Portable booster pack.

[Boydsdodge]

So I think I am ready to crawl out of the past, just a little bit. I am looking to get a battery booster power pack, giving up my heavy copper 40+ year old booster cables. Would any of you have good/ bad experience with one of these? Looking to buy once and right.
Thanks.

 

[Big_John]

My sons gave me a Harbor Freight version at least 10 years ago, maybe 15... Still going strong. It's the cheap one, nothing fancy.

It wouldn't turn the diesel over in the Excursion I had, but when fully charged, it's turned everything else over. I used it recently to start my 300L when the battery was dead (my fault) and it worked great. The trick is to keep it charged so when you need it, it works. I often toss it in the trunk for long trips, especially if the car is going to be sitting at an airport or cruise dock for a week.

I was skeptical until I realized the pro tow truck drivers were using them, albeit a better version (not Harbor Freight)

Don't toss the cables though. The booster is good, but sometimes a car that is hard to start may drain the booster and you'll need the cables anyway.

 

[3175375]

I have a couple. I wiped one out, with winter and my Powerstroke 7.3 Turbodiesel. They’re ok, in my opinion, but I have some large trucks.

 

[Boydsdodge]

This question came about from a neighbour and his 22 Subaru. Car would not start call CAA the tech comes and has a small booster pack, car starts, tech walks away saying he needs a new battery. So now neighbour has a bug to get a booster pack, I have rarely needed one and when I did I used the caveman methods of cables. So I said I would look into it and as I did I thought great xmas gifts for some of my list.
Why his car would not start? I don't think it is battery, something had to cause it. I tested the charge and the battery strength, all good.
I see the large power packs and now these small wallet size boosters. The small ones would be good for the average person to keep in car plugged into a power point. I thinking of getting a large pack for around here in the garage.

 

[Samplingman]

This is the one I have. It’s already paid for itself, fits in the glovebox and cranks the 440 effortlessly. $89 bucks:
1000 Peak Amp Lithium-Ion Jump Starter and Power Bank

 

[Big_John]

Why his car would not start? I don't think it is battery, something had to cause it. I tested the charge and the battery strength, all good.

Bet a battery cable was loose or dirty. The CAA "tech" probably managed to move stuff around a little and got a good connection.... OR!! There's a intermittent parasite battery draw that killed the battery or even something dumb like he left the interior lights on and isn't owning up to it.

 

[3C's & a D?]

I've had the big old heavy Stanley pictured above for around a decade. It's pretty much done it's boosting days at this point but has a small air compressor which comes in handy. I was recently gifted one of the little guys that looks almost exactly like the audew pictured above. I still can't believe something so small works so well. I used it just last week. They're also a handy battery bank if you go on longer off trail camping trips.

Bet a battery cable was loose or dirty. The CAA "tech" probably managed to move stuff around a little and got a good connection.... OR!! There's a intermittent parasite battery draw that killed the battery or even something dumb like he left the interior lights on and isn't owning up to it.

Most newer vehicles will automatically turn off the interior lights after a couple of minutes. I'm willing to bet he left a cell phone charger or some other transformer plugged into a cigarette lighter and didn't drive for a couple of days.

 

[Boydsdodge]

Bet a battery cable was loose or dirty. The CAA "tech" probably managed to move stuff around a little and got a good connection.... OR!! There's a intermittent parasite battery draw that killed the battery or even something dumb like he left the interior lights on and isn't owning up to it.

My first thought was lights inside. all connections and battery like new.

 

[Toolmanmike]

The guy's voice is a bit grating but the content is good.

 

[MoPar~Man]

So let me get this straight.

He takes a fully-charged car battery, and a set of "heavy duty" jumper cables, and on his load tester he gets 281 amps with the battery giving only 4.5 volts (1264 watts).

Yet the majority of these packs are giving 3800 to 4900 watts (roughly 500+ amps at 8+ volts) and their cable thickness seems crazy small for that wattage and their cable inter-connect into the pack can take that wattage without melting?

And yet these things are only capable of 20 to 80 watt-hours of capacity (It would have been useful for him to calculate capacity per lb to see if it's constant).

I presume these are some form of Li-Po battery, 18650 size cell pack? The same battery size you put into some flashlights and vape-things? Why aren't they using this chemistry for ICE car batteries? They can take the cold (he put these things in a freezer and brought them down to -16 C and they still have juice).

 

['69FuryIIIConvertible]

We have the NOCO ones at work, albeit their HD version, and often use them to boost the diesels