Project Farm: Jump Start Packs

[HeroHog]

Which Car Jump Starter Is Best? Let's find out!

TLDR

[230RN]

HARBOR FREIGHT 38391

(Chicago Electric Power Tools)

Bought ~10 years ago, maybe more, used it successfully once, left it plugged in to AC to charge, a year or so later its own meter showed voltage just barely in the green.  Kind of forgot about it, left it plugged in to AC, this thread reminded me, retrieved it, voltage on the battery clamps today is only 9.6, the rest of it (lamp, meter) seems dead.  Re-reading the instructions to see how I sinned.

Several years ago I bought a used, reconditioned battery I kept (covered) on the balcony, recharged it periodically from a Sears battery charger, but it turned up dead this year when I needed it.

Turned it in for another reconditioned battery for $45 at

Rocky Mountain Battery
7975 W 44th Ave Wheat Ridge CO 80033 (720) 388-8396
(Excellent fast service !  Their website seems to be down today, Thanksgiving Day.)

I'm keeping that one in the car, doping out a method to keep it trickled from the cigarette lighter jack in the back of my blessed and beloved Subaru without popping the cig lighter fuse.  I figure a hefty diode and a 100 ohm 5W resistor ought to cover all the bases safety-wise right down to a short circuit, such as a 100% dead battery.

I also use that plug to run my little tire inflation compressor.l

Terry

[HeroHog]

I have the Lead-Acid Centech 630 and so far it has been great. After I use it a few times, and my battery has been all but completely dead, I charge it up using its built in 110v charger and we are good to go. I hook it up, get in the car, and hit the key and she cranks right up, even if the battery is too weak to unlock the doors!

[230RN]

I have the Lead-Acid Centech 630 and so far it has been great. After I use it a few times, and my battery has been all but completely dead, I charge it up using its built in 110v charger and we are good to go. I hook it up, get in the car, and hit the key and she cranks right up, even if the battery is too weak to unlock the doors!

My son helped out a neighbor with a car with electronic locks and a dead battery by getting under it with a jumper cable and touching the hot cable to the starter solenoid  while the neighber hit the unlock button on his "key."

  After that, getting the hood open and a jumper to the battery to start the car, was easy.  He said the neighbor swore eternal gratitude and offered him about the same amount that a tow truck call would have cost.  I told him he deserved the Noble Prize for that one.

[dogmush]

I have one of the small lithium packs.  It's great.  It lives in a pelican case on the roof rack and has started my truck a couple times, as well as friend's cars that went dead.  It also has it's own 110v charger. Mine seems like an Amazon version of the Walmart one in the link. 

Seems impervious to heat.

[Ben]

Seems impervious to heat.

I keep one in each vehicle, and heat is something I have always worried about, mostly because of the stupid interwebz stories. I worry less here in Idaho than when I was in CA, but I'm still paranoid and keep each of them in one of those small soft-sided coolers. I'm not sure if it helps outside of my piece of mind. I reckon if yours hasn't exploded yet in FL, I probably have nothing to worry about. 

[HeroHog]

MOST vehicles have a key hidden in the key fob and sometimes the door keyhole is hidden under a snap-off cover.

[230RN]

MOST vehicles have a key hidden in the key fob and sometimes the door keyhole is hidden under a snap-off cover.

``
:) Probably as a result of a jillion complaints from people who got locked out with a dead battery.

Besides, once you, as a Canyonero SUV owner know where the Hail Mary key is, so does every teenage joyrider.

Happened recently with one car where something computery could be done which would allow the car to be driven off.  The something appeared on the net and car stealing of that model rose enorgiously.  Forgot details, was in the news recently.

I guess you can't call it "hot-wiring" any more, should be called "cold-wiring."

Terry

[HeroHog]

The key hidden in the key fob only works on the door lock. The ignition works off of the key fob so the hidden key alone will just get you in the car but won't get you anywhere as far as driving.

[230RN]

I never knew I would have bragging rights for a car with one physical key which costs $8 to reproduce and opens the tailgate, the doors, the glove box, and turns on the ignition.

And I keep several of these flat and compact $8 keys squirreled away here and there like in my wallet, under the hood by the wipers, on top of my porch light, stuck in a fence post crack near my parking space, and like that there.  I epoxied a Neodymium magnet to the one under the hood by the wipers so it stays put, yet is accessible in 1.8 seconds in cold weather and 0.25 seconds if I don't have to take gloves off.

<snotty supercilious grin>

Nyah-nyah !