Thread: Portable jump starters, any good

Looking at buying one of the small car jump starters, something like Certa 12000 mAh portable jump starter. Do these things work?. Reason is last winter on a extended road trip I was camping on a DOC site 3 nights, charged phone, used car radio a lot and when it was time to leave flat battery. It is a small car and I managed to push it to the track/road out which was down hill and jump started it. Now I have a van and I wont be able to push that. Thought about split charger and 2 batteries, but then thought this may be the way to go, easy cheap. Do they do what it says on the tin, would one get my 2ltr petrol Hiace to start when I stuff up and flatten battery. Thoughts please

we have jump packs at work....about size of kids school bag...12 or 24 volts we start large trucks with them ,utes n cars piece of piss....small 5-10hp motors no worries...the buzzer alarm if hooked up wrong is AWESOME.... it clicks if not connected well enough too.
small led picture screen even better for techtards...tells you whats wrong if you have done it wrong....

PowerAll bailed me out once on the water, so yes, good!

I swear by mine. I had a guy use his to get my car (6 cyl Subaru) going after the lights had been left on yah...
I immediately got one the same but interestingly have not had to use it to save myself but have go lots of others going.
Several utes (last one a reasonably new Hilux), several cars, small Kobota tractor, 2l Lite Ace van.

Just be warned though they won't overcome a dead dead flat battery - has been proven in Yankee consumer tests.

Following as the one I have (don't recall brand) will do the 1.3 petrol but not the 3.0l subaru

I’ve never used it for my car but saved a few others.
My daughter kept it in the back of her car while we sorted a new battery and used it quite a lot.
Great get out of jail tool.

Originally Posted by chindit

Looking at buying one of the small car jump starters, something like Certa 12000 mAh portable jump starter. Do these things work?. Reason is last winter on a extended road trip I was camping on a DOC site 3 nights, charged phone, used car radio a lot and when it was time to leave flat battery. It is a small car and I managed to push it to the track/road out which was down hill and jump started it. Now I have a van and I wont be able to push that. Thought about split charger and 2 batteries, but then thought this may be the way to go, easy cheap. Do they do what it says on the tin, would one get my 2ltr petrol Hiace to start when I stuff up and flatten battery. Thoughts please

I've only heard good things about them. For devices like phones and radios, it could be worth taking a solar charger for those so that it charges when not in use. I have one that sits on the dash, and plugs in / charges through the cigarette lighter..

Or a couple of those lithium battery packs for the phone. Rather than use a radio, we use a small bluetooth speaker and a battery pack and the phone has a radio built in. Were you using the car radio? I would not think a phone would draw enough to hurt a good battery.

2post...thats VERY similar to what we have at work...possibly out of same chinese factory LOL.

I saw a new one advertised in one of the farming rags that comes out that’s small, but does most size motors. You hook it up, start the engine, leave it hooked up for 45 seconds and that recharges it ready for next time. Some new type of battery that handles rapid charging.
I’ve tried to find it again, but is placed somewhere safe. Can’t for the life of me remember who carried them, or who made them. Would be worth a few bucks, but in theory should be good to go every time.

Some advice I got about using them- connect them up and wait a good minute to pump a bit into the vehicle's battery before attempting to crank.

My wife took pity on a guy in a ute next to her at the supermarket. Went over with the Powerall and offered to assist. The guy said what do you expect to do with that, "girlie" (my wife would have been 10 years older than him). She said try it. One turn of the engine and vroom. The guy's mate go into him about a woman getting him out of the shit.
I told my wife just don't bother with those type of male chauvinist pigs.

So, as others have posted, once you've got one you will generally have no further problems of your own.

https://www.projecta.com.au/news/201...-professionals
I knew I’d seen it around, and only $600ish slides.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

2post...thats VERY similar to what we have at work...possibly out of same chinese factory LOL.

I was given some Repco vouchers at work so bought it from them.

Originally Posted by chindit

Looking at buying one of the small car jump starters, something like Certa 12000 mAh portable jump starter. Do these things work?. Reason is last winter on a extended road trip I was camping on a DOC site 3 nights, charged phone, used car radio a lot and when it was time to leave flat battery. It is a small car and I managed to push it to the track/road out which was down hill and jump started it. Now I have a van and I wont be able to push that. Thought about split charger and 2 batteries, but then thought this may be the way to go, easy cheap. Do they do what it says on the tin, would one get my 2ltr petrol Hiace to start when I stuff up and flatten battery. Thoughts please

they are awesome i used to jump a ls1 v8 with mine

Yip but its actually the other way around: The Lithium Ion batteries in your jump start pack need to wake up from hibernation. Esp if cold. Motorcycles use them a lot to save weight, and if the bike hasn't been used for a while you are told to turn the lights on for a minute or so before attempting to cold start the bike. The small drain gets the battery to wake up prior to the big load of turning the starter motor over.