Home Page link

Portable car jump starter.

Home| Search | About
Login Password
Register Now! Lost Password?

Home Repair - - If it ain't broken, don't fix it. Otherwise look here. 

Page 4 of 4       << first < 1 2 3 Bookmark this page:  YahooMyWeb Yahoo!  Google Google  Windows Live Favorites Windows Live  del.icio.us del.icio.us  digg digg  Add to Netscape Netscape
Subject Author Date
Portable car jump starter. Terry 01-18-2008
If you were  Registered and logged in, you could reply and use other advanced thread options
Posted by Terry on January 22, 2008, 8:20 am
On Mon, 21 Jan 2008 13:07:57 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03

>> I have a Black and Decker 450 amp jump starter.
>>
>> The car battery was dead because the lights were left on.  I wanted to
>> use the car in the morning.  I took the battery charger and put it on
>> the battery, the night before, intending to trickle charge it.
>>
>> The next morning the car would not start and there was no juice in the
>> charger.
>>
>> I am guessing that the jump starters are not intended to trickle
>> charge, although I don't see why.
>
>As many have already replied, these devices will not charge a battery.
>
>In addition (in my experience) they will jump a weak battery, but may
>have trouble with a cold, completely dead battery. I've used my HF
>JumpStart numorous times to jump various vehicle where we at least got
>a click or 2 out of the starter solenoid, but when my son left the
>lights on overnight on a very cold night, the JumpStart device did not
>work. One shot with jumper cables and another vehicle and the dead car
>turned right over.

If used like they are intended, I think they are a great thing to have
in an emergency. I have used mine to prevent me from being stranded
on the side of the road more than once.

The tire pump allowed me to add air to a tire and drive it to the
shop. It saved me from changing a tire and only took 5 min to get
going again.

I would rather have one and not need it, than to need one and not have
it.


Plumbing 468x60
Posted by Jim Yanik on January 22, 2008, 12:11 pm

> On Mon, 21 Jan 2008 13:07:57 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
>
>>> I have a Black and Decker 450 amp jump starter.
>>>
>>> The car battery was dead because the lights were left on.  I wanted to
>>> use the car in the morning.  I took the battery charger and put it on
>>> the battery, the night before, intending to trickle charge it.
>>>
>>> The next morning the car would not start and there was no juice in the
>>> charger.
>>>
>>> I am guessing that the jump starters are not intended to trickle
>>> charge, although I don't see why.
>>
>>As many have already replied, these devices will not charge a battery.
>>
>>In addition (in my experience) they will jump a weak battery, but may
>>have trouble with a cold, completely dead battery. I've used my HF
>>JumpStart numorous times to jump various vehicle where we at least got
>>a click or 2 out of the starter solenoid, but when my son left the
>>lights on overnight on a very cold night, the JumpStart device did not
>>work. One shot with jumper cables and another vehicle and the dead car
>>turned right over.
>
> If used like they are intended, I think they are a great thing to have
> in an emergency. I have used mine to prevent me from being stranded
> on the side of the road more than once.
>
> The tire pump allowed me to add air to a tire and drive it to the
> shop. It saved me from changing a tire and only took 5 min to get
> going again.
>
> I would rather have one and not need it, than to need one and not have
> it.
>
>

how often do you charge it? how long does it hold a useable charge?

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net

Posted by Dave Martindale on January 23, 2008, 2:40 am

>As many have already replied, these devices will not charge a battery.

They will partially recharge a pretty flat battery.

I once left some lights on in my car. When I went to start it, it
wouldn't turn over at all. I didn't have a commercial "jump start"
battery pack, but I *did* have a charged 12 V 10 Ah gell cell sitting
around. I took that out to the car, connected it to the car battery,
and waited 10 minutes or so. At the end of that, the car started.

Now, there's no way the little 10 Ah battery could deliver enough
starting current on its own, particularly since its connection to the
car was via some rather wimpy cables. But over 10 minutes, it
transferred enough energy to the car's own battery to start the car.

You're never going to transfer all the energy in the gell cell this way,
because its voltage drops while the car battery voltage rises, and
eventually they'll reach equilibrium with a substantial amount of energy
still left in the gell cell. But what did transfer was enough.

(I have seen special charging cords that seem to contain a voltage
booster for charging one 12 V battery from another. But I just used
plain wires.)

Of course, this only works if the car's own battery will still take a
charge. If it has died, not merely been discharged, you need a second
battery big enough to start a car on its own, and jumper cables heavy
enough to carry the current needed to do that.

        Dave

Page 4 of 4       << first < 1 2 3
Similar ThreadsPosted
Use and storage of auto jump-starter - portable power October 26, 2008, 9:02 am
Cost of gas starter fuel vs. starter logs November 26, 2006, 8:43 pm
Big jump in electric bill November 5, 2005, 10:13 am
Fireplace Gas Log Starter with no gas November 20, 2006, 9:39 am
Toro Snowblower Starter January 6, 2006, 1:29 pm
lawn tractor w/ bad starter? May 13, 2008, 9:07 am
Vinyl siding Starter Strip September 25, 2005, 10:04 pm
Shingle starter strip question. May 21, 2006, 2:59 pm
Honda HT-R 3009 Mower starter March 19, 2007, 11:59 pm
Honda Harmony 1011 Mower - need starter June 21, 2005, 7:09 pm

Contact Us | Privacy Policy

XML SitemapXML Sitemap