Hi All,
I received an email this morning from Supercheap Auto for these specials:
4 CYL Cars $31.99 - http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/Product/SCA-12V-Jump-Starte…
6 CYL Cars $39.99 - http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/Product/SCA-1200A-6CYL-JUMP…
These are awesome to just have sitiing on your bench in case of an emergency or even in the boot of your car.
They have an inbuilt work light and also a 5V USB chanrger.
Pickup is available at most stores and postage is available as well.
Cheers,
Matt
Cap? Its a jumpstarter - if you have a flat battery you put this on and it starts your car up!
What I meant it was:
Does it have some battery inside or do you need a car battery with this?
Cap - Like Capacitor? In that case it has a battery (most likely SLA) inside it … yes!
@cristtos: - No - you just use it when your battery goes flat - otherwise you put it away - Its a Jumpstarter for when you have a flat battery.
I will have to check it out in person.
@cristtos: It's effectively a very small car battery with inbuilt jumper cables and stuff. Alternatively, if you already have a spare car battery and a charger, you could use that with jumper cables to jump start your car, and use the charger to keep it topped up so it doesn't die.
This one is on sale at the moment from Costco OZ for ($84): https://www.amazon.com/Winplus-Jump-Start-Portable-Power/dp/…
Being lithium, it stores more power in a smaller footprint. Easier to store and carry along.
I had a flat the other month, my neighbour bailed me out. He had one of these, and it was awesome.
It can double as a portable charger for phones, quite versatile and worth the price to simply lug in the trunk.
Good idea ! Going over to convince my neighbour to buy one now.
Great idea!
While these Li-Ion jump-starters are a very cool product, they're not directly comparable.
The Amazon item uses a relatively small, low voltage battery, a transformer and a large capacitor to release a short burst of energy - enough to supplement the car's own battery output and jump-start a car. However, if the car's own battery is completely flat, one of these little jump-starters has little chance of cranking a car engine for any more than a couple seconds, at best.
In comparison, the item in the original post is basically a miniature car battery in a user-friendly. It can store a lot more energy, and could crank a car engine for quite a while if necessary. They're also decently useful in various camping situations.
Anyone had one and know the capacity of the battery inside?
The 6Cyl says 1200A …?
given it weighs 2.4kgs, it'd be pretty small. My optima yellow top is 19kgs without any charging stuff attached to it and it's 55Ah. So maybe 5.5Ah?
12Ah on the box :)
Cheers, bit expensive for a 12Ah battery.
Considered one for tent/gazebo lighting with a few mods.
Hmm weird that it’s nearly twice as many Ah per kg compared to my Optima Yellow Top. Maybe it’s because you need more weight for higher cold cranking amps. The yellow top is rated to 700 of those. Interesting though. The yellow top was $300 as well, and heavy so this sort of thing is good value.
Why would i get this over say a powerpack jumpstarter that's much smaller? Say similar to the hummer one that was on ozb last week for $40. Genuine question
You wouldn't unless you wanted to run something off this like a fridge for a very short amount of time
This may store more total energy. That is useful if you want it for powering lights at camping or something.
The maximum power available (1200A according to the 6cyl one) is a function of how large the total storage is, a bigger battery can apply a higher current. So it may be better at starting a bigger engine.
The Hummer is rated at 5400mAh. The 6cyl here is likely at least 7200mAh (7.2Ah) so will probably produce a higher current. Note I am assuming they are measuring capacity at 12v. If the Hummer is actually 5400mAh at 5v (USB voltage) it has less than half the power capacity.
Sadly, the products don't carry the specifications needed to compare them properly.
Really well explained mskeggs - This unit is 12Ah (12000mAh) meaning it has nearly 2.5 times as much power storage as the smaller pack.
The battery in this is a Sealed Lead Acid Battery (SLA) and is often used for power backup up for CCTV systems and computers etc. I have not seen any Lithium battery packs used for this type of "power storage" yet with the exception of Tesla etc…
Sure the other unit is smaller but this is made to be a car jumpstarter first and a USB charger second. The other unit is the opposite!
Cheers,
Matt
My main gripe with these small compact lithiums is that they aren't rated for Australian conditions. It's a limitation of lithium batteries that can't be overcome currently.
The top model of Noco's charger is only rated to operate up to 50c, which means you can't really leave it in your car on even a 30c sunny day. Doing so will degrade the battery substantially. This page explains that a li-ion battery charged to 100% and left at >40c for 1 year will lose 35% of its capacity. Pretty brutal.
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_li…
I used to carry around a spare 2-way radio in my boot. To preserve the battery, I kept it in a small Thermos flask. It did the job.
Perhaps one could fashion a mini esky with styrofoam to help one of those li-ion jump starters.
Bought. Thanks.
Tempted but I haven't jump started a car in years and I own a manual car anyway. Could be good to use for peace of mind while camping and to charge gadgets, but the capacity in Amp Hours isn't mentioned, which is a red flag to me that it might not be impressive.
Might see if I have the inclination to visit a store and investigate further…
Amp hours isn't directly relevant to engine starting, so that's probably why it isn't mentioned. Even car batteries typically don't list an Ah rating.
