It’s time to put air in my tires. Since it is impractical to try them all, I thought I’d ask you for your opinions on local area air pumps.
Has any service station out there installed any new, innovative air pump machines? Have there been any technologiocal advancements in recent years? Where is the best place to fill tires? Any good deals?
Up until now I often stop in at one of the stations near Exit 3, but I don’t have to go there if there is a better option.
There's an air pump out on
There’s an air pump out on Rt. 9 in West Bratt – at the Lipton Mart across from Cumberland Farms. It costs $1.00 for 3 minutes. But I don’t know if that’s convenient for you.
Thanks
I can make it anywhere in town…: )
Anything unique or special about this pump? (digital readouts? built-in pressure sensors? fills it for me without getting out of the car, etc.?)
Free Air?
Anyone else remember when gas stations (formerly know by the now-misnomer of Service Stations) all used to have an air pump that was FREE to use? & they had that cool ding-ding-ding which I think supposedly represented each pound of air passing by.
Are there still free ones in the area?
Seems pretty recent the one at the Canal St Exmobil was 25 cents. but had occasion to use it recently & saw they had initiated a 400% increase.
It might take awhile for you to make it “pay for itself,” but if using a gas station air pump is now a buck a shot, you might want to think about buying yourself a little air compressor, satisfying when you need it & nice to have if you come out of the house & notice a tire is already too flat to drive upon, but might hold air from your own compressor long enough to get you to the tire fixing place.
Free Market?
A juicy neoliberal irony is revealed here. In my travels in third world countries, I’ve found compressed air is still free almost everywhere.
There may not be infrastructure, or the maniacal race towards ‘progress’, but some simple necessities are available without an ever-present money-making angle.
Cranky pressure
A bell indicating each pound of pressure would be an improvement over the current models. They just send compressed air your way as long as you keep the other end open.
I used old pumps like that for my bike as a kid. Didn’t we have to use a crank to set the desired pressure on the dial before starting?
My car manual suggests checking air pressure with a digital pressure gauge – any pump today have this built in? Bell optional.
Ding Ding
That was when gas stations also had those hoses that ran across by the pumps that would ding to tell them a customer needed gas pumped…back in the days of full service gas stations.
Me, I keep a compressor at home, and occasionally have had to travel with an air tank (made from an old propane tank, not sure if you can do that with those fancy new ones) due to a slow leak in a tire.
Sunoco station on Putney Rd
Sunoco station on Putney Rd in Brattleboro and the Sunoco station next to T-Bird in Hinsdale both have pumps which will inflate until your preset pressure is reached. Still a buck.
Nice
I noticed that they had a different-looking air pump as I drove by the other day. Glad to know the details.
This seems to be the most modern advancement in air pumps so far. Any other options out there?
Air Cranks & Dings
Good recollection, Chris. Those old ones had a crank on the side. You’d turn the crank and watch as a display of numbers rolled by in a little window, the numbers progressing upwards representing pounds per square inch. You’d set it for the desired psi & supposedly it would STOP inflating when you reached the preset pressure. Wow, they don’t do that anymore?
Yeah, we as kids were always stopping at gas stations to pump up our bike tires. You could also buy a soda from a chest-type cooler where the bottles of Coke would be suspended in a narrow series of slots. The bulge at the top of the glass bottle would keep the bottles from falling down into the probably deadly cold water that cooled the drinks, but the necks were narrow enough that you could slide the bottle of your choice along the track to the release jaws, which would open if you had put your, I hate to say it, NICKEL, in the coin thing. For 5 cents you could buy a Coke, get free air for your bike tires (I think we tended to inflate them a bit just for fun, whether they needed it or not) & of course roll over the hose that dinged the attendant’s bell (until he’d come out & shoo us away to our next adventure.)
Great to look back on what we did for fun before we had video/computer games. And we kids would be out all day with never a call from mom on our iPhones!
I love the nostalgia!
These images of air pumps and coke machines conjure up images and feelings, and a longing for a time which is no longer present except in our minds.
Ride Over the Bell App
I think you may be on to something – a “Ride Over the Bell” app. Just $1.99
Kids, open the app, put the phone on the driveway, and ride your bike over it repeatedly until someone tell you to stop.
we can do this
Every time the bell rings, Shell will donate one dollar to our clangorous energy future