Auxito AT1 Inflator & Charger - Review

[AA_Jeeper]

Auxito AT1 Review

This will be a detailed review of the @AUXITO AT1 inflator and charger. Few notes to get started – this product was provided free-to-me after many of us called out some erroneous claims by the manufacturer in an ad on this forum (link to original post). The manufacturer's marketer backpedaled on the claims in many ways and edited the post. I offered to review this next to my Milwaukee M18 inflator, which the Auxito claims it is comparable to. Auxito link to the product page with claims is here, and I have taken screenshots in case claims are updated.

I decided to compare to the M18 with a 5.0 AH battery as the price is comparable: Auxito WAS $299 which was ridiculous. After many of us called this out, they lowered the price to $199, which is in line with a Milwaukee M18 with a 5.0 AH battery from Home Depot.

Disclaimer - I am not a professional reviewer, I'm a regular Jeep guy and dad, and fund my Jeep addiction as a Mechanical Engineer who now manages teams of engineers, and thus I will strive to be detailed and factual, then provide my opinion at the end.

Form Factor

• What's in the box:
  • 
    
• Overall, this unit is smaller than the Milwaukee inflator I'm comparing to, and dimensions on the website are accurate: 7" x 4" x 9.5". That said, the unit does fit inside the under-floor cubby in a Wrangler JL.
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• The hose length is 33.5" - a bit shorter than Milwaukee but workable. The hose stores by wrapping around the bottom of the unit and stows nicely.

• The manufacturer claims the chuck is brass. From what I see, the inside of the chuck is brass, and all the other components are plastic. The hose end is a screw-on type, though the kit includes a quick connector. The quick connector is plastic as confirmed with a knife scoring the surface.
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• It comes with one battery that is rechargeable via USB-C and a provided USB C wall wart. The wall wart charges the battery at 60.8W, not 65W as listed. The battery fully removes from the unit so you could charge it outside of the inflator or use it as a separate power bank. The chargability of this battery with a USB-C is a bit more easy than a Milwaukee battery as you don't need a proprietary charger. That said, the Auxito battery is completely proprietary so even though it is removable, you can't swap in a new battery for additional pumping. I am not sure if you can get more batteries from Auxito.
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• There is onboard storage for the included accessories on the bottom of the unit. This will fit the ball needle and pool toy inflator nozzle, but not the charging cords or wall wart. The door on this compartment is very thin and broke as I was trying to open the compartment.
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• The screen on the unit is clear and fairly nice, showing the pressure setting and battery level. The battery level is only displayed as 3 colors, not a %.
• There is a light on the unit. It is acceptable as a backup light.
  • 

Performance
As stated above, this testing was done in comparison to a Milwaukee M18 with a 5.0AH battery as the this is the most comparable kit in price to the Auxito $199 kit. The Auxito offers a flashlight and the ability to charge other devices, which the Milwaukee cannot do.

Test parameters:

• I used automatic deflators to deflate my 285/70R17 Tires to 15 psi (my standard off-road setting) and then inflated those tires to 33 psi (my standard on-road setting). My measured tire diameter is 32.25".
• Before each test I confirmed the pressure with a manual gauge, then performed the inflation, and checked the final pressure.
• If the tire was not up to 33psi, the inflator was re-connected, and time to get to the final inflation added in for the final time.
• Multiple tires were used such that I could run the units as close to continuously as possible. The units were run until they shut off on their own.
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Results:

• The average Auxito inflation time from 15psi to 33psi was 2 minutes 50 seconds. The Milwaukee average inflation time is 2 minutes 25 seconds.
• The Auxito was able to inflate 8 tires from 15 psi to 33 psi. The Milwaukee with 5.0 AH was able to inflate 9 tires.
• Both the Auxito and Milwaukee have a pause and recalibration step. The Auxito stops about half-way through the inflation, while the Milwaukee stops near the final pressure. The Auxito and Milwaukee both exhibited an error on the first inflation, needing to be removed and reconnected to do the final "top off" of pressure. The average error for the Auxito was 1.9 psi and the average error for the Milwaukee was 1.25 psi.
• The sound level was measured 1 ft to the right of each unit. The Auxito was 81-83dB as compared to the Milwaukee which was 83-85 dB. The Milwaukee has a noticeably deeper and less harsh tone qualitatively.
• After being completely dead, the Milwaukee and Auxito batteries took a similar time to recharge via 120V charging, though admittedly I forgot to time them.
• Raw results are presented here:

