Is a leaf-blower usable as a dinghy inflator?

Greenheart

Greenheart

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To qualify the question, I am thinking of a tool-style battery-driven blower, not one of those petrol horrors that cause windows to be angrily slammed shut.

I realise blowers are not pumps, they mostly use centrifugal fans...so they wouldn't supply the pressure required to fill vehicle tyres. But I'd expect the 150mph air-output to provide enough volume to fill the first 90% of an inflatable's chamber; then a few strokes with the foot-pump would finish the job.

The problem might be the small diameter socket-hole on the boat - would the circa 18mm openings on an elderly Avon, badly inhibit transfer? Does anybody make or use a cordless pump that doesn't take as long as I would myself manually, to inflate a Redcrest?

I do not want something with crocodile clips for hooking up to a yacht's or car's battery, which I don't have, at the beach.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
 
I would ask a SUP pump manufacturer for their recommendations. Brava Pumps told me about three weeks ago that non of their SUP pumps would be suitable for inflating my 3.4m Zodiac. Instead they recommended their BST 800 Battery. That being said, a Redstart is quite a bit smaller.

As I already have the non-integrated battery version of this pump I have just bought a 12v/20Ah LA Golf Cart Battery that I can use to inflate the boat when the car isn’t nearby. It only weighs 6kg, is fully sealed and could easily be used at the beach.
 
You could probably cobble something together from a blower that would give the tubes their shape, but I have serious doubts if you'd get them firm enough to use.

Tyre inflators are useless for flubbers. They're designed to give low volumes at high(ish) pressure. You need something that delivers high volume at low(ish) pressure, but not as low as a leaf blower. I have such a pump, which I got after open heart surgery meant I couldn't pump, but it was silly money - a couple of hundred, and of mediocre quality.
 
Not what you wanted, but I had one of those LV? Inflators that connected to a battery for inflating my dinghy. Hardly use it now as a decent foot pump seems nearly as quick. When I did use the electric one I still had to finish off with the foot pump to make the dinghy firm enough to use.
 
dancrane said:
To qualify the question, I am thinking of a tool-style battery-driven blower, not one of those petrol horrors that cause windows to be angrily slammed shut.

I realise blowers are not pumps, they mostly use centrifugal fans...so they wouldn't supply the pressure required to fill vehicle tyres. But I'd expect the 150mph air-output to provide enough volume to fill the first 90% of an inflatable's chamber; then a few strokes with the foot-pump would finish the job.

The problem might be the small diameter socket-hole on the boat - would the circa 18mm openings on an elderly Avon, badly inhibit transfer? Does anybody make or use a cordless pump that doesn't take as long as I would myself manually, to inflate a Redcrest?

I do not want something with crocodile clips for hooking up to a yacht's or car's battery, which I don't have, at the beach.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Could you make an electric plug on outboard as temporary power ? Humans can only produce max 1.2 hp max. Running it without inflated dinghy could be prob though. Honda 2
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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Why are people so keen to complicate the process of pumping up a small dinghy?
It's a couple of minutes mild exercise.
Which people seem to put a lot of time and effort into avoiding.
 
Thanks for all your suggestions, gentlemen...

...especially Muddisox. Initially I was about to retort, "well if there was a thread, how about a link to it?"...

...then I used the search function to look for the word "blower" in recent threads, and there it was...

Dinghy tender pump

It might (probably won't) teach me not to start threads late at night.

TernVI said:
Why are people so keen to complicate the process of pumping up a small dinghy? It's a couple of minutes mild exercise.
Click to expand...

Sir, if you can pump up my Redcrest in "a couple of minutes of mild exercise", I will give you the money, to show me how. ;)
 
Get a decent high volume pump, the stirrup pump style like a fat version of a cyclist's track pump.
Or a vacuum cleaner, but anything under about 500W won't be very quick.
The only better way is a dive bottle.

Vacuum cleaner is great if you have mains, or other abundant power. On a small yacht with limited batteries and an inverter, it's just complicating life and draining the batteries. Any time you save on the pumping will be lost mucking about with toys and wondering if your batteries need recharging.

Some kitesurf pumps shift 4 or 5 litres a stroke.
 
Sorry, I should have said that I especially want a cordless solution, not wired to a yacht's battery or mains. Thought I'd said.

I'm happy using the Avon pump to reach working-pressure, if the blower doesn't suffice...though I know how good stirrup pumps are.

I wish I had seen this chap's video before starting the thread...interesting design, with a wholly removable floor and transom...

...but I am interested in whether the old Avon's relatively narrow socket-openings would make a cordless blower less effective.

 
The great thing about LV type pumps is being able to suck all the air out and fold the dinghy neatly, footpumps can't do it!
 
I use a wee pump that got in Tesco for £5. It is sold for the likes of inflatable garden things, connects to the 12 volt battery and inflates the Avon to floppy in about 5 minutes after which it takes a further 80 strokes of the foot pump to pressurise.

I once went sailing with a friend who had a mooring in the Gareloch. When we got to Clynder, he got the Avon out of his van and said "right, who is first to blow it up?" I volunteered and asked for the pump and was told that he didn't have one. The four of us took it in turns to get it blown up over the next half hour!
 
I think the OP is right in being concerned re the size of the filler hole. I was once involved with setting up large inflated buoys for a yacht racing event. They supplied a blower type inflator which worked really well. However the outlet tube of the blower was like 8cm in diameter and the port for filling the buoy was a similar size. There was no valve of any form to inhibit air flow so when inflated you had to refit the port cover pretty smartly. So unless OP is willing to fit a large inflating port then the leaf blower type device would not be very efficient. The restrictions of the port and valve of the boat would result in blower tending to stall air flow and it would not produce enough pressure to do much. Could always try it of course. ol'will
 
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