Vocal Voices

50p for air to pump up your tyres

Most I know charge 20p which I also think is a cheek, but 50p? That's just daylight robbery

Apparently recently the CEO of some huge global company (might have been Nestle) said that water wasn't a human right I must see if I can Google and find the link

Anyway the saying "Free as air" seems to be a thing of the past

Here we go

Nothing needs to be justified - you have a flat, they have air!

It's wrong, Ria, but that's the way things go, the solution is to carry a pump.

Don't bother with those cheap ones, they are worse than useless; go for a well built one, and try before you buy. That nice double cylinder one might be too hard to use, and that easy to use single cylinder might be delivering next to no air.

If you are thinking of an electric one to run from the cig lighter then do not be conned by the claims of 300 to 500 psi (20 to 35 bar). These things only deliver a thimbleful of air with each cycle and anyway you only need about 35 psi (2.4 bar) max. Look/Ask for one with the largest delivery capacity (Litres per minute) and a lower max psi/bar rating - 120 psi/9 bar should do.

We go to one of the large tyre companies. They put nitrogen in the tyres instead of compressed air. It costs five pounds to have it done. Always have the tyres checked before I go on a long journey. Am not always charged for this as it only takes a few minutes.
Have got a small compressor which I sometimes use if one of the tyres looks flat. Works off the cigarrette lighter socket and seems to be accurate.

Never use the ones at petrol filling stations. The Which magazine did a report on them and the results were not very good.
Can understand why a charge is made as the compressor and air receiver will have to be inspected and checked and serviced by qualified engineer regularly. This will not be cheap.