Manufacturer Claims

• "Inflate up to 20 tires on a single charge": This is a useless metric without specifics of tire size, psi, etc. In this real-world test airing up after offroading, it could handle 8 tires.
• "built-in 26000mAh battery runs for 30 minutes continuously": In my testing, the sum of the run time was 22 minutes 37 seconds. The Milwaukee was 21 minutes 42 seconds, though the Milwaukee was able to inflate an extra tire in that time.

Overall:

• Auxito advantages (in my opinion):
  • The Auxito has additional features to allow it to act as a power bank and a light if you're inflating in the dark.
  • The Auxito is smaller and fits in the under-floor storage of the Jeep.
  • The Auxito can be charged via USB-C, so you could theoretically recharge more easily on the road with a USB to 12V adapter.
• Milwaukee advantages
  • The Milwaukee is faster (albeit not much faster) and inflated 1 more tire than the Auxito.
  • The price on sale for a Milwaukee with 5.0AH battery and charger is currently $192 at Home Depot.
  • The Milwaukee batteries can be used with many other tools, and Milwaukee batteries are readily available, so one could carry multiple batteries if additional inflation is needed. Further, there are larger Milwaukee batteries which could be carried that would further increase the speed of inflation and number of tires inflated.

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[AmericanPatriot100]

Nice review my man! Thanks for taking the time to compare the two products for us! And call out their claims in the original post! A lot of time we take them at their word about a products performance capabilities I’m glad they were willing and able to get one to you for real world testing!

 

[Medsker]

Well Done! Being an engineer myself I appreciate the raw data. Seems like if you were just blowing up 4 tires they would be close enough in time to not worry about it. I like that you can charge stuff off of the Auxito but the Milwaukee would be a better start to a system.

Sometimes I wish I would have chosen Milwaukee as my brand instead of Makita. This was over 10 years ago and Makita seemed to have better prices and had more battery powered things. If I had to do it over again I would go with Milwaukee. Not that I've ever had a problem with my Makita. The comparable Makita air compressor (tool only) is on Amazon for $163 right now so a few bucks more you could get a Milwaukee compressor, charger, and battery too.

I will stick with my twin brushless ARB for now although it was much, much more expensive.

 

[Obi Wan]

Very nice. Well done.

What would you say the overall build quality of the housing is? Do you think the housing would crack if dropped from a low height (Out the back of the Jeep as an example). I did see that the tab on the little door broke, that's why I ask.

 

[AA_Jeeper]

Very nice. Well done.

What would you say the overall build quality of the housing is? Do you think the housing would crack of dropped from a low height (Out the back of the Jeep as an example)

Also, what were the noise levels like?

Regarding build quality, the unit is fairly cleanly built with some notable weaker points. I didn't do a drop test, but I would expect it would survive a drop from a Jeep trunk, but not significantly more. Some additional detail to qualify my statement:

• The inflator head has brass threads only overmolded in plastic. So far this is fine, but I could see this cracking as the hose gets whipped around over time.
• The battery retaining clip is plastic, and from my product design experience, the smaller plastic clip holding in the heavy battery will probably shear first in drop testing releasing the battery.
• The housing door on the bottom that holds the ancillary inflation components (ball needle, pool toy inflator) is a poor living-hinge design as the material it is made from does not have a high enough yield point nor ultimate stress for the flexibility needed. It broke upon first use.

I mentioned the noise levels in the review: Auxito was 81-83 dB and Milwaukee was 83-85 dB measured 1 ft to the right of the unit as it was running. The Milwaukee sound quality was a lower tone and was less harsh to the ear qualitatively.

 

[AA_Jeeper]

An additional photo to show size and fit in the under-floor well of a JL. Seems like a good storage spot if you decide to pick one up.

