Portable jump starters

[227bhp]

With the caveat that I have the electrical knowledge of a primary school child, what's to stop me from replacing my huge heavy car battery with a black magic voodoo Audew?

[finlo]

227bhp said:

With the caveat that I have the electrical knowledge of a primary school child, what's to stop me from replacing my huge heavy car battery with a black magic voodoo Audew?

Nothing, providing what you're trying to start is normally a good starter as they won't deliver endless cranking.

[Tampon]

alabbasi said:

The little lithium jump starters can jump a slightly weak battery on a new car but won't bring a car with a dead battery to life. At least none of my Mercedes V8's.

I have this and it does OK most of the times. It's got a pretty size AGM battery inside it and weighs about 20lbs.



If you can find one, it's not a bad unit to have.

https://www.amazon.com/Schumacher-PSJ-2212-ProSeri...

Not true, you just needed a suitably size lithium pack. The ones here would start your V8 without your battery even hooked up, just straight from the pack.

Mine is slightly undersized for my diesel engine but will start that from dead, totally dead. 5 year old van, 5 year old battery with reverse camera screen left on whilst standing for a week. Read above about people jumping their old dead tractors with them.

Edited by Tampon on Sunday 11th February 20:20

[227bhp]

finlo said:

227bhp said:

With the caveat that I have the electrical knowledge of a primary school child, what's to stop me from replacing my huge heavy car battery with a black magic voodoo Audew?

Nothing, providing what you're trying to start is normally a good starter as they won't deliver endless cranking.

I wondered if it was down to how times It can turn it over, this is AH right? It has 12000 mAH 44.4 W/H
There must be more to it, why aren't they in cars? One would be great in a track/competition car where weight is important, it weighs less than 0.5kg.

[shelf1985]

227bhp said:

OP never came back, but thanks to the contributors.

OP posted the question shortly before heading off to climb snowy mountains in the lake district with limited network coverage which has been bliss :-)

sorry to hear about your unit, i know how that feels believe me! Also a victim of snap on cherry picking theft!

...proud to see the thread has turned into a useful resource so to echo the above thanks for everyone who took time to contribute and its good to see there are viable alternatives.

Will have a proper read through next week and read some reviews and post back the outcome!

Regards
Mat

[sunbeam alpine]

Mr-B said:

atmotofoto1 said:

this is very interesting:

but I've heard that they can toast ECU's? is this a myth?

I'll let you know next week

I have a friend who runs an Alfa/Fiat garage. He has a car hire place next door which has quite a few Fiat 500's. They obviuosly don't have enough work as they regularly have cars with flat batteries.

So far he's replaced 4 dashboard units on the Fiats as a result of jump-starting. Now they disconnect the battery to recharge it instead of using a jump-starter.

[227bhp]

sunbeam alpine said:

Mr-B said:

atmotofoto1 said:

this is very interesting:

but I've heard that they can toast ECU's? is this a myth?

I'll let you know next week

I have a friend who runs an Alfa/Fiat garage. He has a car hire place next door which has quite a few Fiat 500's. They obviuosly don't have enough work as they regularly have cars with flat batteries.

So far he's replaced 4 dashboard units on the Fiats as a result of jump-starting. Now they disconnect the battery to recharge it instead of using a jump-starter.

In the instructions it says suitable for ECUs that meet a certain ISO standard, it gives a number I can get if it means anything to anyone.

[DuraAce]

Got a couple of the genius boost packs in our cars for emergency use. Started them all with flat batteries with no problem at all.

[GreenV8S]

227bhp said:

what's to stop me from replacing my huge heavy car battery with a black magic voodoo

Different types of battery need to be charged differently and some might not like being permanently hooked up to an alternator, for example I seem to remember that AGM like a slightly lower voltage than wet cell lead/acid.

[alabbasi]

Tampon said:

Not true, you just needed a suitably size lithium pack. The ones here would start your V8 without your battery even hooked up, just straight from the pack.

Mine is slightly undersized for my diesel engine but will start that from dead, totally dead. 5 year old van, 5 year old battery with reverse camera screen left on whilst standing for a week. Read above about people jumping their old dead tractors with them.

Edited by Tampon on Sunday 11th February 20:20

I'd welcome a recommendation. Right now my lithium pack is retired to charging my cellphone battery when I travel.

