Any tire inflators compatible with new 16v Li-Ion battery?

[alexcue]

Any 12V inflator will work. They are designed for 12V through 20V. Even the plug socket in the trunk says 12V.
By the way, I am a Dewalt Fanboi, so I got the following:

DEWALT 20V MAX Cordless Electric Portable Inflator (Tool Only) DCC020IB - The Home Depot

The DEWALT DCC020IB 20-Volt MAX Corded/Cordless Air Inflator can run on any 1 of 3 power sources for maximum versatility: 20-Volt maximum battery, 12-Volt DC or 110-Volt AC. Use it on the job-site or on the go. It features a high-pressure rubber hose for durability. The threaded chuck and...

www.homedepot.com

I have several, but for overall ease, especially if you own their tools the DeWalt is super nice to have. I know this isn't what the OP was after, and I'm afraid mine is the older 12V system, so I just keep a small DynaPlug Micro Pro inflator with a patch kit, according to the instructions sheet. 12.0 -14.8VDC is the voltage.

 

[pepperoni]

It says 20v 8amps on the back of it. There is a 10amp fuse in the plug. It should work on 16v but you are pretty much the rest subject now.

I wasn’t aware that the 12v plug has a 10a fuse. Makes sense, though I’m sure they could have gone higher given the motor is rated to at least 20v. Still, I’m pretty sure my 16v battery wouldn’t trip it based on some of great comments I’ve received on this thread. You all are right, I probably have been overthinking this.

That said, I ended up canceling my Craftsman order and ordering the Viair 85P compressor. (Yes, I’m an optimizer!) It is a stronger 15a compressor, and honestly I’m no longer that concerned about it tripping a fuse. It has all the features I need, nothing I don’t need, and appears to be a quality unit from a reputable brand. I will be thoroughly testing it at home before relying on it on the road, and will report back if it gives me any problems.

 

[STS-134]

That said, I ended up canceling my Craftsman order and ordering the Viair 85P compressor. (Yes, I’m an optimizer!) It is a stronger 15a compressor, and honestly I’m no longer that concerned about it tripping a fuse. It has all the features I need, nothing I don’t need, and appears to be a quality unit from a reputable brand. I will be thoroughly testing it at home before relying on it on the road, and will report back if it gives me any problems.

That happens to be exactly the same compressor I use in my Tesla. Never had issues with it (but my Tesla has the lead acid battery). Of course, the lead acid battery is never directly driving the compressor because I always have the doors open when I'm using it, and the auxiliary outlet is only ever powered by the DC-DC converter.

 

[Corndart]

This pump is the cheapest and the most reliable:

View attachment 859061

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I've had these pumps fail so cheapest, maybe; most reliable, also maybe

 

[DerbyCityY]

I asked Viair if their 84P model would work with a 15.5V battery and this was their response:

Thank you for contacting VIAIR! We don’t recommend using 15.5 volts for our 12v compressors. It will work but it will overpower the unit and reduce the life longevity of it.

Not what I wanted to hear. The few times I plan on using this will I be left on the side of the road or should I go for a more dependable fix.

 

[pepperoni]

I asked Viair if their 84P model would work with a 15.5V battery and this was their response:

Thank you for contacting VIAIR! We don’t recommend using 15.5 volts for our 12v compressors. It will work but it will overpower the unit and reduce the life longevity of it.

Not what I wanted to hear. The few times I plan on using this will I be left on the side of the road or should I go for a more dependable fix.

This is why I started this thread. At the same time, the VIAIR instructions say to keep the engine running when using the compressor, which (as mentioned earlier in this thread) will raise the outlet voltage to 14.5 V. I wish I could see the spec sheet for the parts, but it seems hard to imagine that an additional 10% over operating voltage would damage the motor. I’m going to give it a shot and will report back if I run into issues. Hopefully VIAIR wouldn’t use this as a reason to deny a warranty claim, but they might.

 

[STS-134]

This is why I started this thread. At the same time, the VIAIR instructions say to keep the engine running when using the compressor, which (as mentioned earlier in this thread) will raise the outlet voltage to 14.5 V. I wish I could see the spec sheet for the parts, but it seems hard to imagine that an additional 10% over operating voltage would damage the motor.

