Genovo Power Inflatable Boat Pump

 

I get lots of people asking about my rechargeable inflatable boat pump so here are the details.  It’s a Genovo Power inflatable boat pump model number: GP-80DB.  I’ve had this pump for about 4 years now and it’s never let me down.  I recall paying about £130 at the time when I purchased it from a shop on eBay.  It’s a great little boat pump and can inflate up to .8 bar or 11.7 psi which coincidentally is the pressure needed for my Honda Honwave T38 air deck floor.  To be fair it does start to heat up a bit when approaching .8 bar but still manages it.  It’s actually 2 pumps in one, a high-speed fan pump to inflate quickly and a high power piston pump to achieve the required pressure.  You can set the required pressure, turn it on and it will auto shut off when the pressure is reached.  This saves a lot of time as I can be unloading and preparing my kit whilst the pump is doing its thing.  It can inflate up to 500 litres of air per minute.

Genovo inflatable boat pump

There are 2 connectors on the back of the pump which allow you to connect up a car battery if you manage to exhaust the built-in rechargeable battery.  I’ve never needed to do this as the built-in battery has more than enough charge to inflate the boat numerous times.  In fact, I used it a couple of weeks ago to inflate all my boats in my garden on one charge.  That’s 4 boats in all and still, the battery showed no signs of running out.

Here is a video of the Genova inflatable boat pump in action.

This was a great pump. I say ‘was’ because my wife accidentally plugged in the wrong charger when I asked her to charge it up for me a couple of weeks back and fried the battery.  I got home just in time as it was starting to smoke, 10 minutes more and who knows what might have happened.  I now label up all my power adaptors with Dymo labels.  Lesson learnt.

As it was such a good pump I thought I’d order another.  When it arrived it looked a bit different from the old one.  For a start, it was blue, not an issue but I could see that there were quite a few differences from the old model.  I checked the model number just to be sure it was the same model and not a lower model and it definitely the same model number so they must have redesigned it.

Genovo inflatable boat pump

The first thing I noticed when unboxing it was the carry case, definitely a lower quality bag and a lot thinner than the old one.  The pump tubing was also of a different type.  On the old model, you got super tough yellow tubing which is very difficult to squash, even if you stand on it.  The new model tubing is the type you’d find on a cheap air bed pump and you can squeeze it flat between your fingers.  I can’t see that lasting long but we’ll see.  You do get a spare one though just in case.

 

The new model no longer has the ability to be attached to a car battery as the connection terminals are no longer there.  Maybe it was a feature that no one used, I certainly never used it.  Looking at the display and buttons I can see that the labelling is printed under each button and not molded in like on the old model.  Obviously a cost-cutting measure.  The power button and charging point have been moved from the rear to the side of the pump and now have waterproofing.  I’m not sure how useful that is to me as I do all my inflation on land but I’m sure others may benefit from this.  The front buttons have now changed slightly, instead of having separate up and down buttons for changing the pressure you have one for this task and the other is for changing the display from PSI to KPA.

Genovo inflatable boat pump

In summary, the new model doesn’t appear to be as high quality as the old model.  I see this quite a lot when companies try to make a previously successful product but make it at a lower cost.  If it had been sold as a lower model and a bit cheaper then I would recommend it but having had the old model for years I can notice the differences in quality straight away.  If you can find an old yellow model then get it but be sure to ask first (if buying online) to confirm.  I purchased mine expecting the yellow (as in the eBay pic) but got blue.

One more thing, be sure to have a screwdriver handy as both pumps had screws not tightened fully.  Someone in a factory somewhere being lazy I guess.

Genovo inflatable boat pump

Here is another video of the Genovo inflatable boat pump in action:

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