Review: Xiaomi DZN4006GL Mi Pump Air Compressor

Xiaomi compressor inflating my Brompton’s rear tyre

I was lucky enough to receive the Xiaomi DZN4006GL Mi Pump Air Compressor as a Christmas present.

And, since I now have a blog, I am going to review it.

Bet you’re feeling glad you clicked on this.

But if you’re happy to stick around, read on for a review of something which has exceeded my expectations so far.

#tl;dr

A useful compact device, which exceeded my expectations, and is priced reasonably at £35ish. But a bit too heavy to be chucked into a saddle bag and forgotten about.

What it is

It’s a small(ish), battery powered air compressor, designed for inflating tyres.

I think it’s intended for use with an electric scooter (you know, the kind you can’t ride lawfully almost anywhere other than your own garden).

It comes with a drag-string bag, and I’d have welcomed something in heavier-duty, wipe-clean fabric, rather than the quite nice black fabric they’ve used.

It also comes with a very short micro-USB charging cable, and adapters for different nozzles. I haven’t tried them. There is a small pocket in the bag, which velcros shut, to hold these, which is a nice touch, but they don’t fit in the pocket in the bag I received. Oh well.

Convenience

It’s great! I was hoping it would be good, given the numerous positive reviews, but I’m very impressed.

I went on an inflating spree, checking the pressures on everything I could find: two bikes, and two cars.

The cars were not too bad, as I had done those recently, but my bikes were way under. I was amazed, as I had pumped them both up with a foot pump not too long again.

Perhaps I was just not quick enough getting the pump connector off last time, but:

I hadn’t realised they were so far under!

Speed-wise, the numbers just speed up, which was pretty impressive.

The convenience of the unit will also mean I’m more likely to check the pressures more regularly, and inflate them to whatever is needed, so a definite win there.

Size

It’s a compact unit, and fits easily in my hand.

It’s not heavy, but it’s still a bit bigger and heavier than I could stick in my saddle bag and forget about.

Interface

The circular controls remind me of a classic iPod, although it doesn’t have a scroll wheel.

It’s easy to use, and — good news right now — can be used with gloves on.

It has a number of different categories — including bike, car, and motorbike — and those are basically presets / memory slots, as they store the last pressure you set for that particular slot. I’ll probably use one for my Brompton, one for my Elephant Bike, and one for cars.

Setting the pressure you want is very easy, if you want to deviate from one of your presets.

The screen is bright, and clear.

Battery life

So far, so good.

I’ve nothing to measure it against, but it had no problem doing eight car tyres (increasing by about 3 bar per tyre), and four bike tyres (increasing each by a lot — between 40 and 70 psi).

I imagine that, if I was trying to inflate a tyre — particularly a car tyre — from flat, it would consume a lot more power.

It charges off a mini-USB connector, so it’s pretty convenient (although I would have preferred USB-C).

Noise

Not too bad, and a bit quieter than the mains-powered compressor which came with one of our cars.

It’s definitely not silent (which would be an unreasonable expectation), so no complaints there either.