Electronic Car Jump Start Kits

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › Electronic Car Jump Start Kits

1 | 2

Geese

1028 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#603108 1-Apr-2012 00:21

Anyone used one of those little cube things which as I understand plug into cig lighter (and left for period of time like 5 - 10 minutes to transfer charge to car battery) to start flat cat?

I'm off to bed now so don't have time to research their name/brand. I wonder if they are lithium technology?

richms

28168 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#603109 1-Apr-2012 00:25

Friend had one, and as all japanese and aussie cars need the key on to liven up the lighter socket, it means that stuff all ends up in the battery.

I did jump a car off my 4S lipo pack for RC toy purposes, and it put about 60A into the battery for a while before calming down to about 20A and it was good to go in about 2 mins when I tried it, so there certainly is merit to the idea. But that was from a battery that was only down to about 9V, not totally depleated.

Richard rich.ms

BlakJak

1275 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#603116 1-Apr-2012 01:19

Correct method for jumpstarting a vehicle.

http://jgdarden.com/batteryfaq/carfaq6.htm

Makes the best sense to me (ive found several articles that disagree) except that i don't have a problem using the negative terminals on both the donor and stalled engines.

Key suggestions.. turn everything off (stereo, lights, etc) and do give it a couple of minutes before trying to start, to let the dead battery grab some volts first. Ive jumped several vehicles, several times, never come close to having a problem. One time I was jumping a very dead Van battery with a really crappy set of jumper leads (they were getting rather warm) but did succeed after about 10 minutes of running my car up to 4KRPM, trying to get enough charge across to wake up a very flat battery (the batteries are parellel, but the voltages can't be toooo dissimilar if you expect things to work (pulling current across jumper leads is obviously not as efficient as direct from the battery is... and my jumper leads were really too thin. I replaced them after that with nicer, surge-protected ones.)

No signature to see here, move along...

stevenz

2802 posts

Uber Geek

#603722 2-Apr-2012 12:13

I have one, it works well. Haven't had to use it on my own car, but I saved someone else who was stranded at the supermarket. Was $50 or somesuch from one of those daily deal sites about a year back.

I've got a bi-monthly reminder alarm on my phone to plug it into the mains & recharge it. It seems to hold a charge pretty well.

+1 to the AA membership though, has saved me a couple of times - more than paid for itself in potential lost time.

@KnightNZ

networkn

Networkn
32349 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#603726 2-Apr-2012 12:16

What amp cables should I use? I see 200, 300, 500, 600, 750, and 1000amp cables, varying in price from $10 to $150.

stevenz

2802 posts

Uber Geek

#603902 2-Apr-2012 15:17

networkn: What amp cables should I use? I see 200, 300, 500, 600, 750, and 1000amp cables, varying in price from $10 to $150.

What are you intending on starting? Unless you're starting a particularly large vehicle then 300 should be plenty. If you're starting the sort of thing that has a truck battery under the bonnet, then you may need as big as 500A.

I can't imagine you'd be likely to ever need >500A unless you were doing industrial callouts.

@KnightNZ

KevinL

656 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#603920 2-Apr-2012 15:34

IlDuce: Anyone used one of those little cube things which as I understand plug into cig lighter (and left for period of time like 5 - 10 minutes to transfer charge to car battery) to start flat cat?

I'm off to bed now so don't have time to research their name/brand. I wonder if they are lithium technology?

I bought one (a "Portajump"), never got it to work successfully and it ended up leaking all over my glovebox a few months prior to its "best before" date.

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

networkn

Networkn
32349 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#603943 2-Apr-2012 16:02

a 3L BMW and a 4.3L v8 Audi, and a Subaru Impezza 2l

n4

959 posts

Ultimate Geek

#603972 2-Apr-2012 16:19

networkn: I think you are misunderstanding what I am after. I am not just after jumper cables, I want a Electronic Starter kit.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/SearchResults.aspx?searchType=all&searchString=jump+starter&type=Search&generalSearch_keypresses=7&generalSearch_suggested=12

I have one similar. From memory it cost about $100 from Bunnings or something. We keep it at home, only charge it about once every six months to a year, and have never had a problem. Must be 3-4 years old at least. We don't carry it around, but have used it several times on our cars at home (usually due to internal lights running the battery flat). The one time I needed it at work, it turned out we had one here as well! (good investment for any office I would say). They are fairly heavy so would use petrol to lug around.

Samsung Note20 Ultra, on 2degrees

stevenz

2802 posts

Uber Geek

#603975 2-Apr-2012 16:22

It may depend how old they all are as to how efficient their starting systems are. You might want to find a service manual or see if an auto electrician can tell you, the Audi is likely to be drawing some pretty serious juice.

Man, you must be hating the cost of petrol these days ;)

@KnightNZ

vinnieg

2260 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#603993 2-Apr-2012 16:36

Yeah, 300A will be fine

It's not like you are jump starting a large 4wd, light truck, boat, or a large diesel engine. The 300A will be fine for all cars, except maybe the older Rolls/Jags from the 70s/80s, some of them have stupidly large batteries

If the 500A amp ones are only a few dollars more, and look like they are better quality/have better shielding, get them instead

I have moved across the ditch. Now residing in Melbourne as a VOIP/Video Technical Trainer/Engineer.

richms

28168 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#603999 2-Apr-2012 16:44

They are rated based on the cranking amps of the battery in the car, so if you are recommended a 300 CCA battery then get the 300 leads etc - keep in mind in non cold countries that people often downrate the battery with no ill effect so look at what is supposed to be in there, not the $130 cheap peace of junk that is installed in the car.

Richard rich.ms

1 | 2