My daughter has it in her head that she should carry a jump start power pack. I'm not convinced but I'm also not anti.
She is a mental health nurse "in the community" and has AA membership. She does end up in some iffy areas at odd times of day and sometimes night. She'd be capable of using it.
Any opinions and/or suggestions for brands? Would a cheap one do the trick or do you need to spend a lot on them (which is quite readily done!)
Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 5 Feb 24 at 10:32
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Depends on the size of the engine and whether diesel or petrol. I bought a £50 Halfords own brand and the three times the battery on Mrs O'Reliants 1.4 Polo "Went flat for no reason" it worked a treat.
I should think it would struggle with a large diesel, however.
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It's a Suzuki something with a moderate size engine (SX4 I think but pics of that look smaller than hers...)
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>>Any opinions and/or suggestions for brands?
>>Would a cheap one do the trick or do you need to spend a lot on them (which is quite readily done!)
tinyurl.com/2xv9sqhy
Like mine. Shows components. Mine has a mains charger.
They are designed to connect very directly to the battery.
I will expand on that tomorrow.
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Looking a bit pricey Henry!!
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Bought a cheap one in Lidl for about £45 . Yet to use it. I’ve got a Noco 50 which is lot more powerful for bigger engines. About £160 . But it will start a Diesel engine .
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I bought one recently from Temu for £24
Since gone up to £40
share.temu.com/mtJGoSEbAiA
At the end of the day all is does is provide a quick power boost to a flat battery. It's not intended crank an engine over and over that has other problems causing it not to start.
A little trick I've found with Temu is to put the item into the shopping basket for a few days, and chances are it'll come down in price, or a similar item will become available cheaper. I did this a little while ago with a dash cam that was originally £76 (which was the same price on Amazon). 3 days later it dropped to £51. With the saving I made, I bought the hardwire kit for it and was still £5 up on the original deal.
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>> Looking a bit pricey Henry!!
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I agree, It is now.
A while ago I bought a much lower powered one plus the same for my daughter.
Mine was stolen so i looked for a replacement. For a few pounds more i could have a more powerful one.
I searched and found a wide variation in price and spec then paid £68 for an Energizer brand- Dec 21. Versions 508xx seem to be all based on the same battery with various accessories.
Energizer now seemed to have dropped out of the cheaper end of the market.
My earlier one worked well
Son has a slightly more powerful non Energizer unit.
He tells me it did not work on his 3.0L diesel Audi Q5.
He says reports online are that makers are overoptimistic re ability to start diesel cars.
if like the Q5 the battery is not easily accessible you may need an extension lead for the earth cable. On the Q5 the positive is a bank of connection at the base of the windscreen and a negative battery sized post on the n/s suspension turret.
The connections are fine for jumper leads not not for lithium jobs
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Thanks all. The Temu one looks cheap enough, especially if the basket trick works. But does the device work Dave? I think I have a phone battery charger which has more mAH!! :-) I'm not inclined to skimp too much on it
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>> Thanks all. The Temu one looks cheap enough, especially if the basket trick works. But
>> does the device work Dave?
To be honest, I've not used it in anger yet on my 2.0 litre diesel. I did use it the other day to start my motorbike, but not really a comparison.
During a power cut the other day, I used it as a power bank to power my bright LED torch for over 6 hours, and was still showing over 75% charge on the indicator.
The battery spec is the same as one being sold in Halfords for over £60.
I see GSF have a Ring one for just under £50. They all seem to quote capable of starting engines up to 3 litres.
www.gsfcarparts.com/rinrppl200
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Of the many things that I wouldn’t buy from Temu (which is a bargain-bucket version of AliExpress), the biggest is something with a dense lithium ion battery with an unregulated discharge current upwards of 500A.
Noko (of the trickle chargers) do a cheapish basic one that I eye suspiciously but allow in the garage. They aren’t really designed to deliver sufficient current to jump a totally flat battery, but if you give them a couple of 30 second charge cycles they’ll reinflate the main battery enough for it to crank the engine with assistance. If you chuck it straight on (especially a cold diesel) it probably won’t even turn over.
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Let mr annoying voice of project farm be your guide.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMXyoIBJyJA
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>>ith an unregulated discharge current upwards of 500A.
Good point. An internal short circuit in one of these might start a fire that you can't put out.
Best keep it dry, don't leave it in the bottom of the car boot!
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I got this one, based on it being about £50, USB-C charging which is convenient, top end of the reviews on Amazon, and the 'brand' having a website with downloadable manuals.
