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I have a stand up paddle board (14'0") and I am looking for an easier way to pump it up. I found some cordless handheld inflators for tyres, which are rated at 120W and maximum pressure is 150psi. It can do just 25L/min.

Would this type of inflator be able to fill an SUP in under 8 minutes? (Since that is how long the battery lasts)

Or, are there other cordless, electric pumps used to inflate SUPs?

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    This would fall under off-topic product recommendation, but taking a rough estimate of 14' length, 3' width and 8" thickness, calculating the volume of the elliptic cylinder comes to over 560L. At 25L/min this would take over 20 minutes to inflate the SUP but that's not even bringing it to operating pressure, so I doubt it'll work. You'd be way better off purchasing a quality high-volume manual pump. You'd need a manual pump to finish off inflation anyway.
    – Gabriel
    Sep 12, 2019 at 20:18
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    Welcome to outdoors.SE. I edited the question so that it's more general and hopefully not just a product rec.
    – jhch
    Sep 12, 2019 at 20:50
  • @GabrielC. I was as well looking for one with external battery since sometimes the car is far away from the shore ;) But do you say that even with a specialized SUP pump I would still need hand pumping in the end?
    – Pepys
    Sep 14, 2019 at 8:44
  • @Pepys In my experience, all electric pumps were either not powerful enough or either overheated when pushed to operating pressure. But maybe I haven't used good quality ones. In any case, all the raft guides I frequent prefer manual pumps as the flow just doesn't compare and when you're inflating an 18' raft, no electric pump beats manual. It's almost an order of magnitude faster.
    – Gabriel
    Sep 16, 2019 at 2:11
  • Yes makes sense.. I checked some 'quality' ones as they say but they are in the range of about $100 :) I would rather use my manual one :D
    – Pepys
    Sep 17, 2019 at 8:25

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Inflatable SUPs of similar lengths to yours seem to have around 250-600L of volume, mostly on the lower end of that scale. @Separatix points out that 600L is "a real anomaly" in volume. (Source Source Source)

I would not suggest using a tire inflator, as these are meant for low volume, high pressure applications. You want to inflate your SUP to something like 20psi, not 150psi (a pressure which would almost certainly damage your SUP). In a pinch you could use one of these, as long as you check the pressure frequently to ensure you're not over-inflating, but it'll be slow.

Instead, consider something intended for SUPs (here or here are the first Google results). These will inflate much quicker than a tire pump, but won't inflate to much more than the required pressure.

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    That first high volume one is a real anomaly, most manufacturers pride themselves on how thin they are not how thick.
    – Separatrix
    Sep 13, 2019 at 10:14
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    150 PSI is the maximum possible pressure, not the only one. Car tyres are typically inflated to 30-35 PSI, and even for road bicycle tyres 150 PSI would usually be excessive. Of course I agree that it's better to use the right tool for the job, but there's no risk of damaging a board with a tyre inflator provided that the correct pressure is set.
    – Pont
    Sep 13, 2019 at 10:15
  • Good point, both of you. @Pont, I was picturing one of those older tire pumps with no ability to "set" pressure (you just check with a gauge every few seconds), in which case a careless or clueless person might overinflate.
    – jhch
    Sep 13, 2019 at 13:46
  • @JohnHughes That volume isn't an anomaly as many 14' inflatable paddle boards are meant for two paddlers. Those are usually 8". More streamlined "racing" SUPs are ~6". If they could make it thinner, they would, but it needs to be thicker than 10' boards for structural rigidity. Many of those 14' boards will be around 600L plus or minus. Check the table at the bottom for a comparison between 10' and 14' fill volumes.
    – Gabriel
    Sep 13, 2019 at 16:06
  • I have some doubt for that linked model, it seems to me it should be around 400L but I can't confirm.
    – Gabriel
    Sep 13, 2019 at 16:13

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