Cycplus Electric Air Pump A2

The Cycplus Electric Air Pump A2 is very impressive – considering the price it's pretty amazing, in fact. While it's portable if you really hate normal pumps (or CO2), it's really best suited to the car or shed, where its impressive pumping strength, decent battery life and ease of use make it extremely handy.

For other inflation options, check out our guide to the best bike pumps.

> Buy now: Cycplus Electric Air Pump A2 for £39.37 from Cycplus

The little compressor inside this is fairly loud, but strong. Inflate a tyre from flat and you can hear it gradually slowing as the back-pressure rises, but it doesn't fall off rapidly; it keeps on stuffing the air in with impressive determination. You set the target pressure (anywhere from 3-150psi), press the button and just let it get on with it.

Testing this on a 28mm road tyre (19mm ID rim), it took almost exactly 60 seconds to reach 60psi, but then another 45-50 seconds to add another 30psi.

From flat to 90psi in under two minutes is very good, and performance doesn't seem to suffer if you do a second wheel straight afterwards – in fact, the second tyre in this test reached 90psi five seconds quicker, in 1m 50secs.

Nevertheless, it does suggest the company's claim of 0-120psi in 90 seconds (on a 25mm tyre) is optimistic – it only manages 75-80psi on a 28mm in that time. Perhaps Cycplus used a very narrow rim to reduce the volume as much as possible to achieve that. Whatever the case, it doesn't really matter; you're only standing around making no effort anyway. If you want speed, you should look towards CO2 inflators.

Doing two 28mm road tyres isn't enough to seriously heat any part of this, and though the base of the hose gets warm it's nowhere near too hot to touch. Cycplus says this thing can manage 5-10 minutes' continuous use before needing to be left to cool down, but you'd need to be pumping a car tyre to run that long.

It can manage that kind of run-time thanks to 5,200mAh of capacity from the pair of 2,600mAh, 7.4V batteries inside. There's a five-part indicator on the LED screen to let you know how the cells are doing, and the 0-90psi test on two tyres ate just one (so 20%).

Obviously the run-times (and how hot it gets) will vary massively depending on your particular tyre volumes and pressures. With a bigger gravel or mountain bike tyre it has to run longer to pump more air, but on the other hand it doesn't have to pull higher currents while straining against high pressures, so it heats up more slowly.

> How to choose the best bike tyre pressure – balancing speed, comfort and grip

This is actually rated for motorcycle and car tyres, too, so I used it to pump a Suzuki's front tyre (120/60/17 size) from 3.5 to 32psi. That took a very reasonable 2m 20s and another 20% of the battery.

The last little part of the flexible hose is a Presta adaptor; just unscrew it and, Hey Presto, hey it's Schrader. The hose slides into the pump body when you're not using it.

It's all very easy to use. A long press turns it on or off, a short press start or stops it running, and the plus/minus buttons set the pressure anywhere up to 150psi. You can switch the units to bar, kilopascals or kgf/cm2 if those suit you better, and who doesn't love a bit of kilogram force per centimetre squared? It's how I measure all my sighs.

The screen gives a live readout of tyre pressure when connected, too, which is pretty useful.

To be more useful still, it has a USB-out socket to function as a power bank (the 5V 2A output will charge lights, phones and the like), and a small LED torch. This really is small; it's a single bulb that's useful for hunting around on the ground for the tiny black Presta adaptor you've lost, for instance, rather than something for walking around unlit places with.

It also arrives with a bottle-cage-style mount, but there's no word of any meaningful waterproofing for the pump. In fact, the manual says, 'Please try to avoid silt invasion, soaking and bad fall', which implies it's splashproof at best and not dustproof at all; the ports are all unsheilded.

Value

For around £40 (it changes with the exchange rate – it was £41.11 a month ago, and is currently £39.37) you can't go far wrong, as most cycle-specific compressors cost considerably more. Cycplus' own Cube Mini Pump is around £70, for instance, though that one's tiny and genuinely suitable for carrying with you on rides.

The Fumpa Minifumpa is similar but slightly larger (it's just about packable) for £109. It's great, though, and fast.

For shed/home use, the Makita DMP 180Z 18V Cordless Inflator is close at £50.99 and offers a rugged build, but only makes sense if you already use Makita's LXT tools and have the necessary battery and charger to use with it.

Overall

The lack of weatherproofing makes the supplied mount feel a bit pointless, but assuming you're not really after a clever on-bike solution, this is great. For home/car-based convenience it impresses with its large battery capacity, easy use, decent quality and accessible price.

Verdict

Simple and effective with good performance and battery life – it's not weatherproof, though, so forget the frame mount