An electric air pump for your bike? Yet another device with a rechargeable battery? Do you really need it? Anyone who has only ever used a conventional air pump for their bike may be skeptical about electric compressors. After all, pumping up a bicycle tire is not rocket science, especially as this task can be done quite effortlessly with a decent floor pump. So what’s the point of an electric model? We take a closer look at the Xiaomi Air Compressor 2 in the test!
Bicycle compressor with clever design
Admittedly, the design of the gadget, which is reminiscent of products by Apple or Dieter Rams, is part of its appeal. With dimensions of 70 x 45 x 125 mm, the Air Compressor 2 is extremely compact and, weighing just under 500 g, fits comfortably in the hand. The hose sticks out at the top, which also serves as a practical handle for transportation. Thanks to its magnetic plug connection, the hose is held securely in the housing. To use the compressor, simply pull out the left part of the hose. The gadget is switched on at the same time, which makes operation intuitive — another example of good product design.
The illuminated, large, monochrome display is activated when the device is switched on. The most recently set air pressure is displayed in the center, and the icons for the five presets for bike, scooter, car, scooter and ball can be seen at the top. These are fixed; the default setting for bikes is 3.1 bar. In sixth place is the manual mode, for which any air pressure between 0.2 and 10.3 bar can be set. Practical: the device remembers the value set here. For example, if you always inflate your tires to 2.8 bar, you don’t need to reset this value every time.
All settings on the device are made via a round control panel with five buttons: The desired air pressure is set up and down, and the right button is used to click through the presets. And the left button? This activates an integrated flashlight LED on the top of the housing, which can be switched between continuous light and flashing light. A practical feature in the dark to make it easier to find the tire valve. Finally, the large button in the middle activates the air pump or compressor.
Before you can start, however, the compressor must be connected to the tire. At the end of the approximately 16 cm long hose is the screw-on valve attachment, which is suitable for car valves (AV or Schrader valve). The scope of delivery also includes a quick-release adapter, an adapter for the French valve (Sclaverand valve) and an adapter for inflating balls. Thanks to the flexible hose and the compact connections, the compressor can also be used with confined situations — for example on small kids bikes.
Once the compressor is connected, the current air pressure is displayed and the compressor switches off automatically once the desired target air pressure is reached. Typical for this device category is the enormous volume of the compressor, which is also the case with the Xiaomi model. The inflation time is pleasantly short: an ordinary urban bike tire can be inflated from 0 to 3 bar in less than a minute.
Even more frequently, however, you will only want to “pump up” the air a little, i.e. the tire is not completely flat. This is of course much quicker. Basically, however, the larger the tire and the higher the desired air pressure, the longer it will take. It takes a long time to inflate a deflated car tire — but the compressor is ideal for bicycles!
The handling of the device is also so easy because you don’t have to fiddle with cables for the power supply. A 2000 mAh rechargeable battery is installed inside, the runtime of which naturally also depends heavily on use. However, when regularly inflating and re-inflating the tires of a city bike, the device lasts for several weeks without needing to be recharged. The charging process itself is simply carried out via a USB-C port on the underside of the housing.
Do you really need it?
To come back to the initial question: do you really need a device like the Xiaomi Air Compressor 2? No, you certainly don’t “need” it. Nevertheless, the normal air pump now stands untouched in the corner, because the comfort gain from the gadget is surprisingly high! The ability to automatically create the desired air pressure at the touch of a button when re-inflating makes using the Air Compressor 2 very pleasant. The compact dimensions also contribute to this, as handling is simply less complicated than with a floor-standing air pump. A small, manual and lightweight hand air pump is certainly the better companion for use on the road. At home, however, the electric air pump is the new favorite!
With a price of just over 40 euros, the Xiaomi Air Compressor 2 is quite affordable — but you should pay close attention to the product name. The predecessor model is still available, but it offers less power. As an alternative, Bosch also offers with its EasyPump a similar product, which is slightly more expensive and has the typical look of Bosch tools.
