This review is about the smaller Ride Engine Air Box Mini Electric Pump and I’ll compare it to the first Air box electric pump from Ride Engine.
Advantages of electric pumps
Electric pumps are great! Since they are out, I have almost not touched a regular handpump. You can call it lazy, but it does take energy to pump an inflatable product. I rather focus on something else. I’ll use the time to do a proper warmup on muscles that need warming up. And as I’m a tall guy, my back hursts quickly from using a hand pump. Most important for me, I use wings that go up to 17psi. Getting in those last couple of psi’s can be a workout on its own.
For sure, a hand pump is faster on regular wings. But besides a warmup, I can prepare my foil, or put on a wetsuit while my wing is being pumped up.
Another big advantage is that these pumps save space. You can just throw it in your bag instead of connecting it on the outside. Especially when flying to an exotic destination this also saves a lot of space in your quiver bag. You will need to check if your airliner accepts the electric pump in the hold of the aircraft, or that you need to bring it in your hand luggage. That’s because of the battery. A nice feature is that you can use the pump as a powerbank.
Sizes, weight and a new hose for the Ride Engine Air Box Mini Electric Pump
The new pump is about 2/3 the size of the old pump, it’s a lot smaller. Also the length of the hose became shorter. As you don’t manually pump it up, shorter is actually better I found, you don’t need the length and it packs smaller. The best thing of the new hose, are the ends connecting to your pump and inflatable product. They turn independent of the hose. So the hose doesn’t get tangled when attaching it.
They managed to get the weight down from 1.4kg to 0.9kg, quite the difference and very impressive.
Faster inflation, a new sound and same psi
Pumping up goes quite a bit faster with this pump. On the same wing, the old pump took about 2.37 minuntes. The new pumps it takes 1.21 seconds.
The sound of the pump is different. RE claims it makes less noise. To me it’s mostly a different sound.
Also this smaller pump works up to 20psi which should be enough for all kite, wings and SUP’s out there.
Controls and display
Controls of the pump are easy. Just hold the power button for a little bit, and it turns on. Up or lower the amount of desired pressure, and press the power button again to start inflation. Automatically it will start to pump in low pressure mode. Once 1.8psi has been reached, it will start pumping in a high pressure mode until it reached the desired pressure. You can also set it to a manual mode instead of automatic changing the pump modes.
The internal sensor for changing between the 2 pump modes can get scrambled after flying. You can reset this easily while pressing the up and down keys simultaneous.
Nozzle connections
The pump comes with 4 nozzles that connects to almost every inflatable watersport product out there. Kite, wing and SUP from many different brands.
Battery life and charging time
Both have increased on the smaller model. With the previous version I could already pump 7 wings with ease. On this one I have tested it up to …. wings. And charging also went faster. And as mentioned, you can use the pump as a powerbank.
How to deal with sand and water
A pump sucks up air and pumps it in the product. So you’ll have to make sure the intake is clear of sand and water. As otherwise, it would be sucked up I always just put the pump on the product, where there is no sand. I have used the pumps in a bit of rain. Not a lot going on there. But I would not use it in soaking rain. Although the product itself can withstand a bit of moisture. You can close of the charging connections. It is not a waterproof product. If you want to bring it on a Sup adventure, make sure the bag is waterproof.
With this pump a little storage bag is also included, protecting and storing your pump with the hose together while not using it. So it fits the pump and hose, but is not waterproof.
Conclusion
Since the introduction of Ride engines first pump almost 2 years ago, steps have been made in making a great pump even better. It costs slightly more, but in my opinion its more than worth the extra bucks. It can be ordered on my webshop, Wingsurfer.nl for Dutch, Wingsurfer.shop for English.