Nixy Ventus Electric Pump and Battery Review 2024

Nixy Ventus Electric Pump: Overview

One of the best upgrades any inflatable paddler can make – whether it’s SUP, kayak, or rafting – is an automatic electric pump. The Nixy Ventus is our top-rated electric pump for a lot of great reasons.

— Nixy Ventus Pump Summary Ratings and Review —

Specifications

Features, Usability, and Portability

The Nixy Ventus electric SUP pump includes everything you need to get your board inflated, plus adapters for a myriad of other inflatable items. The pump comes in a well-made bag with a large mesh pocket in the lid and a padded divider that fits the Nixy Battery Power Pack.

The Ventus is not the smallest or lightest pump in our list, but the included bag makes it easy to bring along, and can fit into the Nixy wheeled transportation bag along with your other iSUP accessories. When bundling with the battery power pack, you aren’t limited to inflating your board by your car, so you can take your board anywhere and still use the Ventus electric pump. The 12v cord wraps around a built-in cord keeper on the bottom of the pump and has a pressure-fit spot to hold the 12v plug itself.

Once you plug the Ventus into a 12v electrical source, the LCD screen immediately turns on and begins displaying all sorts of information. You can see the current board pressure (if connected to an inflated board), the max pressure setting, whether or not the active cooling fan is running, and even the input voltage. I have found that the 12v plug itself can be sensitive to movement causing a loss of connectivity. This really only happens when moving the pump around, so once you’ve set everything up it’s best to leave it be. If you do lose connection, simply unplug the pump and plug it back in. If you are using the Nixy battery, you may need to press the power button on the battery to re-select the 12v port.

Changing the pressure settings (both the units and values) is extremely easy and intuitive with the rubberized button controls. Once you have your pressure selected, pressing the power button once starts the pump.

It automatically begins “Stage 1” pumping with a high-volume, low pressure pump to quickly inflate an empty board to just under 1 PSI, then automatically switches to “Stage 2” to increase the pressure up to the maximum you selected. Once the maximum pressure is reached, the Ventus automatically shuts off.

While pumping (and after finishing) the Ventus uses a built-in fan to help keep the pump cool. Overheating a pump will shorten its life and can potentially cause it to fail. While the active cooling fan is a great addition, it’s still best to let the Ventus rest for a few minutes between boards and, whenever possible, keep the pump shaded when in use.

Inflation Speed and Sound

We tested the inflation speed of the Nixy Ventus both plugged into a constant 12v power source and when plugged into the Nixy battery power pack.

When plugged into a constant 12v power source, the Ventus inflated our medium-sized standard test board (11’ x 32” x 6”) in 12 minutes, 19 seconds. When plugged into the battery power pack, the Ventus took between 12 minutes, 45 seconds and 15 minutes to inflate the same board. As the voltage in the battery drops, the pump speed decreases. But we’ll get more into the battery in a bit.

Overall the Nixy Ventus inflated our test board faster than average when plugged into a constant 12-volt power source and while on battery power.

Electric pumps are loud, but some are louder than others. When testing the Nixy Ventus we measured its sound output during Stage 2 pumping (when it is loudest) to be about 81 dB on average when measured at head height. Our testing showed all of our electric pumps to fall between 80-82 dB overall. Every 1 dB increase equates to a roughly 7% increase in perceived volume. As a reference, when letting air out of the board, we measured 89 dB – or about 30% more volume than the Ventus pump. 60 dB is roughly the volume of normal conversation and 90 dB is typically considered the threshold for harmful volume.

Battery

The Nixy Battery Power Pack does more than just power the Ventus SUP pump via the built-in 12v socket. It also has two USB ports for charging phones and other devices and includes a 3-LED flashlight.

There’s only one button on the Nixy battery power pack. Pressing it once turns on the LCD screen. Pressing the button again will cycle the battery through powering any connected devices. If you plug in the Ventus pump and the pump doesn’t turn on automatically, press the power button on the battery to select “12 volt.” Holding the battery’s power button for three seconds activates the flashlight, and holding it for three seconds again turns the flashlight off.

The battery itself is a 6000mAh Lithium-ion battery. There’s enough juice on a fully-charged battery to fully inflate our test board (11’x32”x6”) to 15 PSI three times before the automatic low-voltage cutoff kicks in. There is still a little bit of power left in the battery at this point (roughly 15%) however it’s important not to fully discharge lithium-ion batteries completely to 0% as this can damage the battery cells and shorten the battery’s lifespan and charge capacity.

The included wall charger will fully charge the Nixy Battery Pack in about 6 hours if it is completely depleted.

Warranty and Customer Support

Nixy warranties both the Ventus pump and the battery power pack for one year from the date of purchase and offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you have any questions or need to file a warranty claim, you can contact Nixy through email, phone, or social media.

Overall Impressions/Review Summary

The Nixy Ventus is my go-to electric SUP pump. It’s not the fastest, but it’s incredibly consistent, the battery pack can inflate three boards if I’m not able to plug in, and the active cooling fan helps beat the summer heat to extend the life of the pump.

Nixy Ventus Electric Pump FAQ