I wanted to get a 12v air compressor for the trunk of my car. The front tires on the car are low, and I NEVER think to air them up when I am at the service station.
Anyway, I stopped over at walmart today to pick one up.
I must say, I think I found a nice one. A Battery Powered Air Compressor is something I would have laughed at 2 years ago, but now….
The biggest selling point to this unit was a built-in flashlight. When you don’t have electricity for 2 weeks, a flashlight is a mighty handy thing to have. This one has a BIG battery with it.
The 2nd selling point on it is the 12 volt power plug. This may not seem like a big deal untill you don’t have power for 2 weeks and you need to charge up that cell phone (They are pretty good about getting the cell phone towers back up and running, much sooner then the regular phones, electricity, or sometimes even the water it seems). After Wilma, I loaned out my little power inverter so cell phones could be charged up – I guess it had made the rounds too. All of this automotive stuff is rather handy to have around when the outlet in the wall doesn’t work. The only problem with it is you tend to need gas to run it with, don’t let me get started on THAT can of worms.
A third neat thing about my new gadget-of-the-day is the air compressor (and you thought that this would be the first thing). It has an auto-cutoff switch when the air pressure hits a pre-determined air pressure. You spin the face of the air pressure guage to set the desired air pressure. I haven’t TRIED this yet, but it seems to be a pretty good idea to me. I could air up my car tires in the dark if I so desired. I don’t desire to do this. But the possibility is there.
I am curious to see how accurate the built in gauge and the auto-cutoff feature are. One good thing will be I won’t have my tires aired up to different air pressures like they do in NASCAR – the Ford Escort just isn’t that high-performance. *grin*
Everything gets all bundled up in the “boot”. It came with the usual suspects for getting lost – those little plastic things that you use for filling up beach balls and whatnot. These have a spot to get clipped to the door so they won’t get lost. I imagine about 30 seconds in the trunk of the car, and they will fall off and get lost, but hey, it is the thought that counts.
It came with a small wall block to charge it up with. There is also a double ended 12volt cord so I can plug the thing into the car and the 12volt socket on the compressor.
All in all, the unit seems to be pretty well laid out. Whomever designed this must use his often to have had to make it this fancy and functional. 
