Did anyone try the $13 floop pumps at Aldi recently?

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uart
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Did anyone try the $13 floop pumps at Aldi recently?

Postby uart » Wed Sep 19, 2018 10:31 pm

Aldi recently had some bike stuff, including a floor pump for about 12 or 13 dollars. Just wondering if anyone else tried them?

I got one, and it worked reasonably well but the pressure gauge was out to buggery. I had to get it up 130 psi on the gauge just to get 100 psi as per my accurate Zefal gauge. It was a shame, as otherwise the pump wasn't too bad.

I ended up returning it because that error was just too far out of my comfort zone.

NASHIE
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Re: Did anyone try the $13 floop pumps at Aldi recently?

Postby NASHIE » Thu Sep 20, 2018 12:20 am

Walked into an Aldi store last week out of pure curiosity and won't be going back to one. Just don't get the whole setup at all. Apples, washing machines and bike pumps at stupid prices, what could go wrong :?

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bychosis
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Re: Did anyone try the $13 floop pumps at Aldi recently?

Postby bychosis » Thu Sep 20, 2018 6:37 am

I have an older one, bought several years ago. I looked at getting a second one to leave at work, but decided against due to the valve head on it. It is designed to be ‘automatic’ but sometimes it won’t engage the correct fitting and just blows air out the other. Seems to be related to not have enough back pressure to switch it over. It can be a pain to get it to change at times. I’d been meaning to switch a manually select head onto it, but it went AWOL in the garage.
bychosis (bahy-koh-sis): A mental disorder of delusions indicating impaired contact with a reality of no bicycles.

Tamiya
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Re: Did anyone try the $13 floop pumps at Aldi recently?

Postby Tamiya » Thu Sep 20, 2018 8:33 am

Aldi has had a few different pumps - foot pump, double barrel etc. latest/current is floor/track pump.

Everyone's needs are different. For $13 they're godsent for our purpose (AT) kiddy Bike Hospital. :) Price means we can buy 2 for the usual $25-30ea a cheap track pump would usually otherwise cost elsewhere.

As a pump... heck it works :D we're only pumping to 40-50psi, barrel volume is decent & doesn't take too long to get there. Stamped steel foot is wide, pump is stable. Easier than any minipump you'd carry - just ask our commuting cyclist school teachers.

Guage might not be decently "calibrated" but we've found it pretty "reliable" :P ignore the numbers (kids have NFI what those are anyway) and just texta your own calibrations on the glass. Or set the red knob needle to 40ish and glue it there. (None of the $30 W-mart pumps get a guage anyway, nor any goodbrand pump under $100 have a accurately calibrated guage that stays calibrated)

Dual/auto pump head is ok. Sometimes gotta force it to switchover, I think we cover one hole & give it a pump before clipping onto valve. But frenchies are rare on kiddy cycles so we're OK.

However we have had a broken handle... broke off one side whilst an adult was pumping. T handle has a slight valley in the middle which likely makes a weaker spot, handle is probably longer than it needs to be too - but that pump likely been dropped many times & kicked around the schoolyard. In line with Bike Hospital ethos to repair/reuse/reCycle we fixed it by making a new narrower tougher handle.

Would be handy to add some frame stand hooks on the barrel... hmmm...

RobertL
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Re: Did anyone try the $13 floop pumps at Aldi recently?

Postby RobertL » Thu Sep 20, 2018 9:29 am

I bought their $8 CO2 inflator + canister. I haven't used it yet, but it looks ok.

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uart
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Re: Did anyone try the $13 floop pumps at Aldi recently?

Postby uart » Thu Sep 20, 2018 10:30 am

Tamiya wrote:Aldi has had a few different pumps - foot pump, double barrel etc. latest/current is floor/track pump.
Yeah they get different stuff all the time. I agree that this current one is not too bad apart from the gauge. I liked the solid metal construction and it's got a good long stroke. Maybe I am being too fussy to want at least a semi-accurate gauge as well?

Interestingly my other floor pump is also from Aldi, and it is different again. Was a few dollars more, but very solid metal body and plunger, solid wooden handle, and a really nice accurate gauge. I've had it for a couple of years now and use it all the time. It's been absolutely perfect - wish I had bought two. ;)

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10speedsemiracer
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Re: Did anyone try the $13 floop pumps at Aldi recently?

