battery booster pack

Author
Discussion

fly fisher

Original Poster:

442 posts

243 months

Monday 7th February 2011
quotequote all
Hi,
Can anyone recomend a good battery booster pack. Thinking of getting one for the morgan as it is often left in the garage at the office car park for a week or so and sometimes not so keen on starting on cold mornings. Can anyone recommend any good ones.



Thanks,
William

Six Fiend

6,067 posts

217 months

Monday 7th February 2011
quotequote all
I have a Halfords Portable Power Pack 100.

Great 'cos it has a good light on it too and with a 12v outlet can run a small heater off it in the back of my van when having a snooze on night runs.

Compressor not as good as my Ring, but still does the job.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/...

Edited by Six Fiend on Monday 7th February 19:15

rsv gone!

11,288 posts

243 months

Monday 7th February 2011
quotequote all
I have the Halfords one, too. They are very well regarded.

Unfortunately, their prices have leapt up since I bought mine.

It is a Ring product, though;

http://caraudiosecurity.com/shop/product/products_...

HertsBiker

6,317 posts

273 months

Monday 7th February 2011
quotequote all
go to "QD". They do one for 25 quid.

y2blade

56,159 posts

217 months

Monday 7th February 2011
quotequote all
Six Fiend said:
I have a Halfords Portable Power Pack 100.

Great 'cos it has a good light on it too and with a 12v outlet can run a small heater off it in the back of my van when having a snooze on night runs.

Compressor not as good as my Ring, but still does the job.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/...

Edited by Six Fiend on Monday 7th February 19:15
+1

we have the same one....have not used it on our cars but have used it to help friends out, we have used the compressor though (for tyres and airbeds)...works well and holds charge for ages

mc_blue

2,548 posts

220 months

Monday 7th February 2011
quotequote all
We use Snap On ones as they are in constant demand, more expensive but if you will make regular use out of it a good investment IMO. AFAIK our last one cost £180 plus VAT.

FranKinFezza

1,073 posts

181 months

Monday 7th February 2011
quotequote all
Six Fiend said:
Compressor not as good as my Ring, but still does the job.
You need to sort out your diet if that's the casebiggrin










getmecoat

Six Fiend

6,067 posts

217 months

Monday 7th February 2011
quotequote all
FranKinFezza said:
Six Fiend said:
Compressor not as good as my Ring, but still does the job.
You need to sort out your diet if that's the casebiggrin










getmecoat
Glad someone made use of that gift of a line biggrin

BarnatosGhost

31,608 posts

255 months

Monday 7th February 2011
quotequote all
£20 for a booster /compressor in JTF at the moment. £10 for a trickle charger.

Six Fiend

6,067 posts

217 months

Monday 7th February 2011
quotequote all
This is my Ring inflation device biggrin

Very quick on big tyres from flat esp if engine running...



mattley

3,025 posts

224 months

Monday 7th February 2011
quotequote all
Big problem I had with the Halfords one was that it had a numpty sensor to check that it was clipped on the right way round before the clips would go live.

Maybe a good idea in theory but my Skyline had an alarm that would drain the battery then shut off all the electronics so with no voltage to detect if I let the battery drain then the damn thing simply wouldn't work. It helped a few mates out and worked very well but if you have an aggressive immobiliser or the battery is completely flat it was bloody useless.

Steffan

10,362 posts

230 months

Monday 7th February 2011
quotequote all
I have two boosters one about 8 years old one about four. The four year old has virtually ceased to hold a` charge the older one is a good as new gives 300 amps happily when needed.

Both cheapie chargers the older one is a Blackwood cost about £25 other is a Clarke with compressor cost about £29.

I think the big difference is that I regularly charge the older one and always have. My advice is keep charging I think lead acid batteries deteriorate if left uncharged.

y2blade

56,159 posts

217 months

Monday 7th February 2011
quotequote all
Steffan said:
I have two boosters one about 8 years old one about four. The four year old has virtually ceased to hold a` charge the older one is a good as new gives 300 amps happily when needed.

Both cheapie chargers the older one is a Blackwood cost about £25 other is a Clarke with compressor cost about £29.

I think the big difference is that I regularly charge the older one and always have. My advice is keep charging I think lead acid batteries deteriorate if left uncharged.
that sounds about right

it says on the halfords one to charge it every 3 months to keep it "happy"


miniman

25,158 posts

264 months

Monday 7th February 2011
quotequote all
The only one worth having is the Clarke 4000. However you could also invest in an Accumate charger to keep the battery topped up.

http://is.gd/cw1EY3


steve2

1,776 posts

220 months

Monday 7th February 2011
quotequote all
I have a Clarke 910 and have been very pleased with it

Steffan

10,362 posts

230 months

Tuesday 8th February 2011
quotequote all
Miniman is suggesting an excellent charger if you keep it charged should last years. Well equipped decent 1 metre leads good buy highly recommended.

One note of caution: some of these chargers are now computer controlled as an earlier poster pointed out. As part of the safety program these chargers will not allow cross polarity connection. Unfortunately in order to achieve this a dead flat battery presents a problem.

The snag with computer controls can be that with a dead flat battery the computer cannot recognise the polarity and will not switch the charger on. So you can connect it but it will not actually start the car.

HOWEVER the advantage is that it is virtually impossible to miss connect the device when one of these controls is fitted.

The danger of reverse polarity with modern electrics is severe.

It is quite possible to blow the CPU on the engine management system by reversing the polarity on the battery and reverse the polarity on the alternator or at the very best severely damage all the settings on these. C

Connect a decent charger to a dead flat battery with reverse polarity and there is a real chance of a very expensive repair bill.

A partially charged battery will probably retain sufficient power to prevent this damage but reverse polarity connection on modern cars has FAR MORE consequences than it used to. I have seen instances of CPU write off doing just this and you could easily be looking ay £600 to £1000 for a new one.

Unless you are really positive in your knowledge I would recommend exactly as Miniman for that reason. But be aware a dead flat battery (rare) is a` challenge.


klimakool

592 posts

177 months

Tuesday 8th February 2011
quotequote all
none of the above.

i would highly recommend a c-tek charger unit this can be hard wired into your car or can just be added when required, trickle charges so can be left for weeks at a time without damaging the batter and can bring back to life even the deadest of batteries.

check out fergusons of stirling on e bay and tell them craig fowler sent you. the guys there will look after you

Alpid

8 posts

131 months

Tuesday 23rd July 2013
quotequote all
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/...

I know it's reviving an ancient thread but, i've got one of these, and for some reason i can't re-charge it from it's mains power supply. Strange thing is, while the mains charger is connected i can get the volts reading and the light works. I've taken the panel off the back and connected my 12v car charger directly to the battery which charges ok in that way but there is no output from it ie the volt meter shows nothing and the light doesnt work. Very confused.

miniman said:
The only one worth having is the Clarke 4000. However you could also invest in an Accumate charger to keep the battery topped up.

http://is.gd/cw1EY3

Edited by Alpid on Tuesday 23 July 21:18

miniman

25,158 posts

264 months

Tuesday 23rd July 2013
quotequote all
Mine did that. I just charge it by connecting a bog standard 12v car battery charger to the main leads. Make sure the power switch is set to "on"!

Alpid

8 posts

131 months

Tuesday 23rd July 2013
quotequote all
Thanks for the quick reply, i'll give that a try , i purposely made sure the switch was "OFF" for some reason . I'll let you know how it goes.