It's 12Amp hours
Would 6cyl petrol with a 4cyl diesel? 1200amp
Anyone who's a mechanic or works in road breakdown service want to comment on this? Is this kind of thing safe or is there a significant risk of frying car computers?
https://www.mynrma.com.au/cars-and-driving/roadside-assistan…
The problem arises when people try to jump start directly via the battery terminals. Most modern cars have a recommended procedure for jump starting to/from dedicated terminals in the engine bay. Having said that, jump starting should be an emergency procedure only.
Don't really see the point of having one of these jumpstarters around as it is yet another battery to maintain. The type of person who lets their car battery get to a state where a jump start is needed is likely to find their jump starter also flat when they need it =/
Hey - i resemble that commment ;)
I just plugged it an and will leave it on charge until I need it - I figure the amount of power it will require to keep maintained charge will be small compared to the one time I need it.
Fair call though.
The problem arises when people try to jump start directly via the battery terminals.
Using an alternate grounding point is to suppress sparks/arcing since the battery vents hydrogen gas hence the fear for an explosion. That said hydrogen gas is lighter than air and would dissipate. It does not increase or decrease the risk of frying car computers or electronics.
The vast majority of people who need to jump start a car will discover the need after their kid plays with the roof light at midday and its not noticed until the next morning, or a door is left open or something like that. Its rarely because the battery has carked it due to poor maintenance
Happened to me two weeks ago.
Car manufacturer should create an alarm similar to the one for headlight if we forget to switch it off after leaving the car… Or perhaps they have manufacture it recently? My car is 2010 thus rather outdated
Don't jumpstart modern cars with another car, it's just never worth the risk.
That's what these dedicated devices exist for.
If you aren't carrying one or some other safe charge cable then you don't have the right tools for the job and simply can't help.
Has anyone personally seen cases where a car has been damaged simply by the act of jumpstarting by another car and not user error e.g. reverse polarity, or running the engine without a battery connected?
Never. And I’ve done it a tonne of times with a tonne of different cars without issue. I think they only speak against it because of the risk of people not doing it properly. Or to get people to pay money for services like NRMA. There’s no logical difference between jump starting properly from another car or what you do when you replace your car battery when it dies.
Anyone who's a mechanic or works in road breakdown service want to comment on this? Is this kind of thing safe or is there a significant risk of frying car computers?
https://www.mynrma.com.au/cars-and-driving/roadside-assistan…
Of course the NRMA will scare you with articles like that. They're trying to sell you a breakdown service. :)
Joke is on them then. I have had their breakdown service for over a decade. Now they're just going to scare people like me into forcing them to hire road service crew.
The specs on this aren't all that cear. It implies it can be recharged.
Now is that from the car - ie 12Volt, or is it from 240 volt?
In other words does it come with power plug/pack that connects to household 240v supply?
TIA
Yeah not clear at all!
It comes with a 3 stage 240V mains power charger included.
Cheers,
Matt
Cool - Thank you
Cheers OP. my car's battery was flat this morning. so perfect timing.
I have a much more compact one. Looks a bit more like the one linked below It was $135 from memory (this was about a year ago). Smaller than a VHS cassette. Amazingly light and started my completely flat Saab 2.3 turbo using only 12% of its capacity. Holds its charge for ages and much smaller than the (what looks like) mini conventional battery posted (cost more though).
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JJZQPB4/ref=sspa_dk_detail_1?ps…
If you search for 'Battery jump starter' on ebay there are tons. Hard to pick a decent quality one though. The one I got is the lithium type far less likely to catch fire - lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4)
VHS? Kids won't know what that means.
Man that thing isn't much bigger than my Xaomi 16000 mAH powerbank, but takes it to a whole new level!
I got a lightning deal and could have had it cheap but doesn't ship to Aus and I can't be bothered with mail forwarding.
Yes, I thought about the VHS reference, but can you see the average millennial jump starting a car?
They are quite an amazing little box of tricks.
Millenial would swipe to start the car, wouldn't they?
Put it under the car and wonder why the wireless charging didn't work.
We could use the "paperback" reference but, again… ebooks…
Paperbacks are still widely in use. You don't give an ebook reader to a kindergartner unless you are able to charge the parent for the damage.
wonder if the 3 stage charger can charge another battery. If so it may be worth it cos they cost around $30 anyway.
The charger is 0.8A output. If you’re looking for a charger I’d recommend getting a CTEK one. I bought an SCA one with good specs for a reasonably high price and it wouldn’t charge my battery saying there was a fault with the battery. I bought a new battery and then discovered that the charger just wouldn’t work when the batteries got very low. Bought a CTEK and that old battery charged fine. They’re universally accepted as the best chargers from what I can tell. Across the world. Worth buying once and having the best. They can be had fairly cheap on eBay and come in various sizes to charge faster or slower or for bigger or smaller batteries.
These look like something out of Back to the Future
Bought the 800 model. Kinda disappointed the 12000 model is out of stock for pick up everywhere in Melbourne. Thank you anyways OP.
Cheers got the 6cyl through ebay with $10 voucher came to $36 delivered
Is this like a "cap" for a car battery?