I don’t use the car much so sometimes it won’t start because the battery’s flat. Maybe that means I don’t use it enough, but anyway. At the moment it’s a Honda Civic, but I used to have an old Discovery and will again I hope (a lot easier to get the bike in…).

Finding someone to jump start it with can be a pain, so I though I’d get a jump startery thing. I see there are two types:

1) smaller than an iPhone, £30, looks like it won’t work but with lots of suspiciously good reviews.

2) the size and weight of a concrete block, £60, looks like it might work but with not quite such glowing reviews and some warnings about bubbling acid etc.

Anyone have experience of these things (both jump starters and cars) and can recommend one (jump starter)?

How about a spare battery kept indoors so if it doesn’t start just quickly swap batteries?

I’ve never used one of the small ones, and I am sure with a borderline battery it will make the difference, but on a completely dead one you are asking a lot. It claims to deliver up to 300A – most proper car batteries will put out well over 600 A (cold starting).

There are cheaper options for the big box around. I’ve used them with success.

If this is a regular issue I’d look at getting a small solar panel to keep the battery topped up. Or, you could set a reminder on your phone calendar to start the car once every week/fortnight and take it for a short trip.

Swapping batteries isn’t a quick easy solution, plus a jump start kit will cost a similar amount and is portable, and will work for any car.

However, I’d be first looking at a small solar topup charger that sits on the dash (it just needs to be plugged into a 12v socket thats always on, don’t think the our 09 Civic stays live with ignition off but the boot one might? If not its easy to add a socket thats always live.

Halfords sell the solar trickle/top up things, however I bet you’d find them at a better price online.

Edit: Spooky beat me to it by seconds…
>
Yes, good point, that is the most obvious answer!

Arguments against:
I’d like to change the car at some point and will likely have the same issue but with a different battery
Once the car is started, the car charges the battery, but if I swapped flat battery for full battery I’d still have a flat battery to charge
>

I’ve one of these used it on a few cars and worked each time.

http://www.diy.com/departments/torq-300-amp-jump-starter/258279_BQ.prd

£30 will buy you a years AA cover. As many jump starts as you need and it’ll be done properly.
Plus it keeps me in a job 😀

That little jumpstarter is setting off all my bullshit alarms but autoexpress reviewed one and said it worked… Maybe the battery itself is magic but how does it not just melt those weenie jump leads? My motorbike jump leads are several times thicker and even those smoke and soften their insulation almost instantly if you use them for a car… Curious, though

The big block is more the traditional approach- it’s literally just a car battery, an integrated mains charger and permanently fixed jump leads.

Which gives you option c, a car battery and some jump leads. I took a tired battery out of my mondeo and leave it on trickle charge all the time- it’ll start pretty much anything short of a truck.

I bet £30 doesn’t get you Homestart though!

Got my annual discussion with your retention team this week, two person policy with rescue, no home start. We probably average a brief roadside fix once every two years, £180 renewal for their glitzy super dooper upgraded ‘Gold’ membership 🙁

£30 will buy you a years AA cover. As many jump starts as you need and it’ll be done properly.
Plus it keeps me in a job

from experience the AA is good value, as sometimes its not the battery

<aside> with intro offers and cashback you can get usually top cover for way less. And if you tell AA that, you get your renewal for way less too. “Sorry chief but I’m off to Green Flag, I can get the same level of cover for a third as much” “Oh OK, have it for a third as much”

I have both; recovery is a good thing to have, but it’s also good to be able to sort things yourself in 2 minutes rather than waiting around for a van.

Possibly not with the AA.

But plenty of other providers offering national recovery with home start for less than £30.

comparethemeerkat. 🙂

Ah, but then you’ll just get some greasy oik from the local garage. Or you could pay a little more and get a highly trained professional like me 😆

Trickle charger, some batteries don’t recover well from a full drain, so repetitive jumping will just be prolonging the issue.

The battery on my Octavia died on its ass while I was camping down in South Devon, I phoned the bloke who owned the little site and he brought out a spare charged battery that he used FO an electric fence, which wouldn’t even turn the car over; (1.9TDi, btw). He also tried with the little Kawasaki 4×4 buggy thing he drove, and that wouldn’t work either, so I phoned the AA, for the first time in thirty-odd years, and a nice gent came out and connected a little box jobby onto the battery, the car started straight away! God knows what battery it has in it, but it was damned impressive.
Turned out the battery had 52% of its original capacity left.
It was the original one from new, though, 51 plate, so not entirely surprising, really.
Might be worth trying to find out what it is that the AA use, and try to locate something similar.

You’re better off with a trickle charger or conditioner if you can use one. My dad uses one as his car is often not used for weeks on end.

I’ve jumped a 3 litre diesel car and a 2.5 litre diesel van with one of these.

http://www.halfords.com/workshop-tools/garage-equipment/jump-leads/phaze-4-in-1-jump-starter

It’s been a life saver and its handy for camping too. Got a usb socket for phones etc. Jumped a friend’s car too with no problems.

Check the engine sizes in the specs, it’s not supposed to handle these size engines i think, probably wouldnt work if totally flat, but for a low battery it does the trick.

Ymmv

Edit. On offer too at the mo.

Park on a hill….

Had a few dieing batteries over my time, worth checking there isn’t something draining it over time or that it’s not knackered. I had a home charger that got pulled out on some mornings normally took about 15mins to top the battery up enough to start. Once it had run the battery was charging again so worked fine (mostly)

Keeping it hooked up to a battery optimiser would be the perfect solution. But this is only any good is its parked off the road. Taking it for a spin once every week would be the next best. Owning a shock box thingy is never a bad idea, but shouldn’t really be used to solve this particular problem; you want to avoid letting the battery running so low in the first place really.

Excellent selection of advice as always thank you. Solar trickle charger I hadn’t come across and would fit the bill very nicely.
Thanks.

In case it’s useful to anyone else, I bought a Suaoki T3.

It arrived charged and worked perfectly, starting my Honda Civic from a dead flat battery first time (and I mean dead flat – no display on the clock even). Small enough to carry round easily as insurance, though after a couple of longish trips the car battery’s holding charge so far.

I took poly’s note to heart and paid a little extra for 600A peak output rather than 300A. Maybe 300A would have started the Civic too, but I’m happy.

It bears an uncanny resemblance to this, this and this, so I’m sure there’s nothing special about the words “Suaoki T3”.

Thanks as always for advice. Next, solar trickle charger…

One of the portable units with a 12V ciggy output can also be used with your portable jetwasher for bike cleaning duties…

How about just disconnecting the battery after you use the car then reconnect when next using it?

How about just disconnecting the battery after you use the car then reconnect when next using it?

and keying in the stereo code and retuning all the stations.

And overlooking the alarm system not working or not liking being disconnected for a length of time.

which all happens when the battery drains anyway.

There was a spam post ^ there.

mikewsmith – Member
Park on a hill….

i.e. bump start?

Not with a cat on the exhaust.

Solar charger for the win. My car used to sit for months on end in the work carpark while I was working abroad, and the only time it didn’t fire up when I jumped in was when there was snow on the windscreen obscuring the charger. I think I paid about £10 off eBay.

Cheers, Rich

I have one of these http://www.halfords.com/workshop-tools/garage-equipment/jump-leads/ring-lithium-powerpack

it’s much smaller than the lead acid ones and works very well.

I also bought a solar charger first, but didn’t check my lighter socket was live before opening it, which it isn’t.