My inflatable came with a foot bellow pump and I want a better pump. This pump also should work well for future drop-stitch boats.
Requirements:
has pressure gauge
works with all typical valve (low and high pressure)
good for low pressure, and good for high pressure
weight is not relevant since i use the OEM pump on the boat for emergencies
The one I found is the GRI HP6. it pumps 3.2 l on each up-and down stroke and has a small cylinder for the high pressure operation. Two (possible negatives: i didn’t find an actual manufacturer page and don’t know if i can get spare seals etc. and it comes with an H3 connector only. My current boat has Boston, and a future boat may have something different. Is there an easy way to add valve adapters?
The other one I found is the NRS Super 2HP. It seems to have an inner high-pressure chamber and claims to pump 3.8 l. But it isn’t clear to me if that also pumps on the up-stroke. One advantage, it comes with a bunch of adapters.
Which of the two would you choose or can advise on or are there other good choices? I looked at many of the “best pumps” reviews and these two came up top on most. There is a whole bunch of pumps that have less displacement, but I like to get a really good pump I can enjoy for a long time.
Edit: there also is a Titan pump. but they don’t provide any useful specs (like displacement or pressure). So that isn’t good for an expensive pump.
That is a single action pump (i.e. does not pump on the up stroke). Their Super Pump is a double action, and can also function as a single action pump. It’s the one I have. No complaints here, but I’ve never had another manual pump.
Thanks. Seems the one you have has 1.8l on each side (3.6l for up/down)
I looked at some more reviews and it seems the GRI HP5/6 seems to have the most capacity. There also seem to be off-brand versions. Only real disadvantage seems to be it has the H3 connector only. I wonder if i can adapt that to connect to Boston and other valves? Looks like something like this or this may work, but hard to tell without having it in hand. (I’m kind of annoyed that some pumps only have one type since so many different ones are used).
I got this triple-action pump along with this adapter set. It seems to be a GRI clone and looks like the GRI HP5 and has a GRI gauge. Pretty sturdy and inflates my low-pressure kayak well on the 1st setting (both cylinders on up and down). it also has a setting 2 to use both cylinders on down only, and setting 3 to only use 1 cylinder. the up-stroke isn’t too hard and I definitely recommend a pump that has that feature.
K Pump. No gauge, but you can add blow off valves at the popular psi’s… just pump until the valve blows off. Takes the guess work out and is great if someone borrows your inflatable who doesn’t know what they are doing. Fits all the valves.
Built in gauges are notoriously inaccurate anyways.
Do you have a specific link? I didn’t really see something. I also thought adding a (better?) inline gauge may be good. I only found gauges one has to add to the valve after inflating, which is impractical.
My current inflatable has a plastic template that measures 10cm on the inflated tube to tell the correct pressure and I read it is supposed to be 1.1. psi. So that requires a gauge that isn’t much more than 5-10psi if even that.
