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I haven't tested lots of floor pumps, so I can only give information on a few and say that these are pretty good. One thing to note is that a high price (such as with the revival of the italian brand Silca by an american company with some extremely high priced stuff), is not needed, an SKS rennkompressor costs about 60 euros and it will last forever. Cheaper pumps should last a long time too normally.
The one I have is Presta only. The advantage is that you can just stick it onto a Presta valve and it stays stuck, no pulling of levers needed to fix it... So it's really quick to use.
After 17 years, my SKS Rennkompressor's pressure gauge sometimes hangs, and the pump rubber is getting a bit loose but that doesn't mean I need to buy a new pump. All parts to fix the pump are separately available, and the SKS Rennkompressor generally is a pump that just keeps working. They've been made for 40 years or so, and I see not much reason to change. You can also get the various heads (presta only, or EVA) separately.
There might be prettier ones, and there is a case for having a slightly higher pump (where the handle is at ca. 72 cm fully compressed, with the SKS Rennkompressor it is about 65 cm which means slightly bending over), and there's also a case for a higher placed pressure gauge to make it easier to read, but a higher placed pressure gauge is also vulnerable in case the pump falls over...
The hose on my 1992 pump is quite short, but newer models have longer hoses which are a lot easier to use because of that (as you don't need to turn the wheel any more to get the valve low enough).
Rating: 8/10
2021-10-21:
Deviation of the pressure gauge:
I forgot to note here the deviation of the pressure gauge, which is ca. +0.35 bar (it shows 0.35 bar higher than the actual pressure). [ For the measurements, see the section on SKS airchecker section on the pressure gauge deviation results, on the hand pump page ]
Long term issues:
1. Long ago I bought a loose rubber and fixed the Presta head that was a problem described above.
2. A few years ago I was tired of the hanging gauge and fixed it by taking off the clear plastic cover and then the needle. After that I put some thin oil onto the shaft on which the needle is mounted and after moving the needle a few times this fixed the stickiness issue. I may have used WD40 too before that time, not sure.
2. A few years ago the hose was tearing near the pump base so I took it off and cutt off a little bit.
Replacing the hose with a longer one with the EVA head:
EVA head: I bought another SKS Rennkompressor about 10 years ago which has an EVA head which works for both Presta and schrader valves. I gave this pump to a relative but as I found it useful sometimes to be able to pump schrader valves and to have a head with lever instead of pushing it onto the valve, I recently bought a new longer hose (ca. 125cm) with EVA head attached for my old Rennkompressor. The problem is that it leaks air. I bought it from bike-discount and they immediately sent a replacement but that also leaks air. I am going to take the pump head apart. I checked the 2nd Rennkompressor that I gave to a relative, and this does not have a leaking pump head. I sent SKS a query about it but had no response so far...
Update 1 (2021-10-26): on 26 Oct. I got a reply from SKS, they will send a replacement head.
Update 2 (2021-11-13): SKS promptly sent a replacement head, it took a while before I got round to installing it but I just did that and just replacing the head section (not the part that goes into the tube nor the orange end-screw) which I tried first because removing the section that goes into the hose was rather hard (perhaps it would have gone easily if I had heat up the hose a bit?) fixed the issue already so the pump heads had an issue, not the 2 sections + seals, 1 that goes into the hose, the orange one + seal that screws onto that. Note that I swapped the pump heads between the 2 defective pump heads/hoses, and that didn't work, so this shows that of the first 2 pump heads+hoses the pump heads themselves leaked air.
I will add some pictures soon.
Profile is a dutch brand for bike shops, which have some own branded stuff such as the pump here.
The hose is of a good length, the pressure can be easily read, I quite like having the pressure gauge on top, and after many years it still works. The pump is fairly light being made of aluminium and plastic and therefore also doesn't have the tendency to fall over which the Rennkompressor does have.
Rating: 8/10
2021-10-21:
Deviation of the pressure gauge:
I forgot to note here the deviation of the pressure gauge, which is ca. +0.70 bar (it shows 0.70 bar higher than the actual pressure). This is quite a lot. I've not checked whether I can fix this by opeing the gauge and perhaps changing something in it. [ For the measurements, see the section on SKS airchecker section on the pressure gauge deviation results, on the hand pump page ]
Long term issues:
I had a slight issue recently with the pump not pumping, presumably due to (something inside) the dual output head which may need some lubrication or something. After trying a while it was fixed but if this issue returns I may need to take the head apart.
Pump wall holder: After buying the wall mount for the SKS Rennkompressor I made a pump wall holder from wood for the Profile pump. It's easy to make and quite useful, will work for many types of pumps.
The extra 5mm layer at the end prevents the pump from sliding off...
2023-4-6: The pressure gauge gave far too high pressures, about 1.80 bar too high! I don't know why this changed... The gauge was always stuck at ca. 1.80 bar minimum when the pressure was 0 (which means 0 above the ambient air pressure, it is when 0, actually about 1 bar of course, i.e. the air pressure around you) I took out the pressure gauge, and the metal ring on the pressure gauge seemed spot welded on so I drilled the 3 spots there to remove those, then put it in a vice and the pulled down the gauge while the ring was kept from moving from the edges of the vice's grip. Using penetrating oil had no effect on the dial so I pulled the dial up a bit then turned it to the left beyond the pin at the 0 mark. I could turn it back a bit then I felt a stop. I felt that there was nothing to lose as this way with a 1.80 bar deviation the gauge was worthless, so I pulled it beyond that point to see what would happen. I heard a click, then the dial was at 0 when there was no pressure in the pump, and it was back to about the original pressures, with about 0.4 bar deviation this time. Not perfect but a lot better than before, and better than it was originally, which was a 0.70 bar deviation in real pressure (lower) than the indicated pressure (gauge). Perhaps I could get it to an even better correspondence with the SKS airchecker by pulling it further? I decided to try that. So the first try was pulling it back even more but that made it worse. The real pressure was now 0.70 bar higher than indicated pressure. I then I pulled the dial to the right beyond the pressure it is meant for (10+ bar), and I heard another click. I think the needle shifted on the axle but perhaps it is internal in the mechanism that you can't see because of the dial. I then measured the pressure pumping up a tyre to what the pump's gauge indicated was 3 bar: The SKS airchecker said it was 3.00 bar. I then did the same ppumping a tyre to bar as indicated by the pump: The SKS airchecked showed 4.00 bar. No more deviations, excellent! I will see how this holds up...
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Last modified: 2023-4-10