I can't really see it causing a problem, especially if you just use it to top off the tires when they slowly lose air (like pumping them up by 2-4 PSI every 3-6 months). If you look at the VIAIR products, they all have a large heat sink, which dissipates heat associated with compressing air. If anything reduces its lifespan, it's likely to be if the components get hotter than they should. The 85P is supposed to be able to operate for 20 minutes @ 30 psi but I've never even used it for close to that long. It's generally pumping for 20-40 seconds and then I'm disconnecting it and moving it to another tire. I do this 4 times and then I'm done. It gets the hottest when I'm pumping up spare tires (not in my Tesla obviously but my mom has a 85P in her car too and her spare takes 50-60 PSI). But again, it only takes about 2-3 minutes at most to inflate that tire even if I let the pressure fall to 15-20 PSI.

If you wanna be extra safe, just let it cool down any time you're using it for more than 2 minutes continuously. Which honestly won't be too often, because these pumps are powerful enough that you don't have to run them for very long!

I’m going to give it a shot and will report back if I run into issues. Hopefully VIAIR wouldn’t use this as a reason to deny a warranty claim, but they might.

How would they even know what voltage was being fed into it, unless they are logging it somehow?

 

[pepperoni]

How would they even know what voltage was being fed into it, unless they are logging it somehow?

I guess the only reason they would know would be if I told them my car has a 16v Li-Ion battery. But if it came to that, I suppose I could conveniently forget what kind of battery my car has. After all, the 2022 MY had both kinds of batteries depending on delivery date. And truthfully, they probably wouldn’t even ask.

 

[stopcrazypp]

By the way, the plots in that article you linked (above) are 100% incorrect, and likely just the product of someone mislabeling the plot lines. If you switch current to speed and speed to current, they would be correct. Here is a link to an article that gets the plot labels correct, showing current proportional to torque.

It appears that in your hasty research, you simply saw the mislabeled figures and extrapolated to an erroneous conclusion. I just have to ask… why did you go through all that effort, with all the plots and links? Just to prove me wrong?

The plots are correct if you presume the zero point for the current is on the top. I'm not using the current versus torque relation on the graph to make my point (it's irrelevant even if it was flipped), only point of using that graph is to show that as voltage goes up (the different solid vs dash vs dotted lines represent this) and current stays the same, the torque goes up as well.

As for the whole Ohm's law discussion, again, whether you have a load vs no load on the motor that approximation goes out the window due to back EMF, which plays a huge role (the other variables you point out play less of a role). That was the point of the plot showing the resistance going drastically down as torque increases.

 

[stopcrazypp]

OMG, you’re also going to throw your lot in with the folks who claim that current goes down as motor voltage goes up?! So, I have a compressor happily pumping air with 12V across the leads of the DC motor. Now I step that voltage up to 16V, and the current goes… down?! Because here’s the thing… that compressor is going to be delivering more pressure at a higher motor torque (not lower). And higher torque means more current flowing through the coils, because that’s how motors work.

You are missing the point that at higher voltage, the motor can deliver more torque for the given current. So if the motor is being limited by the load to a given torque, it's possible for the current to go down.

So no, those people claiming current will go down as we increase input voltage are not correct.

(Wait a minute… it appears you are also claiming that motor torque goes down as motor current goes up. Seriously?! Because that figure you showed with current vs torque is either wrong or seriously out of context. Motor torque goes up with increasing current, not down.)

Nope not claiming that, see other response.

And I never said a motor should be modeled as a resistor. Some folks here want to take issue with me invoking Ohm’s law, which is ludicrous because it is essential to modeling DC motors. The presence of back EMF does not invalidate Ohm’s law, rather it means the equation needs to include back EMF (Eb), i.e., Vin-Eb = IZ, where I is the motor current and Z is the coil impedance. Of course I am glossing over the complexities of commutation, which varies with brushed vs brushless, trapezoidal vs sinusoidal, two phase vs three phase, etc etc. These all go into the gory details of a motor model, of which Ohm’s Law is the backbone. And by the way, once I include impedance, motor friction, air drag, the motor model becomes a set of differential equations. But none of this changes the fact that motor current will increase as I increase input voltage. Which happens precisely because of Ohm’s Law. Which is the only point I was trying to make way back on Post #8. Which apparently triggered a bunch of people who thought my statement was somehow incorrect, and felt compelled to give me some really strange lessons on electronics.

I’m not sure why I’m bothering to reply to all of these insane posts. I feel like I am being punked.

 

[pepperoni]

You are missing the point that at higher voltage, the motor can deliver more torque for the given current. So if the motor is being limited by the load to a given torque, it's possible for the current to go down.

Nope not claiming that, see other response.

