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| Thread ID: 147741 | 2019-03-30 23:05:00 | Car Jump Starters - is there a good small one? | Digby (677) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1459567 | 2019-03-30 23:05:00 | Hello I often leave my car lights on (dur), and for other reasons often need to use Jumper Cables or my old 900amp Red Mechpro Jump Starter. But both of these items are getting old, and they are quite bulky. So I have seen these new small units on tv and on Trademe and Youtube etc. So I bought one the other day from TM It was the High-Power unit. Rated at 68,000ma (but that's another story. The long and short of it is that I tested it twice on two flat battery cars and it hardly managed to turn the engine over once, before all the blue LED lights went out. So I am asking for a refund. Does anyone know or have a unit that works well, as I really want to have one in my car for trips and for my g/f. |
Digby (677) | ||
| 1459568 | 2019-03-31 00:37:00 | Consumer and AA have done reviews on them. basically the cheap nasty ones are well, nasty. Waste of money. And get hot. The top end ones are OK, but of course, it won't start a diesel or a really flat car, and they need to be fully charged up and ready to go. But for minor flats, it would be OK. |
piroska (17583) | ||
| 1459569 | 2019-03-31 00:42:00 | It sounds like what you really need is a better headlight warning alarm to avoid the flat battery in the first place | Agent_24 (57) | ||
| 1459570 | 2019-03-31 00:57:00 | yeah a buzzer across the head light and door switch. are you using the small jump starter properly? you do not jump start from them. they are basically a fast recharger. but you still have to leave it connected for some time to be able to recharge. also they are meant to recharge partly flat batteries, not completely flat batteries. so if the engine almost turns over they will work. the other system is super caps. it doesn't hold a charge as such but rather charges itself off a partly dead battery, or someone else's battery, then you jump start from it (instead of recharging the battery). however they are expensive. usually you can tell whats a "fast recharger" and what you can jump directly from by the size of the cables. |
tweak'e (69) | ||
| 1459571 | 2019-03-31 01:10:00 | I purchased one of these for $150 from Repco during one of their regular specials. www.noelleeming.co.nz It will start our Fuso Canter 3.9l turbo diesel engine with ease. Normal startup consumes less than half an amp-hour. The cheaper 400A version would almost certainly start most petrol engines? |
Scubadoo (16151) | ||
| 1459572 | 2019-03-31 01:28:00 | Consumer did do a good review of the minimax branded charger and concluded it was a good device but it won't jump start a car with a dead flat battery. But at the cost of these you could buy a new car battery. If you over flatten a car battery too often you will kill it, they are designed for a lot of current for a short time not for cyclic loads and they should never be discharged past about half if you don't wan't to be replacing them all the time. Whatever it is that you need to use it for that has it flat so often? Maybe you should find another solution. Like a powerful rechargeable work light or a deep cycle battery set up to charge from the car or something. The batteries are expensive though and would require some wiring. One example www.bunnings.co.nz I guess my point is instead of getting a rechargeable lithium battery to start the car why not get rechargeable devices to do the same job instead and not use the car battery at all. |
dugimodo (138) | ||
| 1459573 | 2019-03-31 01:35:00 | Wow, some very knowledgeable replies. | Digby (677) | ||
| 1459574 | 2019-03-31 02:46:00 | Seen a Powerall in operation By all accounts the best I was told,not cheap though |
Lawrence (2987) | ||
| 1459575 | 2019-03-31 20:02:00 | I was going to buy one of those small Jump starters. Instead, I leave a (old) spare car batt in the boot & jumper cables under the seat. Thats saved my ass a few times after accidentally leaving parking lights on. |
1101 (13337) | ||
| 1459576 | 2019-03-31 20:21:00 | It's frustrating to me, car manufacturers will add all kinds of bells and whistles in an attempt to sell you their cars but they won't add circuitry to prevent you flattening the battery too low. They could have been doing this for decades, it's a simple thing to do. Whatever happened to the power beat battery, seemed like a good Idea at the time. |
dugimodo (138) | ||
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