Yes, it's loud and you'll probably only use it occasionally but when you need it, odds are you'll really need it. This compact little number will save your rims if you discover you've got a slow puncture once your tyre's already flat... plus you can use it to keep all of your balls in order.
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Ball skills
Every once in a while, we come across a completely unexpected piece of tech — something that we didn’t realise could prove to be a useful part of our lives until we saw the blasted thing. The Xiaomi Mi Portable Electric Air Compressor (we won’t be referring to it by its full title throughout, don’t worry) is one of these.
This little air compressor isn’t an everyday essential, unless you’re a cyclist or you really go hard on the football field, but it’s something you should consider purchasing and leaving in your car — you know, in case of emergencies.
Brick joke
Xiaomi’s little invention is the size of a fair-sized power brick — which makes sense because that’s mostly what it is. It’s a rectangular-shaped block with circular holes along its sides (for grip in the pouring rain while on the 4×4 trail, we assume). In the centre is an LCD display — like an oversized calculator — and a control wheel that looks (but doesn’t handle) like the world’s largest iPod.
It doesn’t get a lot more complicated than that. There’s a single micro-USB charge port at its base and it turns on and off when you remove or reinsert the attachment that screws onto your tyres. Control is simple enough as well — clicking ‘left’ on the control turns on an LED light (in case you need to use it in the dark), clicking ‘right’ takes you through various profiles. There are options for freestyle (and then it’s all on you) as well as for scooters/motorcycles, regular cars and then sporting equipment. Holding down the ‘right’ swaps the unit of measurement between psi and Bar, so you can use your favourite.
Under pressure
Up and down, obviously, let you set your maximum pressure and touching the centre button starts the (rather bloody noisy) compressor itself. If your tyres take 2.2 Bar, you can set it at that point and the Mi Portable Electric Air Compressor should cut out when you get there. It’s a neat little feature but you really don’t need it unless you’re leaving it unattended. And leaving an air compressor working on its own isn’t a great idea at any time.
See, it might manage to inflate five tyres to about 2.5 bar (we only checked and refilled our tyres for this review) on a charge but it takes some time to get to that point. It’ll inflate a standard car tyre in about six minutes, which is about right — it takes a few minutes just to top up the pressure on mostly-inflated tyres. You’re unlikely to need the automatic cut out if you’re paying attention because your desired pressure will take some time to loom into view. You’re more likely to turn it off once you hit your target, though the cutout will take place… once it gets all the way there.
That’s a lot of balls
Xiaomi claims that five car tyres can be completely filled, or eight bicycle tyres (while apparently only take three minutes a pop. Wait, not pop. Pop is bad), on a charge. We’re not sure how much that is in soccer balls but it’s probably a fair few. Xiaomi includes an adaptor so you never need to take a football to a petrol station again, as well as a micro-USB cable in case you no longer own one.
Coming back to leaving this thing unattended, though — Xiaomi’s little compressor might be small enough to tuck into a glove box or that little receptacle by the driver’s side door but it’s capable of inflating up to 150 psi — that’s a little over 10 Bar. You don’t want to press the button to start it up and wander off to make coffee only to discover mid-sip that you left it on ‘freestyle’ without noting the settings and some joker was trying to see how high it could go. That’s one way to severely rupture one of your balls. Or a tyre, if you’re very unlucky. Still, as a piece of emergency equipment, it’s very worth having on hand.
Xiaomi Mi Portable Electric Air Compressor Verdict
Look, Xiaomi’s little air compressor is loud as heck but it’s compact, useful, the 2,000mAh battery should save you some stress if you discover that some clown decided that your tyres look better flat and it also means you’ll always have at least one firm ball on hand — provided you remember to bring this compressor along to the weekly kick-about. It’s also far from expensive — you can pick one up for about R900 here in SA. We’d certainly opt for one made by Xiaomi than one of the less… branded versions we’ve spotted online. If you’re prone to deflated tyres or just need to better maintain your balls at home, this is a useful addition to have.
