DeWalt DCC020IB Tire Inflator

It’s arguably at least a bit suspect to become overtly rapturous about a machine to pump up tires. This said, we have quite a few tires, and while the big air compressor that drives our pneumatic tools does admirable service inflating them, it’s something of a bear to use.

A portable, battery-powered tire inflator is something of a one-trick pony, but it’s a decidedly convenient one. It doesn’t require the deployment of extension cords or long air hoses, and it won’t dislocate the shoulders of its operators. Most of these devices, however, are somewhat funky. More to the point, they’re usually powered by internal batteries, and it entails very little pumping to exhaust them.

The DeWalt DCC020IB inflator has clearly been the recipient of some thought and engineering. Powered by a DeWalt twenty-volt tool battery, it evinces serious grunt, and it can keep going until you run out of tires. In the event that you have a lot of them and they’re all flat, its battery can be changed.

The DeWalt inflator is also really well constructed, in keeping with its origins.

Blow

Inflating a tire with the DCC020IB entails winding its high-pressure hose onto the valve stem of the tire in question, switching on the machine, dialing in the required pressure and pressing is start button. The inflator will power itself up, exhale until it has inflated your tire to the pressure you requested and then shut itself off.

There’s no need to crouch beside your wheels while it works, struggling to keep a conventional air chuck pressed to their valve stems. This is shockingly civilized.

DeWalt’s current generation of tool batteries include illuminated charge meters, so you can determine when the inflator’s about to run out of power and swap its battery.

The DCC020IB can be powered by the aforementioned twenty-volt batteries, by a DeWalt Flexvolt battery, by an automobile lighter port – a suitable cable is included – and by a DeWalt N557514 AC adapter, which isn’t included. The latter entails more than half the credit card damage for the inflator itself, and arguably isn’t really a useful option for this device.

In addition to its primary function as an air compressor, the DCC020IB has a built-in flashlight in its handle to illuminate darkened garages and barns. We found this to be shockingly civilized as well.

While we bought our DeWalt inflator exclusively to pump up tires, it comes with accessories to inflate other media. There’s a needle adapter to recharge basketballs, and a Presta valve for high-end bicycle tires. It also has a large-diameter low-pressure hose to pump up air mattresses. We’ve not had occasion to try it on anything other than tires.

The DCC020IB is slightly slower filling a tire than would be the case for our full-size stationary compressor, although we found it hard to care, in that it can be powered up and left to get to work without any further human intervention. It proved to be about as fast as a portable compressor. Its internal pressure sensor agreed with all our hand-held tire pressure gauges, and with the pressure sensors of those of our vehicles so equipped.

This is a tool well worth owning. In that it makes maintaining the tire pressure of vehicles dead easy – and as such likely to be attended to more frequently – it will probably largely pay for itself in reduced fuel costs and extended tire life over a few years. It has certainly earned its purchase price in the absence of sore backs and muscles since it arrived.