 

[Tr4ckD4ys]

Great review! Thank you for the effort!
I have a few questions for debate, less so for hard data:
- You tested both devices with 285x70x17 tires. How would those times and abilities be affected by 37x12.5x17 tires. I understand the likelihood is “it takes longer” and “you won’t have inflate 8-9 tires”. I am wondering though whether in this setup you can even safely inflate 4 tires from ie 10-12psi without running empty on the battery.
- What about the comparison to the Gold Standard ARB Brushless Twin that seems to be the (expensive) go-to of forum members. How much less value are you really getting for 700$ less? How material is that difference?

 

[AA_Jeeper]

Great review! Thank you for the effort!
I have a few questions for debate, less so for hard data:
- You tested both devices with 285x70x17 tires. How would those times and abilities be affected by 37x12.5x17 tires. I understand the likelihood is “it takes longer” and “you won’t have inflate 8-9 tires”. I am wondering though whether in this setup you can even safely inflate 4 tires from ie 10-12psi without running empty on the battery.
- What about the comparison to the Gold Standard ARB Brushless Twin that seems to be the (expensive) go-to of forum members. How much less value are you really getting for 700$ less? How material is that difference?

I would LOVE a side-by-side comparison of all these things with real data and facts.

So far, it seems like there is a camp of people who say battery inflators suck and are slow and can never work for anything, but only provide ancillary conjecture, no hard facts. This camp confuses some of us average people who don't have 37s or the desire to install $700 ARB brushless setups. A battery inflator seems to be a perfectly valid tool for an average weekend-warrior who is going to inflate 4 tires after hitting the trails in 10-15 minutes, then drive their vehicle home. It might even be fine for the 37's guy- some people on the Milwaukee M18 inflator post said they've tried and it works.

The reality is really going to come down this- the time will undoubtedly increase, the number of tires will undoubtedly decrease, and there are positives and negatives with each use case. Do you have something like a Milwaukee with extra batteries? What size batteries? How many days are you going/number of tires do you really need to inflate? Are you staying at a campground where you can recharge batteries easily? All of these factor into one's decision.

We can think of it with a little fuzzy math, but that's gonna show us why it's not exactly easy to make a one-size answer other than inflation time will go up and number of tires will go down.

Volume of a cylinder is shown below:

So what this tells us is:

• as we increase tire radius, we are going to drive up volume to the squared power.
• as we increase tire width, we are going to increase volume linearly.

BUT

• We have to remember to subtract out the wheel volume, so a bigger wheel diameter will have an impact on inflation time. Same with wheel width.
• The amount of pressure that you put in also varies, and lowers as you go with bigger tires. This means, although more physical volume, you're not trying to compress it as much in larger tires, which works to your favor regarding time and energy consumption.
• The tire expands some, the inflator wastes some energy which shows up as heat, and as we all know, 37s aren't all the same, nor are they actually 37" usually.

All this kinda shows that the math is very fuzzy, and the variables at play mean we are probably best just testing the results as I've tried to do here and let the data speak.

If anyone wants to send me upgraded axles, 37s, and an ARB setup, I'd be willing to test them

 

[Opus]

I am inherently skeptical of reviews when products are provided. But I can't fault you on the methodology or the results. Nicely done.

 

[Toycrusher]

Very well done!

I have spent 2 of my 3 kids college funds on Milwaukee tools (and the 3rds will likely suffer the same fate...)
That said, the M18 inflator is a huge disappointment to me with larger tires. Its pretty terrific with normal tire sizes but on my 37" KO2s and 38" swampers it fails badly.

It pumps too hard and too fast for a larger tire. It hits the target pressure at the valve stem and starts the final calibration, pumping and pausing 5 times before stopping. Unfortunately it's many many psi below where it needs to be meaning you have to sit there and babysit it for a frustratingly long time continually restarting it till you FINALLY reach your desired pressure. I do not recommend it at all. I have contacted Milwaukee about this programming deficiency back when it first released but nothing has changed.

Coincidentally, the M12 inflator does not have this issue. It does not pump as fast and therefore does not run into the same issue. It will happily pump away until a larger tire reaches the desired psi without 6 thousand manual restarts.
M18 - only if you desire frustration
M12 - yes, simply works

 

[AA_Jeeper]

Very well done!

