Flat Battery-Booster Pack

[Delboy]

Originally Posted by ainarssems

It would be interesting if anybody could try it with totally flat car battery or car battery removed all together.

I completely agree with yours suspicions too.

800amp is a lot of juice, and to put it through cables those size is not sustainable.

The unit has the box with the green led mid cable and i suspect it current limits for safety but I could be wrong.

If the main battery is completely flat you have to override the little box with button on the side.

There is another type of jumper that uses capacitors to start the car intead of a battery, its quite a clever piece of kit that boosts the voltage to charger the capacitor bank enough to give you start power.

I have seen a video of it start a car entirely on its own once charged which is impressive.

Also came across this which was interesting

[roboblob]

I have a different type but I can confirm that it will start a V8 with a completely flat battery. Over the winter my battery went flat. and I mean flat, not even enough power to light a bulb, I threw on my booster pack, turned the key and it started first time.

I have started my V8 4 times with it, my kid has used it on his friends car several times and it has only now went to half charge from its initial charge over a year ago.

A worthwhile investment.

[oldnick]

Originally Posted by roboblob

I have a different type but I can confirm that it will start a V8 with a completely flat battery. Over the winter my battery went flat. and I mean flat, not even enough power to light a bulb, I threw on my booster pack, turned the key and it started first time.

I have started my V8 4 times with it, my kid has used it on his friends car several times and it has only now went to half charge from its initial charge over a year ago.

A worthwhile investment.

+1

[27litres]

+2

I have two of these (one in the S8 and one in the missus XC90 V8).
They are nothing short of brilliant.

I've jumped the S8 several times, jumped FIL's 4.5L Patrol, jumped two different 4.0L Falcon's with dead batteries...
I bought my sister one after a battery mishap, and I've sold several others on the concept after demonstrations.
On top of that, they were also used extensively over a 3-4 day period when we had power lines down after a severe wind storm - each one was good for a day simultaneously charging a phone and a tablet to keep the little daughter happy watching teletubbies! I simply alternated charging them at work!

Their CCA capacity is a little overstated. The cables are only 5mm, so can handle about 200-300A max. So claims of 800CCAs is a nonsense. They are still powerful enough for V8's (and clearly V10's) though!

S8: https://www.kincrome.com.au/starter-...wer-kit-400cca
XC90: http://m.ebay.com.au/itm/33168639588...26&_mwBanner=1

The Kincrome one seems to last a little longer (maybe), so the Saoko one off eBay may exaggerate it's capacity slightly - it's still an excellent device!

[ainarssems]

Good to know they can start the car on their own, I might just buy one. I guess because the cables are short there is not much voltage drop( my jumper cables are 5 or 6 feet long and even if they are thicker there is too much drop to start car with totally flat battery, I think they were 'rated' up to 2000cc engines) and because they starting time is short they do not heat enough to burn or melt insulation. You can look at them kind of like fuse, fuses are also thin and short but still can handle a lot of current.

As far as the box in the middle of cable I guess that is no voltage until connected to battery and reverse voltage protection box to prevent accidental short circuit and wrong connection. So there is no power to crocodile clips until they are connected with correct polarity, override button is for totally flat or missing battery.

I also like the idea of powering laptop on some of them.

[27litres]

It's funny you should mention heat and fuses.
One of the Falcon's I jumped with the Sauko one is old and difficult to start and has a parasitic power drain to boot - FIL cranked it for about 10 secs straight, at which point it finally started just as one of the wires popped out of the voltage protection device, having melted the solder!

(Cheap to replaced from Ebay or Aliexpress etc - about £5)

[Delboy]

Not a bad unit, got laptop cables, and a compressor

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/30185...8210941&crdt=0

[gninnam]

Ah well - just over 12 months old and my Guluman power pack is in the bin.
Used it a few times and it worked a treat, but went to charge it up and noticed the unit was no longer flat but bowed out - and will no longer charge.

Was good when I needed it - will look around for a replacement now.

[ainarssems]

I recently bought a cheap one for £20 for use not as a jump starter but as a power source to power electric seat adjustment for 8's seats in the house. I was surprised how small and light it was. It was advertised as 30000mAh but I thought no way it can be more than 5000mAh So I ran couple of charge/discharge tests using 21W automotive bulb as drain at around 12.5V and 1.7A. It lasted 60-65 minutes meaning it only has 1700-1840 mAh or around 6% of advertised capacity.

[27litres]

Latest technology for jump starting is capacitor packs.
They're about the same size and look of the LiPo jump packs, maybe slightly bigger.

What these do though is actually use your own battery's latent charge to charge the capacitor pack.
Depending how low the battery is, it takes 3-5 mins or so to charge the capacitors.
Once charged, the capacitors can then release that energy as a high amperage discharge which is sufficient to start your engine.

Works on anything but a completely flat battery (0 volts), does not require charging, and can be pretty much be stored indefinitely in the car and forgotten about.