Car battery jump start/chargers that use cigarette lighter socket

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richgamer

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#24828 4-Aug-2008 13:13

Does anyone know if repco or any place in auckland that sell those car battery jump start/chargers that you plug into the cigarette lighter socket and it jump starts the flat battery of a car? i know they sell them overseas, but i just want to know if they sell them in new zealand.
the one i'm talking about is the one where you charge the portable unit up from the wall, plug it into a car cigarette lighter socket, and it jump starts the car. an overseas one can be seen here:

http://www.vat19.com/dvds/auto-jumper-jumpstarts-car-without-cables.cfm

anyone know if repco or other places sell it in auckland?

sbiddle

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#154008 4-Aug-2008 13:38

Looking at that it's not really jump starting the vehicle but giving it a small topup charge. It also says it won't coldstart a dead car bettery which is when most people require jump starting.

It looks like a cool device and it would be interesting to see how well they really do work, I certainly have my doubts.

johnr

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#154011 4-Aug-2008 13:42

I would not do this!

pando

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#154017 4-Aug-2008 14:04

johnr: I would not do this!

wellygary

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#154019 4-Aug-2008 14:12

I too would be very wary of sticking volts in the cigarette lighter, as you don't know what else may be on that circuit. (The lighter is a good feed of unswitched juice if you are wiring car stereos etc), So stuffing volts back up it may do nasty things to anything else leaching of that circuit.

I mean how hard is it to open the bonnet and put this battery across the car battery with a couple of crocodile clips, then all the volts flow the right way,

Soeaking of Batteries, Did anyone ever hear what happened to that "two cell" design of car battery where you could just flick a switch on the battery to draw of a couple of spare plates to get you started again, I know the company (Powerbeat) went down in a pile of flames, but I would have thought the IP would have surfaced again somewhere as it was a good idea.

Jonski

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#154694 6-Aug-2008 17:02

richgamer: Does anyone know if repco or any place in auckland that sell those car battery jump start/chargers that you plug into the cigarette lighter socket and it jump starts the flat battery of a car? i know they sell them overseas, but i just want to know if they sell them in new zealand.
the one i'm talking about is the one where you charge the portable unit up from the wall, plug it into a car cigarette lighter socket, and it jump starts the car. an overseas one can be seen here:

http://www.vat19.com/dvds/auto-jumper-jumpstarts-car-without-cables.cfm

anyone know if repco or other places sell it in auckland?

Meh. It's only good for a slightly dead battery. A fully dead battery (lights on overnight etc) requires at least a magnitude more power than you can send through the accessory socket. Often if your battery is holding only a little bit of charge, it's because the battery is in the process of dying and you need a new one anyway.

Wikipedia has this to say: This [cigarette lighter] method works through very slowly charging the battery, not through providing the current needed for cranking. Engine cranking should not be attempted as the starter motor current will exceed the fuse rating in a cigarette lighter outlet. Many vehicles made since 1990 switch off the cigarette lighter outlet when the engine is stopped, making the technique unusable.

Get a proper jump battery, it's not much more in price. Repco and Supercheap Auto have what you'd need.

Hmmm, same thread over at pcworld... http://forums.pcworld.co.nz/showthread.php?t=92269

Cheers
Jon

I reject your reality and substitute my own!
- Adam Savage, Mythbuster