Hello, all! My GF and I instantly loved our first paddleboard session and bought our own inflatables (DAMA). The supplied pump is fine, but I am trying out motorized ones and am hoping for some recommendations.
My first purchase was a cheap adapter for my electric bike tire pump. That didn’t do anything.
Does anyone here have a recommendation for a really good pump? I really don’t want to spend over $100. Or is that the magical price point at which the pumps get good. If so, which one do you recommend?
Also, when pumping this up, I got it up to about 8PSI and it seemed incredibly solid. But the board instructions say to inflate to 15PSI. I think it might explode! What are some PSI recommendations? Does it really need to go that high?
Rafting companies have lots of good pumps. You can get one to run off your truck battery on 12 volts at the put in, then you need a hand pump for on the water.
Your inflatable should be inflated to about the pressure the manufacturer says. If you pump to 8 psi, and it says 15, it will be too soft and flexi for the intended purpose.
For high-pressure you need a 2-stage pump and as you learned, the cheap ones aren’t great.
I once tried a $100 12V pump. That failed after a while on 2nd stage and I returned it. But some observations that will be true for the ones that don’t fail:
They draw quite some current and the long thin wire introduces quite some voltage drop. You probably want to run the car engine while inflating. My pump measured voltage and it dropped to 10V or so on a brand new car battery.
they are not faster than a good 3-stage floor pump. The only real advantage is you could do something else while they pump.
I ended up with a 3-stage floor pump and it is great. And it gives me a workout
I’m pretty sure the $90 or so for a good manual pump will last much longer than those 12V pumps.
I’m sure some people have good experience with those $150 electric pumps. There are also battery-pumps that resolve the issue that you need to be by the car. But my experience soured the experience with these tiny 12V pumps.
I assume the manufacturer rating is based on the a person at the listed weight limit standing in the middle plus some margin. if 8 psi works on the water for you, nothing wrong with that. if you only weigh a fraction of the stated weight limit, you get away with less pressure.
But if the board is rated to 15 psi, it should not burst (or the seams fail - seams is what will fail) up to maybe 20+ psi. Also note, those gauges are not accurate. If you read 8 psi, it could be 11, or 6 psi.
Did you try it on the water? Or put on 2 blocks of wood at each end and stand in the middle to see if it bends?
The real limit probably is a cheap pump. It will pump relatively quickly to 5 psi, and then take forever to 8 psi, and then take forever ever to 10 psi… and take 100 more years to 15 psi.
