Small Lithium Ion Jump Starters ??

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billt460

billt460

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I'm seeing a lot of these advertised on Amazon, and places like Harbor Freight. Some of the more expensive one's are not much bigger than a couple of decks of playing cards placed end to end. And yet they advertise they can jump start a V-8 Diesel pickup.

I'm not seeing how. All that energy being depleted from a few small cells in just a few seconds, into a high draw starter motor, has got to generate A LOT of heat. Are these things safe? Does anyone here have one? What kind of luck have you had with it? Thanks in advance.
 
The NOCO jump starters have worked well for us.

My daughter has several “saves” of friend’s cars with her NOCO.

What I really like about the NOCO (aside from the ability to self jump) is that you can help someone else without risking your car’s electrics.
 
They are great for jumping cars in good condition with just a dead battery, but if you're starting a carb engine that's been sitting 2 weeks and needs multiple attempts, it may not have enough juice. Also, they won't start a car with no battery installed. You still need a conventional jump box for that.
 
atikovi said:
They are great for jumping cars in good condition with just a dead battery, but if you're starting a carb engine that's been sitting 2 weeks and needs multiple attempts, it may not have enough juice. Also, they won't start a car with no battery installed. You still need a conventional jump box for that.
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Exactly. They'll work on a modern EFI that will pop right off as long as it can spin the starter over. Something that has to crank a lot, nope.

But a 10 year old EFI vehicle with a battery that just buzzes the starter solenoid? Perfect!
 
I have one from Harbor Freight, and it works well. The largest thing I've jumped so far has just been a gas V8. While it has enough power, my bet would be that they are made for short bursts to jump a vehicle with a dead/weak battery, not for long periods of cranking over an engine that has other issues.
 
Very happy with my Schumacher SL1396. I have the older version with Micro-USB... the newer one is Type-C which is cool.

I did a test on a 2001 Suburban 5.3 and left the key on with blower motor on full blast for a few hours to completely drain the battery. The SL1396 started it up like it was nothing. Cranked just as good as the group 78 AGM battery in the truck haha. I then shut the truck off and did the same thing a few more times. Had 70-something % left on the jump starter.

Since then I've used it on many other vehicles with various engine sizes, even larger SUVs with V8s. Never on a diesel but I might try it on a buddy's Powerstroke 7.3 just to see what happens.

I'm sure the internals of the SL1396 are similar to the billion other brands and models of these small lithium-ion jump starters. Definitely superior to the big ole SLA booster packs of the past that are 10x bigger, heavy, and can barely start a four cylinder gasser lol.
 
The battery itself can't provide that much current. These things also work best when there's a "mostly dead" battery. But they have to sense that they're connected to a "mostly dead" battery and then they load up a capacitor.

There are apparently some super capacitor jump starters that really only load up a charge from a mostly dead battery. Not sure how well they work. Sounds a lot like the old battery packs that plug into the lighter plug and then charge up the battery over a few minutes to the point where it might be able to provide enough current to crank.
 
Project Farm on Youtube has done his tests on portable jump starters.

I have a DBpower jump starter (mine is 800Amp) and has worked well for me. a car with a dead alternator will eat it up, even a larger one used by AAA.

Right now on Amazon, the price is really good, $55 and change with Prime (while the offer lasts)

https://www.amazon.com/DBPOWER-Port...KSSB8,B08NDLLH93,B08M41FX48&srpt=JUMP_STARTER

The super capacitor ones have been tested on Project Farm and found to be under performing
 
dogememe said:
Very happy with my Schumacher SL1396. I have the older version with Micro-USB... the newer one is Type-C which is cool.

I did a test on a 2001 Suburban 5.3 and left the key on with blower motor on full blast for a few hours to completely drain the battery. The SL1396 started it up like it was nothing. Cranked just as good as the group 78 AGM battery in the truck haha. I then shut the truck off and did the same thing a few more times. Had 70-something % left on the jump starter.

Since then I've used it on many other vehicles with various engine sizes, even larger SUVs with V8s. Never on a diesel but I might try it on a buddy's Powerstroke 7.3 just to see what happens.

I'm sure the internals of the SL1396 are similar to the billion other brands and models of these small lithium-ion jump starters. Definitely superior to the big ole SLA booster packs of the past that are 10x bigger, heavy, and can barely start a four cylinder gasser lol.
Click to expand...

The old style still works, but it's clunky. Mine stopped working well after 12 years or so. That was basically just putting in another battery in parallel, and the jump starter battery had to be able to provide the current. These lithium batteries can't really provide that much current. They need electronics to do that.
 
They don't have many Ah of capacity but LIFePo4 batteries can provide a significant punch for 5 seconds at a time.
 
I bought on when radio shack closed down here. It worked good then one day it blew up when I tried to jump a jeep. I got it warrantied and that one also blew up. I figured that I might not get a 3Rd chance @ life and got rid of it.
 
MasterSolenoid said:
I recently joined the 21st Century and bought one / hung the Jumper cables in backyard shed.

I like the idea of NOT needing a donor vehicle for a jump-start.
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Me too but I left the jumper cables right where they were just in case.

I have one in each vehicle, in my truck (5.7) is a Gooloo that is 2000A and says it can do 10L gas and 7L diesel, haven't tried this one yet. In the Lucerne I have a Beatit that says 1200A and will do 8L gas and 6L diesel, I have used this one on a co workers V6 and it spun it over pretty good, I was impressed.
 
I have the autowit supercap and have used it twice. once to start a 2012 minivan that started right up no problem. the other was a '98 jeep GC V8 and that I had to do it 3 times, but the beauty of the supercap it will just charge itself from the dead battery so you have many attempts at it. I also tried to start my old riding mower with it and that didn't work too well due to the mower needed to crank for a while to start and has a tendency to hydro lock the cylinder with fuel when it sits for a while making it nearly impossible to crank (hence the dead battery).
 
I got a micro start from Amazon a few years ago. I've used it to start my little diesel garden tractor, co workers cars with dead batteries and my Mom's f250 gasser when she left the door slightly open all weekend. It worked with no problems on all of these. The f250 was pretty dead and I was prepared to use regular jumper cables. I like that it is mostly idiot proof and it holds a charge much longer than my old lead acid jump starter.
 
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