I could do with a car battery jump starter as a “just in case” measure for a trip I have coming up, and also to power a small pump for water sampling at work.

Has anyone tried one like this? It’d take up a hell of a lot less space in the car, but I don’t really trust the look of it.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Top-20000mAh-Car-Jump-Starter-Emergency-Battery-Charger-Booster-Power-Bank-/201794869693?hash=item2efbe959bd:g:NtUAAOSwnbZYJAc1

Are there any other recommendations for jump starter? Work’s paying so the limit is only about £50.

I have the Energizer version which can now be found for around £50
I’ve used it to start a neighbours Ford Kuga and it worked fine. Also used it to charge my phone on several occasions as newer cars can’t charge when the ignition is off.
I bought the energiser over cheapo ebay because I trusted the brand and it was recomended on an EV forum I use.

Its about 400amps to jumps start a car isn’t in? Down those skinny little leads?

You’d think the only thing that little battery could power is an amusing 10minute video on BigCliveDotCom’s youtube channel 🙂

I think that they can put a significant amount of charge into the car battery if it’s not too borked, over the course of say five or ten minutes – then the original battery can start it.

I’ve always wondered about these. Must be more special than a normal li-ion or lithium polymer pack as the voltage would need to be around 12-13V?

I think that they can put a significant amount of charge into the car battery if it’s not too borked, over the course of say five or ten minutes – then the original battery can start it.

Ah – that makes more sense – so its more of portable charger than something for jump-start

20amp hrs from a £20 quid battery sounds a bit fanciful though (or any kind of portable battery given top of the range power tool batteries manage 6 amp hrs). Do you think quoting it in milliamps they got a bit carried away and typed one or two too many zeros? 🙂

I assumed it was one of those ones with a lead acid battery in til I clicked the link.

You want to pull 200A out of a li-ion battery pack that costs £20 😯 How long til we see another thread like the gas cylinder/transit thread?

The lead acid versions were shite.

How about you buy a small car battery for your 50 quid to power the sampling pump directly and mean that the car battery not at risk ?

trail_rat- that’s what we’ve done in the past, but it’s heavy to carry to remote locations and one leaked once and melted the carpet in someone’s footwell.

I’ll try the Energizer one.

They don’t jump the car in a traditional High current fashion, they trickle equalise the cars battery to a point where there is enough juice in the cars lead acid to turn over a cold engine whilst running the necessary ECU’s

i have one almost exactly the same and it works brilliantly. it started my wifes volvo a few times on a single charge when the battery went south. highly recommended.

(or any kind of portable battery given top of the range power tool batteries manage 6 amp hrs

6 amp hours is 360 amp minutes, so that could turn a car over for 30 seconds which is actually quite a long time. Assuming the battery could handle that high of a discharge rate – which it could for a short while I’m sure.

Its probably claiming 20000mAH from the USB output, ie at 5V. So would be less if using it at 12V.

I got one the same it won’t even start my motorbike so it’s got no chance with the car.

[video]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I_pzljtJapE[/video]

This one certainly works 🙂

I have one like his just above for starting dead vans at racetracks. Works way way better than you’d ever imagine. Transits that are totally dead from interior lights left on etc, no problem at all.

Don’t piddle about with batteries. 😐
This happened to our caravan leisure battery last week, in the Forest of Dean. Noticed a smell, went to investigate, found it was getting hot. Took it out of the locker & placed it under the caravan, turned off the charger etc. Next thing BANG.
Like a bomb going off. Shards of plastic everywhere, the live terminal was 10 foot away. Luckily the caravan floor took most of the impact. Our heads were 12″ above the locker overnight. Frightening stuff.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/Uj1cdH]Exploded leisure battery[/url] by pten2106, on Flickr

that happened to one of our forklifts at work last week as well takisawa

The AA use small portable batteries to start cars, they can’t be very much different to that Energizer.
My car battery died on its ass a couple of years ago, when I was camping, and the AA bloke I called out got it started with one after the site owner failed with a spare battery he carried for electric fences, and the battery on the little 4×4 buggy he used around the farm, so they must have some poke.
The car battery was the original in the car, and down to around 50% capacity…
I’m rather tempted by this one, it looks like it’s more than up to the job, and the reviews are positive:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/68800mAh-12V-Auto-Jump-Starter-Car-Emergency-Charger-Booster-Power-Bank-Battery/311686953795?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D2220072%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D20140122125356%26meid%3Dbaf19fb3aa2c4140bf969115f33aa777%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D6%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D201794869693

have not even know about these. i had one of them compressor , jump start all-in-one things a few years ago. chinese tat but at the time it was still £30 or so. i think i got about 3 uses of the compressor for bike tires and that was it. it just failed to do anything again.

I got the Duracell Power Pack. I have only had to use it once so far but it worked really well
and got my buddy’s car to start right up. There’s a good site that rates stuff like this and
that’s how I decided on this one. It’s
http://topautotools.com/best-portable-car-battery-chargers-and-jump-starters/.

it must be good, it even started this thread up again!