Battery Jump Starters

[lxskllr]

I like having both cables and a box, but currently only have two boxes. Not sure where my cables are. For a long while I was using a battery charger hooked up to an inverter. It's not quite as stupid as it sounds. I used the stuff to charge batteries in the field, so it was already there. I charged/boosted several batteries with that setup.

 

[woodman1999]

We had to jump my wife's acura 3 times in the past year and I finally asked the AAA guy what they recommend. He told me get this one:

Charger

He said they use it for every truck in their fleet. It's compact and will jump anything. Not cheap though...

 

[NutBucket]

Yeah. Well, the place my top rated mechanic sent me to wanted $550 (probably tax on top of that) for the same system with them installing it.......s.

What I was really getting at, do you really think an alarm is necessary at all?

 

[lxskllr]

What I was really getting at, do you really think an alarm is necessary at all?

How else are you gonna wake the neighbors at 3:22am? Get up and do it yourself?! Fuck that!

 

[dullard]

I am about to buy the Gooloo jumper/charger system. I figure it's cheap insurance and has multiple potential uses. I wonder how long its rechargeable battery will last.

I bought my Gooloo GT3000 about 3 years ago. It is running strong so far. It is lithium polymer not lithium ion. So it is more robust (no liquid to evaporate or leak causing a dead battery), tends to last longer, and tends to accept more power cycles. The tradeoff is lithium polymer batteries are heavier.

All lithium batteries hate to stay drained at 0% for very long. So the easiest way to destroy it is to drain it down and ignore it. There is always some self-drainage in any equipment, so even if you turn it off with a bit of power left, it will get down to 0% eventually. I have a regular (every 4 months) phone calendar reminder to drain and quickly recharge all of my lithium batteries in the whole house. I happen to drain the Gooloo at that time by plugging in all my old cell phones/tablets and charging them up to 100%, then I recharge the Gooloo. That should get me 10 years or so on each battery.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

Well I didn't need to use it a 2nd time leaving work and heading to the dealer yesterday. I guess I drove around long enough for it to hold a charge for a few hours after getting it going. Dealer said i had a few cells out so swapped it under warranty. Took forever though. They had to charge it 100%, load test it, recharge it 100% then load test it again to get the correct codes for warranty. Thank goodness my parents didn't have anything to do so they just picked me up and I had a nice time hanging out with them for the afternoon. Never fails before a vacation that something happens to either the truck or our trailer and needs fixing lol (heading to the coast to camp this wknd).

 

[Torn Mind]

What I was really getting at, do you really think an alarm is necessary at all?

Not trying to be political...but densely populated city in California...like 2+2....

 

[Torn Mind]

We had to jump my wife's acura 3 times in the past year and I finally asked the AAA guy what they recommend. He told me get this one:

Charger

He said they use it for every truck in their fleet. It's compact and will jump anything. Not cheap though...

Project Farm's most recent jump start review utilized the Noco GBX 175 of 370 dollars he bought one year before. It outperformed all the Chinesiums.

 

[NutBucket]

Not trying to be political...but densely populated city in California...like 2+2....

I live in SoCal...so similar. I can recall a couple of instances over 30 years ago where an alarm may have made a difference...assuming someone woke up to hear it and then cared to see what was happening.

Last year there were a few catalytic converter thefts on my street..again probably just lucky I didn't get hit but would I (or anyone else) have woken up and cared to see what is happening?

So that's my thinking, plus the fact he's got a ~30 year old car that isn't exactly a theft magnet.