Jameth

I have an Air Tool Pro floor pump that I've owned for about 10 years that's mostly been great. It annoyingly seems incapable of being adapted to inflate a ball, though.

I'm looking at the Lezyne Micro Floor Drive or the Silca Pocket Impero II. How do I know if the chuck will work with a ball valve adapter? Does anyone have experience using one of these as a ball pump?

Peruano

Any dual head pump will allow you to inflate balls with a needle that is inserted in the Schroeder fitting. Any presta head can be switched (invert rubber washers) but that takes a minute or two.

pdlamb

Almost any pump head, except for my Presta-only Hiro head. But yeah, stick a needle in the Shraeder head and pump away!

wheelreason

Any pump that works with schrader valves will double as a "ball pump".

Peruano

Almost! all presta pumps will work for shrader if you unscrew the collar, remove first rubber grommet, remove 2nd grammet, reinsert both of these but in the reverse position as previously inserted and replace collar. I can't testify about the previously mentioned Hiro pump but its worth a reexamination. My apologies for misspelling shrader, it was early.

Rick

The Impero is a presta only. As long as the Threads on the ball inflator are long enough even the clamp on heads on mini pumps should work also.

wheelreason

Que es lucuma?...

Jameth

Good to know! I guess I'll have a look at the Tattico, then.

squirtdad

fwiw the tattico is a very solid pump for a mini........this is from 3 flats worth of experience

Jameth

Thanks for the encouragement! It does look very solid and has an excellent warranty. It just falls short of the Impero in both of those regards, so I initially skipped past it.

Maybe one day soon Silca will offer up an "Ultimate" level mini pump that's Schraeder compatible.

Rick

Jameth: squirtdad is correct, the Tattico is a good pump. I have one and am using it to keep my grandsons 12" balance bike aired up. I wouldn't count on Silca making an Impero type pump with schrader option. Being presta only is part of what makes that pump so efficient. I have gone to a mini foot pump recently because using the mini pumps on 2"+ wide tires has aggravated Some old injuries.

Jameth

Thanks! The Tattico is what I'll get. I was also considering the Micro Floor Drive, but I can't justify buying something with a 2 year warranty over something with a 7+ year warranty. Even if the foot peg is really enticing...

PeteHski

The Tattico is literally a solid choice here. Not the lightest or most compact of mini-pumps (I carry mine on the bottle mount), but it is effective and durable. I have a few other cheap pumps that can inflate balls!

DangerousDanR

I wound up with two Tatico pumps. Mine are the now discontinued model with a Bluetooth pressure sensor. The second was a warranty replacement and Silca told me to keep the first one.

They are mechanically solid. So much so that they can safely be used as a collapsible billy and dog repellent. And the pump seems very likely to last my lifetime.

Not magic. You still have to work to get a 25 or 28 tire above 80 PSI, but that is true of any mini pump.

PeteHski

I first bought the Bluetooth version but there was a problem with the chuck that made it always lose pressure on release. Other users reported the same issue, which was due to the pressure sensor. So I returned it and got the standard version, which works fine.

mstateglfr 

Just buy a $10 ball pump and don't try to force one pump to do both. There just isn't an upside.

Jameth

Why use many pump when few pump do trick? Hm?

mstateglfr 

That is a question which should be constsntly asked when it comes to tools and products in general.
It applies to bikes and is discussed here all the time.

To answer you-
- I do not think 2 pumps equals 'many'. Sure it is more than 1, but it is hardl 'many'.
- Having a separate ball pump means you don't have to remove the mini pump from your bike and potentially forget to put it back.
- A mini pump for normal bie tire filling before ridesas fast or convenient as a florr pump.

_ForceD_

A little off topic, but I with a recent flat on my neighborhood commuter bike (first one since I’ve owned it), I discovered a nice feature with the pump I’d purchased to mount on the bike but hadn’t ever used. It’s just a department store pump. But when I had to use it, I discovered that it’s adjustable in that one setting is for high volume, low pressure…i.e. the beginning of pumping up. Once it’s mostly full with bit of pressure, you switch it over to low volume, high pressure setting to complete the inflation of the desired higher pressure.

Dan