Lets face it, getting a flat tire can really put a damper on your day, especially if you happen to be far away from help. While a handful of current automotive models still come with compact spare tires, an increasing number of them are ditching the traditional spare tire in lieu of portable kits or nothing at all. This latter trait has really allowed portable tire compressors to come into their own, and the market in these devices has grown over the past few years. But choosing the right one for your vehicle can be tough, so when the folks at Audew reached out to us with a chance to try out their newest tire inflation tool, we were keen to see if it can indeed live up to the tough expectations that buyers have when it comes to usability, value, and feature content.
Everything You Need In One Place:
Arguably the best thing that we liked about our tester had to be how everything was conveniently in one place. Unlike other tire compressors on the market, Audew engineers thoughtfully put everything you need within the unit itself. a top mounted LED flashlight helps provide extra illumination at night, while the nozzle, power cord, and the gauge itself are all mounted on the unit itself. Audew took pride in addressing issues of durability, and have enclosed the delicate bits in a rugged plastic shell that has a nice looking yellow and black motif. While the shape of the shell itself does make putting it back into its portable carrying case a chore at times, it does help provide protection from the elements, as well as accidental drops.
Our tester also proved to be a very versatile unit, and it arrived with several extra nozzles to help it excel with other types of air inflation jobs. These include sports balls, air mattresses, and other items. The lone caveat of course is that you have to be right next to the car when you are filling these particular items, but we will give Audew credit for including these nozzles to help show off the sheer amount of practicality that comes baked into the unit’s basic design, while also making it a very potent tool for family outings at the same time.
How Does It Perform?
While the ability to be an impressive multi-tasker helps the Audew stand out from some of its rivals, the ultimate question here is just how good it is at pumping air into a tire or other inflatable items? To find out, we enlisted the services of our visiting MINI Clubman tester (for the photos) as well as an older Ford Focus to see for ourselves what the Audew was capable of. The 10 foot power cord is a real blessing here, and it allowed our tester to easily go from one tire to the next on the Focus, with minimal repositioning needed. Setup is also very straight forward, with LED lights turning themselves on after the unit is plugged in. The nozzle should be familiar to those that use bike pumps, with the clamp down nozzle only requiring you to set it over the stem, and then clamping it down to obtain a secure connection. Once that is done, the LED unit should read the current pressure (with our unit reading 27 PSI for three of the tires.) The fourth tire read a meager 19 PSI, and that gave us the opportunity to try out the unit’s pumping capability. To use it, you operate either a plus or minus button which allows you to set a target air pressure. Once that is done, flip the switch, and the compressor will inflate air into the tire until the target figure is reached. When that happens, it automatically shuts off to help prevent you from accidentally over inflating it (a nice nod to safety.)
In action, the inflator’s performance can be compared to some of the air inflation tools that you see at a gas station, with our unit increasing pressure by a half a PSI every 8 to 10 seconds. Total time from start to finish was typically over a minute, though the low pressure of our test tire did help add an extra minute to the procedure. The noise from the electric compressor motor is roughly what you would expect from similar units, and for those that use metric, the system can easily be adjusted back and forth to accommodate those particular readings. This allows it to stand out from other models that have analog gauges which lack some of the on the fly adaptability offered by digital screens.
Final Thoughts:
When it comes to its usability, the Audew portable tire inflator certainly earns a spot in any vehicular emergency kit. It’s feature rich, easy to use, and is small enough of a size to fit into many types of storage spaces. Our tester is also very inexpensive, with Audew only asking under $30 to buy it from Amazon. This pricing puts it in line with many of its digitally powered rivals, and it also creates a very compelling long term value considering that many gas stations these days charge a certain amount per minute to use air from their nozzles.
You can’t really go wrong, and we look forward to seeing what the future holds for Audew especially in vehicle car technology. Buyers can also check out Audew’s official website here for more information on offerings like our tester as well as the rest of the company’s offerings. Also use this code for 20 percent off (20% Off code: CRDAUDEW) which expires May 30th.
Carl Malek has been an automotive journalist for over 10 years. First starting out as a freelance photographer before making the transition to writing during college, his work has appeared on numerous automotive forums as well as websites such as Autoshopper.com.
Carl is also a big fan of British vehicles with the bulk of his devotion going to the Morgan Motor Company as well as offerings from Lotus, MG, and Caterham. When he is not writing about automobiles, Carl enjoys spending time with his family and friends in the Metro Detroit area, as well as spending time with his adorable pets.