Battery booster for jump starts - recommendations?

[g3org3y]

Anyone had any experience of these? Tempted to get one to have in the boot of the E30.

Noticed plenty on Ebay for around the £35 mark. Are these any good or does one need to spend a lot more?

Clicky example



Alternatively I can disconnect the battery (for free!) when leaving for long periods.

[g3org3y]

Bump for the evening PHers!

[POORCARDEALER]

Buy a snap on for about 200 quid, they will start almost anything, where as the cheap ones wont

[chris1roll]

We had one of the cheap ones, started the big 'ol volvo estates no problems, even used it to run cars about the yard with no battery at all, just this clamped on the terminals.
Lasted a good few years too.

[jbi]

POORCARDEALER said:

Buy a snap on for about 200 quid, they will start almost anything, where as the cheap ones wont

It's just a battery at the end of the day.. make sure it has plenty of "true" cranking amps, regardless of the price and all should be fine.

[TheEnd]

I had a ring/halfords one and the clamps shattered pretty soon, the compressor takes ages, and now it goes into a loop switching on an off trying to charge.
The snap on ones though kick out a decent voltage and are far better.

[twazzock]

I've got the one in the OP. Not tried to jump start anything with it but I seem to have killed the compressor by running it a bit too long in quite hot weather. The instructions say no more than 10 mins, it was probably about that. Great. Not too upset as I was given it for nothing, but still!

[POORCARDEALER]

jbi said:

POORCARDEALER said:

Buy a snap on for about 200 quid, they will start almost anything, where as the cheap ones wont

It's just a battery at the end of the day.. make sure it has plenty of "true" cranking amps, regardless of the price and all should be fine.

Thats not the case.

[g3org3y]

Thanks for the feedback. Tbh, it was only a thought as I'm off around Europe next week for 14 days, as such needed a little back up. Happy spending £35 or so, but £200 is a bit too much.

I ordered one similar to the OP. 400Amps. We'll see how I get on.

Worst comes to the worst, I'll get the gf to stand by the road, flash a bit of leg and get a passing car to stop and aid jump starting.

Edited by g3org3y on Tuesday 12th July 00:37

[Cupramax]

Clarke 4000 will jump start the space shuttle, for £95ish from machinemart

[Riley Blue]

Cupramax said:

Clarke 4000 will jump start the space shuttle, for £95ish from machinemart

A friend keeps one in his recovery truck and reckons anything less is a waste of money.

[Slade Alive]

Snap-On are good though I've had two batteries in two different packs fail within two years. The cost of replacement via Snap-On is scandalous too. Nearly £130 the last time, which when you've committed to the repair with your agent, comes as a surprise when the pack's returned working. Worse still, the batteries used to be Japanese Yuasa. Now they are some unheard of Chinese brand.

I suspect with these very cheap offerings it's the battery that makes them work more efficiently and last longer the more you pay. If anyone has a knackered one, pop down to your local bike breaker see if you can find a motorcycle sealed type battery that will fit your booster. I repaired one of my older Snap-On packs with a used battery for £10. It doesn't quite have as good a cranking time but it does still start anything as good as the original battery did from Snap-On.

[POORCARDEALER]

I used to buy Sealey ones but the quality seemed to have gone down hill.

1st Snap On one lasted me 6 years, current one been going for 2 years without problem....If there is a better one in the market place I would buy it as its an essential bit of kit for us

[Slade Alive]

I don't believe there is a better one than Snap-On, but sometimes they're reliant on the battery life / quality.

I've had maybe four Red Top 20 batteries last me around a year a piece. These are equivalent to what's in the Snap-On boosters. Oddly enough my last purchased RT20 was July 2006, and it's still as good now as it was when new. I can only conclude there are good AGM /GEL batteries, and not so good ones. I seem to have experienced both, be they in booster packs or on a bike. Weird I know. Just thought I'd share.

[NHK244V]

I have the one in the pic had it 9 years and it's perfect but it wont jump a diesel only the more expensive packs will do that, i must admit i have been lucky i bought my mum and grandad one to pump up the tyres on thier disabled cars and both failed inside a year (battery), i find the more you use em the longer they last, so now i have 2 spare pump units off the back to go on mine.