[Tampon]

alabbasi said:

I'd welcome a recommendation. Right now my lithium pack is retired to charging my cellphone battery when I travel.

I saw your post on another thread about garages and land being cheap in texas (git;)). So presuming it is petrol V8? What size?

[shelf1985]

Not seen it mentioned but the clarke 4000 looks a good heavy duty pack at £149 from machine mart

[alabbasi]

Bggest gas engine car is a 450SEL 6.9.
Biggest Diesel is a Ford F350 with a 7.3.

Thx

Tampon said:

alabbasi said:

I'd welcome a recommendation. Right now my lithium pack is retired to charging my cellphone battery when I travel.

I saw your post on another thread about garages and land being cheap in texas (git;)). So presuming it is petrol V8? What size?

[Mr2Mike]

227bhp said:

I wondered if it was down to how times It can turn it over, this is AH right? It has 12000 mAH 44.4 W/H
There must be more to it, why aren't they in cars? One would be great in a track/competition car where weight is important, it weighs less than 0.5kg.

Lithium batteries are commonly used in competition cars for the weight and size advantages. The large reduction in capacity over the standard lead acid battery makes them less suitable for road cars, as does the significant degradation in CCA in cold temperatures. When very cold they often need a load applied (e.g. headlamps) for while to warm the cells before they are capable of cranking the engine.

[227bhp]

Mr2Mike said:

Lithium batteries are commonly used in competition cars for the weight and size advantages. The large reduction in capacity over the standard lead acid battery makes them less suitable for road cars, as does the significant degradation in CCA in cold temperatures. When very cold they often need a load applied (e.g. headlamps) for while to warm the cells before they are capable of cranking the engine.

Thanks for the info, at £56 delivered it may be worth a punt for a track car and see how it goes.

[shelf1985]

Not one thats been mentioned but noticed one of the local auction houses uses a sip rescue pack 1600 and after reading the amazon reviews all seems rosy enough to take a punt.

£105 delivered from sip website so £88 once i reclaim the vat.

At 10kg looks big enough to be useful and ergonomic enough to throw around so we will see how it goes!

Thanks for all the advice once again.

[Mr2Mike]

The SIP Rescue Pac looks to have a conventional lead acid battery within in, and this type of jump start pack has been used by garages for ages. They work very well providing you keep them charged.

If left to rot in a dark corner for months on the end then the battery will self discharge and degrade in the same way as unused car batteries, and sods law says you'll only find out when you need to use it.

[shelf1985]

Yep lead acid is what i was after, same as the snap on 1700 i started with i believe? , all these lithium ones mentioned just dont look up to the task to me, wanted something that can get used / abused /ran over: bounced around / left out in the rain etc ...but thats just the opinion of someone who doesnt like change and isnt based on any sort of merit.

[Penelope Stopit]

People that use jump start packs need to think about what they are wanting to achieve before using them and also be aware of the implications, if for instance a vehicle with a dead flat battery is jump started and the jump starter is very shortly afterwards disconnected there is a very good chance of damaging a component due to the situation that the alternator finds itself in, at one moment the alternator is charging a close to fully charged battery and moments later finds itself coupled up to a very flat battery, ther are bound to be voltage surges when this situation is created and a component could be damaged
It is good practice to leave a charged battery pack or jump battery connected to the vehicle for several minutes after jump starting so that the dead flat battery has recovered enough to have some life back in it
Obviously if a vehicle with a dead flat faulty battery is jump started and then the battery pack or jump battery is removed after several minutes it will not have any life in it and this situation is very similar to running an alternator with no battery connected, alternators are'nt very happy about being run without being connected to a battery, the voltage surges when disconnecting a jumper of whatever sort from a flat faulty battery could easily damage a component
Some manufacturers components can handle voltage surges and over-voltage better than others
There are lots of scenarios that can turn a simple jump start into a nightmare

[Tampon]

This will do you fine.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B072Z82HNK/ref...

alabbasi said:

Bggest gas engine car is a 450SEL 6.9.
Biggest Diesel is a Ford F350 with a 7.3.

Thx

Tampon said:

alabbasi said:

I'd welcome a recommendation. Right now my lithium pack is retired to charging my cellphone battery when I travel.

I saw your post on another thread about garages and land being cheap in texas (git;)). So presuming it is petrol V8? What size?