Postby 10speedsemiracer » Thu Sep 20, 2018 10:51 am

I was in there to grab a work stand and check out one of the toolkits for someone..as someone else said, the pump head/connector looked extremely sketchy but for $13 I s'pose it could serve as a spare or something. Overall it seemed sort of solid but I prefer the Joe Blow pumps, mainly for the connector but also like an accurate gauge.
Unfortunately am making do with a BBB AirStorm which I grabbed off Gumtree for $15 for the moment. Works well, and is slightly quicker 0-100psi than the Joe Blow but the dual nozzle connector is annoying.
Campagnolo for show, SunTour for go

Tamiya
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Re: Did anyone try the $13 floop pumps at Aldi recently?

Postby Tamiya » Thu Sep 20, 2018 11:18 pm

Repair stand is functional & ours has survived 6mths of school Bike Hospital abuse :) still going strong.

Main annoyances are:-

1, if u let the legs fall out themselves under gravity when setting up... top collar gets jammed against its stop & jams there. (Thinking of adding an additional stop an inch higher up)

2, all movable parts are secured by plastic clamps. Plastic has survived & clamps ok (exception below) but the tightening knob screws into a plain nut that's unsecured - not captive in its plastic hex cavity. We've lost nuts several times, tried taping & gluing them in but only lasts a few weeks. (Nut is an M6 I think, same as on brake blocks. I'm scheming to replace the knob with a QuickRelease...)

3, top arm relies solely on clamp's friction to resist rotation. If your frame is claimed in cantilevered unbalanced... yep it'll slip. Crank that knob to the max. (I'm thinking of adding some rosin/chalk between clamp & tube. Waiting for some schoolkiddie carrying a violin I could borrow...) I read some ppl have drilled holes thru tube & bracket to fix the angle - top limiting imho.

tez001
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Re: Did anyone try the $13 floop pumps at Aldi recently?

Postby tez001 » Fri Sep 21, 2018 7:44 am

I got one to test out and will be returning it. I just cant get past the hugely inaccurate gauge on it.
However it does pump reasonably well to 110 psi.

Jmuzz
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Re: Did anyone try the $13 floop pumps at Aldi recently?

Postby Jmuzz » Fri Sep 21, 2018 11:05 am

I got one, the pumping is ok, don't know about gauge accuracy but at least it is responsive and seems consistent.

The head bent the pin of my valve though, it really sucks.
Not on far enough and it doesn't seal over the removable core thread. Too far on and it's depressor on the lever crushes the pin (it seems).

The lock lever is also really hard to move and almost demands two hands which is awkward compared to another pump which is an easy thumb flick.
I will probably try swapping the head with another and between the two it will make a reasonable pump.

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uart
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Re: Did anyone try the $13 floop pumps at Aldi recently?

Postby uart » Fri Sep 21, 2018 4:38 pm

tez001 wrote:I got one to test out and will be returning it. I just cant get past the hugely inaccurate gauge on it.
However it does pump reasonably well to 110 psi.
Hi Tez, can you tell me roughly how your gauge reads? Mine consistently reads about 15 to 20 PSI higher than the actual pressure (at around 100 to 110 PSI on my road bike tyres). At lower pressure it's a lot more accurate.

I bought two, just to see if the pressure gauge was any better on the second one, but it was EXACTLY the same error. I was going to take them both back yesterday but I decided to keep one, because they are otherwise a pretty solid pump. As usual, Aldi gave me the cash back no questions asked.

Anyway, on the one I kept I've just stuck on a label that says: "Gauge over-reads 15%", which is near enough to true for most of the tyres that I've tested it on. At least it is consistent enough, 115 to 120 gauge PSI gets me around 100 true psi every time. :)

tez001
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Re: Did anyone try the $13 floop pumps at Aldi recently?

Postby tez001 » Sat Sep 22, 2018 11:22 am

uart wrote:
Hi Tez, can you tell me roughly how your gauge reads? Mine consistently reads about 15 to 20 PSI higher than the actual pressure (at around 100 to 110 PSI on my road bike tyres). At lower pressure it's a lot more accurate.
I found the one I had was similar, in that it would read about 20psi higher on the gauge, compared to my other pump that I have here.
They've had a few different styles in the past. I've got about three pumps so I didnt really need another so just returned it.

If they go on special for $5 I'll buy one just for the sake of having another one :lol:

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Bentnose
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Re: Did anyone try the $13 floop pumps at Aldi recently?

Postby Bentnose » Tue Sep 25, 2018 6:21 pm

And to think I just spent $100 repairing my Silca pump and I could have just bought 8 of these.
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