Makita DMP180Z

Need a compact tyre inflator...this is it! – Was looking for a replacement for my current car tyre inflator. Have recently seen rechargeable battery varieties which seemed a superior proposition than using my current inflator which needed to be connected by a lead to the car battery to use. This was cumbersome and the alligator clips were always springing off when the lead got pulled or… Read more

caught on something.

Chose the Makita as it was supplied as a “skin”. This means it came without the additional expense of a battery and its associated charger. While you can buy a version that does include these items, it was more economical for me to only buy the “skin” version as I already had batteries and charger from other Makita battery tools. Physically, the unit is relatively small (266mm long and weighing 1.1kg) and ideally suited to being carried on camping trips. A number of different connectors (British adaptor, Swim Ring adaptor, French adaptor and Ball adaptor) are supplied with the unit and are conveniently clipped onto to the unit making it easy to always have the right connecter with you. Even the hose (connecting the inflator to your tyre) has convenient clips for storage on the side of the unit. Materials used in construction are those typical of Makita power tools and feel they can take a bit of knocking around.

After connecting the battery (a quick slide and click arrangement), there is a master on/off push switch on the side. Activating this turns on the easily read backlit digital readout as well as a bright front mounted LED. I found the LED very handy when dealing with tyres sited down low in darker corners of my garage. The digital readout has touch-buttons to switch between PSI, bar and kPA measurements. There is also “+” and “-” buttons so you can set the digital readout to whatever pressure you require. This is in fact, my favourite feature. Set the pressure, attach the hose, pull the finger trigger on the handle of the inflator and hold it until it stops automatically at the preset pressure you wanted. Just brilliant! Also, after a few minutes of non-use, the inflator will turn itself off to conserve power.

The unit has the same noise level as any similar sized inflator but seems quite powerful for its size. It certainly didn’t show any sign of straining to adjust pressure on the car tyres of our two vehicles and Makita states it should be good for pressures up to 121PSI while delivering 12L/min. Despite being battery powered, it filled the tyres equally as fast a slightly larger unit I had previously used. It should be noted, however, that Makita have rated it with a duty cycle of 5 minutes continuous use followed by 5 minutes rest before starting again so probably not the best if you have a number of tyres having to be fully refilled from scratch. I can’t comment on how long the battery lasts between charges but with the 18v, 5.0Ah unit I was using, I would think it would be quite a while.

As a handy, compact tyre inflator, I found it brilliant. It did everything I expected of it and Makita has supplied it with a 3 year warranty. I’ve also noted that if you register it on their website, they will now extend that to 5 years. Yes, it is more expensive than many other "non-battery" inflators but the convenience factor can easily outweigh any other concerns. If you can afford the $129 (and already have an 18v Makita battery and charger), I can highly recommend this device.