nozzle, you can fill the air in small air cushions, pillows, leg rests, etc.
At $29.99, the TUSA A6 Tire Inflator is very reasonably priced for the performance it offers. You can fill a completely flat tire in less than 4 minutes. You also get lights and a couple of nozzle attachments to inflate other objects. The best thing is TUSA offers a one-year free replacement. That’s right. If you face any problems within one year of the purchase, you can claim a free replacement directly from TUSA.
Overall, we liked the TUSA A6 Tire Inflator. It is a compact little device with some good design choices. You can tuck away all the wires and hoses and nothing floats around. Everything has a place. Even the tiny nozzle attachments.
LED flashlight is very useful when inflating tires at night time and the SOS LED Flashing comes in handy during emergencies.
The TUSA Tire Inflator can inflate a tire from 0 to 35 psi in less than 4 minutes, which is very impressive. Although they say you can use this inflator for up to 60 minutes (at 35 psi) without any break, we would not recommend it.
If you are in the market for a well-built tire inflator that offers excellent performance, then we highly recommend the TUSA A6 Tire Inflator. Apart from a couple of tiny nitpicking, there isn’t much that can go wrong with this one.
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