I have spent 2 of my 3 kids college funds on Milwaukee tools (and the 3rds will likely suffer the same fate...)
That said, the M18 inflator is a huge disappointment to me with larger tires. Its pretty terrific with normal tire sizes but on my 37" KO2s and 38" swampers it fails badly.

It pumps too hard and too fast for a larger tire. It hits the target pressure at the valve stem and starts the final calibration, pumping and pausing 5 times before stopping. Unfortunately it's many many psi below where it needs to be meaning you have to sit there and babysit it for a frustratingly long time continually restarting it till you FINALLY reach your desired pressure. I do not recommend it at all. I have contacted Milwaukee about this programming deficiency back when it first released but nothing has changed.

Coincidentally, the M12 inflator does not have this issue. It does not pump as fast and therefore does not run into the same issue. It will happily pump away until a larger tire reaches the desired psi without 6 thousand manual restarts.
M18 - only if you desire frustration
M12 - yes, simply works

THAT is very interesting. I hadn't thought of the differential pressure on larger tires causing a problem. Very interesting. Have you tried a different chuck end at all? I wonder if a better flowing chuck would reduce the pressure differential casing the issue.

 

[AnnDee4444]

Very well done!

I have spent 2 of my 3 kids college funds on Milwaukee tools (and the 3rds will likely suffer the same fate...)
That said, the M18 inflator is a huge disappointment to me with larger tires. Its pretty terrific with normal tire sizes but on my 37" KO2s and 38" swampers it fails badly.

It pumps too hard and too fast for a larger tire. It hits the target pressure at the valve stem and starts the final calibration, pumping and pausing 5 times before stopping. Unfortunately it's many many psi below where it needs to be meaning you have to sit there and babysit it for a frustratingly long time continually restarting it till you FINALLY reach your desired pressure. I do not recommend it at all. I have contacted Milwaukee about this programming deficiency back when it first released but nothing has changed.

Coincidentally, the M12 inflator does not have this issue. It does not pump as fast and therefore does not run into the same issue. It will happily pump away until a larger tire reaches the desired psi without 6 thousand manual restarts.
M18 - only if you desire frustration
M12 - yes, simply works

I've seen this too, and just set the target PSI a few higher than what I actually want. Like if it kicks off 5 PSI low on the first tire, then I'll set it 5 PSI higher for the other tires. It will still kick of "early" but it's actually the pressure I want anyway.

 

[AA_Jeeper]

I've seen this too, and just set the target PSI a few higher than what I actually want. Like if it kicks off 5 PSI low on the first tire, then I'll set it 5 PSI higher for the other tires. It will still kick of "early" but it's actually the pressure I want anyway.

Agreed. I'm interested in the science of why it might be happening. It seems like the phenomenon is worse on larger tires, which is interesting.

 

[AnnDee4444]

Agreed. I'm interested in the science of why it might be happening. It seems like the phenomenon is worse on larger tires, which is interesting.

Oh yeah, definitely worse on larger tires, and my JL is only on 315/75R17 with stock 7.5" wheels (A.I. tells me this is 4.2-4.4 cu.ft. of air per tire)

if the issue is flow at the valve stem, I wonder if anyone makes something like the ARB quick deflator but for inflation: something that removes the valve core for more flow. Or if using a multi-tire "inflation systems" would lessen the false high pressure the pump sees.

 

[AA_Jeeper]

Oh yeah, definitely worse on larger tires, and my JL is only on 315/75R17 with stock 7.5" wheels (A.I. tells me this is 4.2-4.4 cu.ft. of air per tire)

if the issue is flow at the valve stem, I wonder if anyone makes something like the ARB quick deflator but for inflation: something that removes the valve core for more flow. Or if using a multi-tire "inflation systems" would lessen the false high pressure the pump sees.

Apex claims their push on chuck is "high flow." I bought it for the push-on capability and quick release. I haven't tested A-B to see if it's actually faster or not

High Flow Push On Chuck - Direct Connect to Screw On Chuck (Fits Milwa – Apex Performance Products

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