Quality air pump nozzle?

I was trying to put air in my bicycle tires today with a new $20 air pump, but the "high tech" nozzle was something again. First, it wouldn't go on the valve stem and when I finally got it on, it blew itself off as soon as I started pumping. I tried putting it on a differnt way, but then it blew itself apart when I started pumping. After getting the stupid nozzle back together, I had to have someone hold it on the valve stem while I pumped. The nozzle was one of those fancy types with a built in ball inflation needle and other crap you don't need on a bicycle pump. Why can't they build the pump with a regular nozzle that works instead of this "high tech" piece of garbage?

P. Gordon Kennedy wrote:

I was trying to put air in my bicycle tires today with a new $20 air pump, but the "high tech" nozzle was something again. First, it wouldn't go on the valve stem and when I finally got it on, it blew itself off as soon as I started pumping. I tried putting it on a differnt way, but then it blew itself apart when I started pumping. After getting the stupid nozzle back together, I had to have someone hold it on the valve stem while I pumped. The nozzle was one of those fancy types with a built in ball inflation needle and other crap you don't need on a bicycle pump. Why can't they build the pump with a regular nozzle that works instead of this "high tech" piece of garbage?

Was it made in China?

I suppose it's the same reason you can't buy a car without dozens of extras that add thousands of dollars to the cost. Simplicity seems to be a thing of the past.

rainbow689 wrote:

P. Gordon Kennedy wrote:

I was trying to put air in my bicycle tires today with a new $20 air pump, but the "high tech" nozzle was something again. First, it wouldn't go on the valve stem and when I finally got it on, it blew itself off as soon as I started pumping. I tried putting it on a differnt way, but then it blew itself apart when I started pumping. After getting the stupid nozzle back together, I had to have someone hold it on the valve stem while I pumped. The nozzle was one of those fancy types with a built in ball inflation needle and other crap you don't need on a bicycle pump. Why can't they build the pump with a regular nozzle that works instead of this "high tech" piece of garbage?

Was it made in China?

Probably. There isn't much that isn't made in China these days.

Kim Chee

I guess simplicity just doesn't sell enough these days. The company figures that if they add all these extra features, they can raise the price and their profits. To raise their profits even higher, they use the cheapest materials they can and get the cheapest possible labor (that's why stuff isn't built in the USA). It seems that profits are more important than happy costomers these days.

P. Gordon Kennedy wrote:

I guess simplicity just doesn't sell enough these days. The company figures that if they add all these extra features, they can raise the price and their profits. To raise their profits even higher, they use the cheapest materials they can and get the cheapest possible labor (that's why stuff isn't built in the USA). It seems that profits are more important than happy costomers these days.

If that was a typo 'costomers' it really should be itcostsusalotmore's!

There needs to be a movement of "back to the basics" and that would apply to products as well as necessities of life.
Marketers feel they need to come up with a new twist to sell products. It reminds me of the old soap commercials, "New Improved Tide" and then, "New Improved - even more effective."
Better, better until it gets worse. Now a tire pump that requires a service technician to use. Geesh!

I'm with you, Abe! "better" and improved until it no longer does the job.

To me, "new and improved" has come to mean you can't get the package open without dynamite or a bayonet.

And "childproof cap" means that only a child can open it!

I've seen products labeled as new even though they've been on the market for four or five years. I think they just use terms like new or improved or reformulated, ect. to get people to buy their stuff. Speaking of packaging, I had to use a wire cutter to get the air pump with the stupid overcomplicated nozzle out of its package. Many times I actually need to use knives and such to get packages open. I'm surprised I havn't needed a power saw yet to get a stupid package open. Besides, excess packaging is a waste of materials and results in valuble resources being buried in landfills. Less packaging would make many products more convenient and would reduce the wastful use of important resources. I think they should especially cut back on the use of plastic in packaging, buecaus plastic is made from petroleum and petroleum is a non-renewable resource. Once the petroleum is gone, it's gone. Oh, it'll be back eventually, but that'll take about 100 million years. By contrast, recorded history only goes back about 5,500 years or about 0.0055% of 100 million years.