Portable Jump Starter

[JeffL]

I'm thinking of buying a Portable Jump Starter and when looking on amazon although there are a lot of positive reviews, it's still annoying to see quite a few negative reviews saying they've received faulty ones or they've become faulty after a short while. Because a portable jump starter is something we might need to rely on when away from home, it is an item in which we should have complete confidence that it will work when required to do so. The negative reviews affect all makes and models and I'm just wondering how well thought-out is the technology? It is a marvellous idea to be able to have such a compact product in the glove compartment that will start a car with a flat Battery, but it has to be reliable. On another thread Wendle and Herbie suggested the following ones, Arteck 900A 18,000 Amh and DB Power 600A 18,000 Amh. Anyone else on here got any experience of using a portable jump starter?

[IanA2]

Yup, this one:

SUAOKI U10 Car Jump Starter 800A 20000mAh Battery Booster Pack with Intelligent Jumper Leads and Force Start Function for 12V Auto 6L Petrol 5L Diesel Motorcycle Van SUV Tractor Truck

Works on a 4.3 GS. I know this because we used it this morning. It's about sixty squids on amazon.

Edited October 21, 2019 by IanA2
typo

[Herbie]

For what it's worth, and no offence to Wendle, but I've never heard of Arteck, whereas Suaoki and DB Power are quite established brands.

Apart from going for known good brands, I'm not sure you can do anything else to minimise the risk and you just have to have faith and trust that it'll work when you need it to.

I once saw a programme on the Discovery Channel about 'One Shot' things that only have one chance to do what they need to do and the science and technology behind them. Amongst them were items like the ring-pull on a fizzy drinks can; a car airbag; the ejector seat of a fighter plane and quite a few other devices - we just have to trust that they'll work when needed.

Of course, a Battery pack isn't as critical as an ejector seat but it still needs to work when needed. I don't know of any way of actually testing these small packs but, if you have a Battery shop local to you, they'll have some sort of heavy discharge tester that they could hook it up to. Maybe even your local trusted mechanic/garage will have a Battery tester and would do you a favour to test it.

[JeffL]

Thanks Herbs and Ian. Can someone educate me on which is better regarding amps and mAh?

The DB Power DJS50-01 600A and 18,000 mAh

The Suaoki U10 800A and 20,000 mAh 

The Suaoki U18 1200A and 16,000 mAh

I've really no idea what those numbers mean in regard to efficiency.

Our cars are my GS300 3 litre petrol and my wife's Honda Jazz 1.4 litre petrol.

Thank you.

[IanA2]

Bigger numbers. more power. The one I posted deals with the V8 4.3 no bother so it'll do a 3.0 with ease.

 

Make sure you follow the charging instructions. From memory I think it's every 3 months. Could be wrong.

[Britprius]

19 minutes ago, JeffL said:

Thanks Herbs and Ian. Can someone educate me on which is better regarding amps and mAh?

The DB Power DJS50-01 600A and 18,000 mAh

The Suaoki U10 800A and 20,000 mAh 

The Suaoki U18 1200A and 16,000 mAh

I've really no idea what those numbers mean in regard to efficiency.

Our cars are my GS300 3 litre petrol and my wife's Honda Jazz 1.4 litre petrol.

Thank you.

The "A" figure quoted is the maximum instantaneous  current that the jump start will supply not a continuous figure, and should be considered as cranking amps. This figure is important for vehicles with normal starter motors
The mAh figure is a misleading figure as it sounds large. A 1000 mAh is 1amp so 18,000 mAh is 18 amps amp hours or about 1/3 the capacity of your car Battery. This figure is the  actual capacity of the jump pack.

Your car Battery is likely to have a capacity of 65,000 mAh or 65 Ah, and a figure of around 300 cranking amps.

John

[malcolmw]

As my company ( http://www.dmstech.co.uk/engine-start/ ) actually makes professional jump start packs, I can give you some information about these.

There are two markets for these units:

- the professional where you can do many starts in a day like the RAC and AA; 

- the consumer market where people keep these for emergency use by themselves.

Even a large V8 will only draw about 500 - 600A for half a second before the cranking current fall rapidly to about 250A. Cranking currents of over 600A cannot be achieved from the standard 18Ah sealed lead acid batteries used in most lower cost packs packs. These values are for peak current into a short circuit and cannot be achieved in practice due to cable resistance and having to maintain a minimum of 7.2V on the vehicle system to run the ignition electronics.

The typical £70 Halfords unit will start your car once or twice and is probably OK for most personal users. However, you will need to recharge it in standby every 6 months to ensure readiness. If you want a Lithium solution, the NOCO pack looks quite good. We have tested it and it works well but is more expensive.

Please ask me if you have any questions about engine starting and I will try to help.

[kayble]

I have the NOCO GB40 unit in my garage, left on permanent charge via nearby USB equipped power outlet in the garage.

Very high quality bit of kit.

Was impressed enough to also get the NOCO smart charger - but am now also looking for a regulated power supply to use when doing diagnostics work.

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