Air You Go Again

We’ve sold things like this before, from this exact brand, and I actually bought one for myself. So, here’s my review:

It’s… fine… I think?

Okay, let me clarify. I’m not disappointed in its output. It’s just that I haven’t used the thing beyond inflating a few balls. Every time I take an extended road trip, I turn it on, check the charge, and then stash it somewhere in my car where it’s easily accessible. But I have yet to require its services.

Which is great, obviously! It means that I haven’t found myself in a frustrating situation where my tire is low from a slow leak or frigid temperatures. And yet, I’m still glad to have it.

When you think about it, a deal-a-day site is a series of dares. Every day, we present a product for a stupidly low price, and say, “We dare you not to buy this thing for this amount of money.”

Some of the dares are, well, a bit less daring. You skip a cheap waffle maker, and the next month, your old waffle maker finally dies. Bummer, but a) the product itself isn’t essential, and b) you know, deep down, that there exists another version of reality wherein you purchase a backup waffle maker, and it collects dust in the basement while Ol’ Faithful waffles on for another decade.

These sales constitute the ‘aww, shucks’ variety of dare. You might think, What are the chances? But you won’t feel stupid.

Other times, though, the consequences can feel a bit more dire. Like, for example, if you were to roll your eyes at a battery generator for six hundred dollars, only to find yourself three days without power and dealing with a logistical headache that you would definitely pay a lot of money to avoid. Or, bringing it back to today’s product, you scoff at these tire inflators, and then, two months later, you find yourself with a negligible PSI reading in the office parking lot, wondering if you can make it to the pay-for-air gas station pump down the street, or if you need to call AAA.

(And the dare gets worse for the copywriter, by the way. Because in this role, I have to think through these exact scenarios, so when one happens to me, and I haven’t prepared for it by buying the product in question, I feel especially stupid.)

Point is: if you buy these tire inflators, you won’t regret it, even if you rarely use them. Also, these are especially rad, because they each have a built-in 20,000mAh power bank. So you can be sure your phone will be ready to call for help in the event that the tire issue goes beyond a little top-off.

But if you’ve got one, and it’s seen more action, do post about your experience using it in the comments.