Or you just have an older car and accidentally left the lights on. I wouldn’t pay over $100 for one of these today, but $50 ish is reasonable insurance against being stuck in a deserted parking lot in the dead of winter. If the car battery is completely and absolutely dead, then neither this nor a traditional lead based jumper pack may be enough. The advantage of these though are weight, size and low self discharge. A traditional pack needs to be topped up at least every month or two, but I’ve left these in the car over 6 months and they still retained plenty of charge. In contrast, the big heavy lead jumper packs I’ve had before were totally dead after being neglected for the same period. Also, low temperature has a smaller effect on lithium based jumpers versus traditional packs, so you have more CCA when you need it.
Keep in mind that the point of having these is not to avoid replacing a worn battery, but to give you that last chance to get to the store to buy the new battery rather than being stuck miles away. When possible, I like to use things till they’re actually worn out, so if I can delay replacing it until the new coupon comes out which can save me $50 on a new battery, then I can wait without worries with one of these in the car. If you are one of the 5% of conscientious drivers who always check your tires, fluids, lights, indicators and battery before every trip, then you might never need one of these. I however fall in the other 95% and prefer to just keep one of these along with a few spare fuses, bulbs and tools in the car.
Exactly, it’s an insurance. In my opinion, an insurance sold by playing on one fear.
What I do is what I call ‘self insure’ I say no to extended warranties and products like this because they are sold based on one fear. And the money I save is re-distributed to what really goes wrong. Here’s two examples.
#1) Your battery really is dead because your car is too old to shut off your headlights. It cost you $50 for your battery pack. Or you could call a tow-service to jump you for $50. It’s an even wash. But in real life, you either have a friend you can call for a free jump… or will never need one. #2) You car doesn’t start, but it’s because of one of the other million things that can go wrong. You need a tow for $50. If you were ‘self-insured’ it’s like a free tow.
So I ‘self insure’ and it has served me very well. I recommend it.
The difference is this would be a one time investment that can be used repeatedly without additional cost for at least several years. I can even help other friends or family with an occasional emergency. Perhaps I would even be the “friend” you call for that free jump! Both of your examples will incur a cost for each incident as well as a significant time delay, not to mention that it requires availability of phone service to call for help. The jumper pack, whether lithium or lead based can potentially provide near instant self rescue anywhere. I prefer to be self sufficient when possible and $50 is not much in the grand scheme of things to help facilitate that.
At 16 years and 280,000 mi. I’ve been through a few batteries and keep a set of cables handy. I’ve used them to help both myself and others as well but the power tool battery is far more convenient and doesn’t require either another vehicle or a conveniently empty parking space. It’s not the cheapest way to go but if you already have them it’s not a bad idea to make up a set of leads to go with. A single 18V Makita will start it immediately. The truck battery’s been recently changed but I’ll still carry the leads in case I need to help someone or Doh my lights.
My wife gave me a Halo Bolt, I was very skeptical. I forgot and left the key on my Kubota diesel RTV on and the battery went totally flat. I really needed it running… tried the Halo and it fired the engine after warming the glow plugs. I was very pleased. I also used in on a 30hp diesel tractor with the same results.
Have you tested it on an larger diesel engine? I like the idea of being able to jump start a vehicle with a tiny lithium pack, but I doubt any put out enough power for running 8 glow plugs for 15+ seconds and still being able to turn over a cold 6.5L engine
I have the DBPower DJS30, 16,500mAh, 600A(peak), 300A (starting) and this morning it started my fully dead (no domelight) 1995 Dodge Ram 1500 5.9L V8 truck.
I was very happy with the speed it turned over, it is an easy to start truck, tho.
We used a tiny 20C rated 2200mah 4S LiPo pack to start a 3.0L turbo diesel and it was fairly easy thing, I believe to start an engine it doesn’t actually need those crazy amps unless there is no battery or the battery is flat dead.
If the battery is just barely discharged, say you left the lights on for a couple hours then a sightly voltage bump is enough.
Some people carry this engine starter powerbank in their cars fully charged and that’s an extremely bad idea, fully charged LiPo should never be stored for extended time, much less if exposed to heat. This is why in RC hobbies the LiPo packs are set to storage mode and charged to full only when it’s ready to be used.
With the high drain 18650s available today, I’m sure that a 4s2p setup will work as an emergency starter using super high drain cells such as the Sony VTC5.
This IS the ironic thing about this battery chemistry, being intended fro use in an emergency. Perhaps non-RC LiPo packs, like portable starters, ( lower discharge C ) can be treated differently?
I just received this one today for my wife’s car, there was a $30 coupon which has since expired. It is exactly like my other one, maybe a hair heavier which accounts for the slight boost in capacity. Have yet to try the compressor, which only works with the jumper/battery bank, not from 12V socket or car battery. Comes in a nice hard case/foam inserts to protect the accessories.
I bought the same one as chinooker in post 24. It didn’t start my Caddy 4.6L V8 northstar so I left poor feedback on Amazon. They immediately contacted me, apologized, and overnighted another one. It performs perfectly and will spin the living daylights out of my engine. They asked that I please keep the original for my inconvenience. After about 4 charge/discharge cycles the original is now just as stout as the replacement. Helluva CS experience, the old one now resides in my 99 Tahoe 5.7L V8 and has started it twice when battery was so flat that no interior lights or anything else would come on. Tahoe has an electrical gremlin that fully flattens brand new battery if not started every couple of days. I now have 4 of these li-ion devices (3 different brands), one in each vehicle, and swear by them!
I bought several on clearance sale at Walmart and they perform as expected. The key to safe operation is to read and follow the directions precisely as outlined in the instructions. Simple stuff…