Sheer comedy! Are you just making this up as you go along? I’m guessing you haven’t heard about the Motor Torque Constant Kt. This constant is a fundamental property of DC motors, expressed in units of Nm/Amp. Here is a very simple equation using this constant: Torque = Kt x Current. Notice how input voltage, rotor speed, and back EMF aren’t in this equation?

Also, your plot (below) is indeed incorrect:

See relation of current vs torque (article also goes into detail how back emf plays its role), you can see for a given current, higher voltage provides more torque, which in turn means that less current is needed for the same torque.

Tutorial: Brushed DC Motors, Part II

If this were truly a plot of current vs torque, it would be a single linear slope starting at (0,0) with a slope of Kt, independent of voltage.

And I love how the plot you showed has max torque at zero current. I would love one of those motors. It would solve the world’s energy problems, producing free, limitless energy!

 

[pepperoni]

Back to the original topic… I received the VIAIR 85P today (thank you Amazon free next day shipping). Each of my tires was about 5 psi low, and it took less than 1 minute per tire to get back to 42 psi. No tripped fuses either, though the heat sink did warm up very quickly. I suppose the real test would be inflating a flat tire, which I might just try as long as I’m in my 30 day return window. So far, so good…

 

[Nubo]

Back to the original topic… I received the VIAIR 85P today (thank you Amazon free next day shipping). Each of my tires was about 5 psi low, and it took less than 1 minute per tire to get back to 42 psi. No tripped fuses either, though the heat sink did warm up very quickly. I suppose the real test would be inflating a flat tire, which I might just try as long as I’m in my 30 day return window. So far, so good…

Check the instructions to see if there's a limitation on number of minutes of continuous operation. Most small mobile inflators have a restricted duty cycle and the limiting factor is usually heat dissipation.

 

[tm3dlr]

I have this and it works perfectly fine

VacLife Tire Inflator Portable Air Compressor - Air Pump for Car Tires (up to 50 PSI), 12V DC Tire Pump for Bikes (up to 150 PSI) w/LED Light, Digital Pressure Gauge, Model: ATJ-1166, Yellow (VL701) https://a.co/d/8YVciC2

 

[P3dStealth]

Back to the original topic… I received the VIAIR 85P today (thank you Amazon free next day shipping). Each of my tires was about 5 psi low, and it took less than 1 minute per tire to get back to 42 psi. No tripped fuses either, though the heat sink did warm up very quickly. I suppose the real test would be inflating a flat tire, which I might just try as long as I’m in my 30 day return window. So far, so good…

That model has a duty cycle of 20mins at 30psi. I would run it 10mins personally since your going up to 42 and slightly higher voltage. Obviously just feel it for how hot it gets. It's a high end brand though so I doubt it has any problems.

 

[Wattsisname]

I would like to carry a tire inflator for emergency purposes. Most portable inflators that run off the 12v outlet only specify 12v 15a. The new low voltage battery in the MY is 16v, and I would hate to blow a fuse on one of these inflators when I need it most.

Does anyone have a portable unit that they have used consistently with the new battery without issue? I’m struggling to find one.

I have used my old tire compressor for Lizzie's (MY LR 2022) tires just once and without a problem. However, I thank you for bringing the issue to our attention; I was unaware.

Her tyres have held their pressure to the pound since 7th July during which period we have enjoyed 3,237 wonderful (mostly in France ) miles. Of course , all Tesla miles are a joy, it's just a matter of degree of joy.

P.S. I have had so many punctures, (none with Lizzie - so far) particularly in the enormous residential building site that is Greater London. If the carelessly dropped nails and screws don't getcha, the potholes eagerly await their turn to spoil your day. I aways have a can of Holt's tire foam to hand.

The French roads from D's through N's to Peage just seem to get better as ours slide down the pan.

And to think that you only wanted my input on tyre inflator voltage.

 

[Pitt1976]

Just buy a good one with a detachable battery, about 250. Then you don't have to worry about it.

 

[RMannino]

Fanttik X8 APEX on Amazon

 

[cleverscreenam]

This pump is the cheapest and the most reliable:

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Don't knock it, I use a similar $50 Nashbar bicycle pump. 100 pumps takes you from 30 psi to 45 psi, and gives your core muscles a little workout.

 

[RandyS]

I also ordered and use the VIAIR Compressor from Amazon on my Model Y. However, I ordered the model that has the right angle connector for the tire, as I like those better than the threaded connector since they attach and detach faster.

Amazon.com