I am not sure where to ask this. It kind of relates to batteries, but it's not a battery. I hope this is a good place to ask.
I saw a mechanic that came to jump a car use a small box with a red and a black battery clamp on it to jump start the car. He also mentioned that many road side assistance and tow companies use them. Then he mentioned it was VERY expensive though the company.
He said it was a portable jump starter that has a high capacity battery. This looked useful so I looked into getting one to find they are reasonably priced but I can't find any THROUGH reviews on them.
Amazon has a bunch for about $80 but they have mixed reviews, apparently the chinese ones use junk cells that aren't anywhere near rated capacity.
It's essentially a power bank that can charge laptops and can charge USB devices (Like phones and tablets, and probably other batteries with the 12v DC supply) with the added function of a 200A(400A peak) car jump starter.
And I've seen a bunch of those black body and green end ones rebranded, so that one might be one of the generics that they put the CarPow name on.
If anyone does purchase one off of ebay, read the descriptions of delivery time, many of the cheap (under $30 ones) have a 30-40 day delivery time to the US.
I'm really tempted to get one, many reviews on amazon say they work well.
Just wish there were an indepth look at them and I would REALLY like to see a tear down.
I have a cheap Harbor Freight jumper pack that has worked fine. I’ve never run tests to check capacity, but it’s a couple years old and has saved me 4-5 trips to jump my wife’s CRV (apparently the 2012’s had a charging issue that was taken care of last year with a recall, she’s been fine since except when she forgets to shut the car completely off while she sits and talks on the phone for an hour with the fan and stereo running).
It’s a 5 in 1, item number 96157. I’ve used 4 of the 5 functions (never needed to use its built-in light, I have used AC sockets, DC sockets, jump starter, and pump), and surprisingly never been frustrated or let down by it. A rare occurrence with electrical products from Harbor Freight.
About a year ago I purchased the Antigravity Micro-Start XP-1. Using it as a power bank to recharge a first generation iPad, it would only charge it to about 89%. But using it to jump start our car (Nissan Ultima 4 cyl), motorcycle (750cc) or a friends boat with a 350 cu.in. marine engine, it was effortless.
What was interesting about the boat was both batteries were completely drained from a malfunctioning bilge pump switch that was stuck in the “On” position. I connected the micro-start and the engine turned right over.
What I don’t like about this power bank is the great amount of parasitic drain of the unit. It seems to drain itself sitting on the shelf very quickly. So unless you keep a very close eye on it, chances are, when you need it, it’ll take hours to recharge before you can jump start something with it. This is the one I have in the following link.
I screen shotted this off of Afterpartz product page (then poorly edited it using an online tool :X):
It kind of implies that the cheap, generic ones, don't even use a circuit protection. That was also one of my concerns.
Since this thread got some attention, wonder if anyone would do a (small)group buy to try to get a good one cheap? I could email a seller to see what they could do. I'd like to get one for about $30.