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B086ZH1BFM
Buture appears to be a brand of Shenzhen PuChengWeiLai Technology Co.,Ltd. Amazon also offers a "Flylinktech" branded item which also seems to be a brand of the same company, which has an address in Shenzen.
The known brand (US) Noco jump starters seem to be about double the price and might, or might not, be better designed. Noco is known as a US brand and as of March 2023 has been sueing literally dozens of Chinese companies including Shenzhen PuChengWeiLai Technology for patent infringment relating to "Portable Vehicle Battery Jump Start Apparatus with Safety Protection"!
You pays yer money etc. I don't expect it will get much use but the MX-5 with its small battery has been known to go flat and I like to have some recovery measures with me on foreign trips. I'll carry this instead of the bulkier jump leads.
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17m 41s of comparing jump starters didn't appeal but I jumped to the comparison the table at the end which had the $300 one as the best. That's to pricey - obv all his were Amercian (which isn't to say they aren't available here I know).
FF is about right re Temu but I do have a lot of AliExpress electronics around the house which so far haven't killed me!!
The Ring one looks good as does Manatee's one.
But things have moved on and she wants a cat now... (not the motoring kind!)!!!
I think I'll put on the list of poss pressies for a future occasion as I do think it wouldn't be a bad thing for her to have.
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...don't get one from AliCatExpress...
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So you have had to put a paws on your purchasing plans?
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Could always ask Santa Claws for one at Christmas?
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>But things have moved on and she wants a cat now...
Which kinda reminds me -
I've missed Corrie for a few weeks. Is Bobby still missing?
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Is this solving a problem that actually exists, or is she just lugging around a load of extra petrol-burning weight that will be flat when she needs it anyway?
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It's an "insurance". She has breakdown cover so already has other options...
But in actual fact seems it was more of one of those moments where she discovers something she hadn't heard of and suddenly needs one. Happens to me too, much be hereditary :-)
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I'm going to get one as back up to the caravan leisure battery.
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Wouldn't a second battery be nearly as cheap and more appropriate?
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>> Wouldn't a second battery be nearly as cheap and more appropriate?
No, Leisure (car) batteries are heavy, take up a lot of space, might only be required once a year and cant be used anywhere else. Unlike a jump start pack.
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The only time I ever needed something like that was when the battery was flat and daughter was due to be taken to a hairdresser and make-up for her wedding. Had to take her in the KIA Pride - she wasn't impressed.
Couldn't the rest of you use the other Porsche?
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To save all this faffing around, why not just buy another new battery?
I now await the verbal battering for being for not understanding the problems of young drivers of today.
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>> To save all this faffing around, why not just buy another new battery?
I suspect that if they can't recognise when a battery is failing, there's little hope of them keeping the jump starter power pack charged.
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>> >> To save all this faffing around, why not just buy another new battery?
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>> I suspect that if they can't recognise when a battery is failing, there's little hope
>> of them keeping the jump starter power pack charged.
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Well I assume, probably incorrectly that all this young blood and Uni students would be making full use of their cars given to them by their doting parents and so would be little chance of them going flat assuming they had new batteries in their cars. There's more chance of my battery/s going flat now only doing about 50 miles per week in my dotage.
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>>There's more chance of my battery/s going flat now only doing >>about 50 miles per week in my dotage.
I'm doing even less than that. My battery is charged about every 3rd week.
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>> >>There's more chance of my battery going flat now only doing about 50 miles
>> per week in my dotage.
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>> I'm doing even less than that. My battery is charged about every 3rd week.
I am usually doing a tiny mileage per week but for a few weeks I broke the double digit level.
I use an old Aldi sourced Auto XS trickle charger that has served me well for years.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKI1JSe3tY8
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>> I use an old Aldi sourced Auto XS trickle charger that has served me well
>> for years.
>> www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKI1JSe3tY8
I have the same charger, around 5 years old, cheap as chips and works very well.
Something else we have in common!
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>> >>There's more chance of my battery/s going flat now only doing >>about 50 miles
>> per week in my dotage.
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>> I'm doing even less than that. My battery is charged about every 3rd week.
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Well, I judge my car's battery state by the car's Stop/Start system. Often in Winter this does not function very often unless battery state fits the algorithms for this system. However recently it's functioning again and that will only happen if, everything being satisfactory, the battery is also fully charged based on its age.
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WHich jump starter power pack? - Robin O'Reliant
