Review: Nash Boat Life Electric Air Pump

Pumping up your inflatable boat respective inflatable dingy is always a struggle. I figured many years ago out a 12V / car-plug volume pump is the way to go, it saved me from the struggle of pumping a large volume of air into my boats and I only had to add pressure with the foot pump or hand pump. Further allowed the volume pump me to deflate the boat quickly and pretty nice.

The foot or hand pumps provided by the manufacturer still had been a struggle, I remember many times I was standing there, sweating to get the boat up to pressure (or what I thought was pressure), while the sun was burning down and the struggle was real. 

If this was not enough, the boat felt like it needed more air either in the evening or next morning, so you pumped again - always with this fear of - did I put already to much pressure in? is the sun softening the material and I might over pump it? I mean - we talk about quite an investment here and worse, when you have all your tackle loaded on to your boat to get to your final spot.

During the fall of 2022 I heard about the Nash Boat Life Electric Air Pump that was coming out. I kept an eye open for when it will be available and got me one to test it out, the price tag scarred me a bit, but I knew that pump would get the boat up to optimal pressure and supposedly it keeps the pressure and does not feel like deflating overnight.

After a few trips and using the pump a few times, I can honestly say that it was well worth the investment. I keep the pressure always a tad below the defined maximum, allowing for some error margin in the pump control as well as the material to extend or shrink. 

This pump comes with several connectors, the default one worked for my Raptor boat out of the box. Screwing the hose nut on to the pump is a breeze, as the nut turns freely from the hose itself. First make sure the valve is closed, then connect the pump hose to the boat and plug the pump in, now I check the defined pressure at the boats valve and use the up/down respective +/- buttons on the pump to set the pressure just a tad or two below the maximum stated at the valve (be aware, each valve might have different values). Now I hit the power button and the pump starts to work.

First you will get volume into the chamber, once there is a certain pressure building up, the pump automatically switches to pressure pump mode, you literally hear a different noise now, more like a compressor at this point. You see on the digital display the pressure going up. 

What surprised me the most was how hard the boat respective the chambers become, all these years I thought I might be putting in too much, was I wrong - I did not put in enough air respectively get enough pressure. But I admit, this would have been incredibly hard with a manual pump as well.

Especially since I have a air deck - high pressure floor - in my boat, I was surprised how much this improved. The stability of the whole boat is better than ever, standing was easily possible before the use of the Nash pump, but now it is a breeze. 

Pumping up the boat is fun now - I hear when the pump works in its various states (volume and then pressure) till it turns off, once it becomes silent, I move on to the next valve and let it do its magic. Getting the boat ready went from an annoying work intensive chore to a side task allowing me to get other things ready and not being exhausted from the pumping.

Deflating the boat is also very easy, I open then valves and turn them so they can release pressure and air. Before I now connect the Nash pump hose, I close the valves again - the hose will open them, now I turn the pump on and let it do its work. Of course, while you work the left and right side of your boat, make sure to start folding it right in, so you can roll it up and it fits back into your bag. 

Pumping the boat up at home to do the occasional cleaning is also pretty easy now, of course you won't need full pressure for that, but it goes pretty quick.

There is one thing I wanted to mention, I have an Anker 535 battery and it did not work with that battery, though the outlet is rated with 12V 10Amp while the pump can draw 140W resulting in a total of 11.67A what simply might be too much to get it started. I used my LiFePo4 Battery that is in a Boat-Battery Box (Trolling Motor Battery Box) and has a 12V car-plug outlet with no issues. The same would like to be true for your car-outlets. 

Technical data:

12V / 140W => resulting in 11.67A

Up to 20 PSI / 1.37 bar

Final conclusion:
This pump is well worth the money and did not just make my life easier, it improved the whole experience.