Not today but two days ago and still smugly smiling about it! So what am I talking about? Well, as I think I've mentioned before, my younger boy has his own wee signwriting business and, although he specializes in vehicles - vans etc, he does a wide range of other "stuff" too. When doing this he's in and out of commercial premises and industrial estates quite a lot and seems to pick up punctures with depressing regularity, in fact I've never known anyone who gets more punctures than him! Many of these punctures are slow punctures so some years ago I gave him one of those electric tyre inflators which has let him pump the tyre up so he can get easily to the nearest tyre store without the hassle of clearing most of his gear out of the back so he can access his spare, change it with the punctured one and then put everything back in the boot (Astra Estate). This inflator has seen a lot of use and is now not working due to the adaptor plug not working - I can probably fit a new plug but how much longer it may last for is anyone's guess.
However I noticed last week Aldi were advertising a Ring tyre inflator for £19.99. Hmm, Ring, big name in auto electricals no? probably a good buy then? I'm sure it would do him just fine. So off I went last Thursday - the day they were advertised to be on sale - but no! Sorry sir, we haven't received any stock of that item. As I was talking to the member of staff another staff member overheard us and said "There's a box of them under the No1 till". So off we went, and there was a whole box of tyre inflators there. Unfortunately they were not the current offer (stock left unsold from a previous promotion) and they weren't branded Ring but Auto XS:
So, feeling rather disappointed I said "no thanks" and went home (all of 15 minutes away in the car). Then I rang up Aldi's free helpline to try to find out if any of the other 4 of their stores in the Edinburgh area had stock, but they (the helpline) don't hold stock records and can't ring individual stores for you (Aldi don't list store phone numbers). Feeling a little deflated (pun intended, ha ha) I decided to look up the Auto XS inflator on line to try to find who makes it as I'd noticed that the buttons and digi display looks very similar to the Ring item. I couldn't really find anything about who makes it but, found they had been selling it at the same £19.99 price point. Then, looking at it I came across an Aldi add showing it at £14.99! I think they must have reduced it towards the end of the offer. Hmm? I thought, probably worth it at that price even if it's of a slightly inferior quality?
Decided to take a walk to their store as part of my daily exercise and bumped into the same staff member who originally helped me. "Could I take a better look at one of those pumps you found for me"? It looked as good as you would expect:
so I asked if it would still be the original £19.99 or the later £14.99 I'd seen on the internet. "Let's scan it and see" she said. Came up £12.99! Wow! Yes please I'll take it. Went to the tills thinking "I bet this comes up at £19.99" but no, it came up £12.99 - I was ever so pleased!
Got home and thought "I'd better try it out just to be sure it's working" so connected it up to Becky's tyre valve and learned how to do the pressure presetting etc - all working fine. Then, as I was putting it back in it's box I noticed the warranty sheet and guess where you have to send it for a warranty claim/service? Yes, you guessed it, RING!
What a result, I'm feeling quite disproportionately pleased with this purchase and grinning from ear to ear! The only criticism I could level at it is the valve connector design which is of the screw on type:
which is not so easy to use as the more traditional lever type as it tends to lose a little air as you slacken it so it's slightly more difficult to exactly "hit" a particular pressure. I see most of these devices at the cheaper end of the range are tending to use this design of connector though - probably a few pence cheaper to make? I'm sure my boy will quickly come to terms with it.