Those cheap Amazon air pumps for inflatables are a straight cash grab

I bought a $15 rechargeable air pump off Amazon last summer for my pool floats and air mattress. Worked fine for like 2 uses, then on the 3rd try it overheated and melted the plastic nozzle after maybe 4 minutes of running. Lost 15 bucks but also had to manually blow up a queen mattress for 20 minutes at 11 PM because I trusted that thing. Anyone else have a junk gadget that just failed at the worst possible time?

4 comments

4 Comments

taylorshah22h ago

Bought a similar one last year for camping. Same story - worked great for a few minutes then just died on me. Learned my lesson and got a handheld manual pump instead, never lets me down.

joel_jones4h ago

Manual all the way. Those cheap electric ones die right when you need them most. Nothing worse than standing over a half flat mattress at midnight.

hollyl2516h ago

Grab a good manual pump with dual chambers. The kind that inflates on both the push and pull stroke. Costs like 20 bucks and I've had mine for 5 years now, never let me down.

the_simon18h ago

Wait did yours also make that weird high pitched whine before it gave up? Mine sounded like a dying mosquito for about 30 seconds then just stopped blowing altogether. @taylorshah is right, the manual pump never betrays you. I'd rather spend 10 minutes pumping by hand than trust that plastic toy with my late night air mattress needs.