My daughter got a car starter kit with a cigarette lighter plug for free, but she has to write a product review on it and asks me to test it. I have two cars with healthy batteries. Any suggestions on how to fake a dead battery to test this starter kit? Thanks.
Suggestions on testing a starter kit thru cig ligh
- Thread starter sifan
- Start date
- Status
Originally Posted By: sifan
My daughter got a car starter kit with a cigarette lighter plug for free, but she has to write a product review on it and asks me to test it. I have two cars with healthy batteries. Any suggestions on how to fake a dead battery to test this starter kit? Thanks.
Just write a fake review, it's not worth it. The fuse on a cig lighter is probably just 15 amps or so, you can't really get enough juice through the cig lighter to start the car without a battery. All it does is give the dead battery a little bit of a charge. I wouldn't run down your battery to test it because that will just kill your battery earlier. If you had a junkyard battery, then maybe you can swap it, but they usually want at least $25-$30 for a junkyard battery and it's not worth it to test a $10 device.
My daughter got a car starter kit with a cigarette lighter plug for free, but she has to write a product review on it and asks me to test it. I have two cars with healthy batteries. Any suggestions on how to fake a dead battery to test this starter kit? Thanks.
Just write a fake review, it's not worth it. The fuse on a cig lighter is probably just 15 amps or so, you can't really get enough juice through the cig lighter to start the car without a battery. All it does is give the dead battery a little bit of a charge. I wouldn't run down your battery to test it because that will just kill your battery earlier. If you had a junkyard battery, then maybe you can swap it, but they usually want at least $25-$30 for a junkyard battery and it's not worth it to test a $10 device.
Well, such a thing can't transfer many amps; it'd be a slow charge. Not only that but the fuse in the cig lighter, plus the drop in the typically small-ish gauge wiring is going to further hurt results.
If I really wanted to test: I'd remove both batteries and find an active load (or a good power supply) to simulate a 10V or so battery. Then apply 13.8V, and measure how much current goes through. I might go out on a limb and crank up the volts to see when I hit 10A also.
Want to say most car batteries are 40-50 amp-hours, so to bring up a battery to cranking state may require an hour plus of time.
Unfortunately none of that makes for a good review. Have her write something to the effect that installing this device in the trunk has given her confidence to stray far from home, knowing that, if ever stranded by a dead battery, she could jump start without having to touch the car hood. A normally very-complex jumping procedure is slashed to a trivial exercise for the non-carphile.
If I really wanted to test: I'd remove both batteries and find an active load (or a good power supply) to simulate a 10V or so battery. Then apply 13.8V, and measure how much current goes through. I might go out on a limb and crank up the volts to see when I hit 10A also.
Want to say most car batteries are 40-50 amp-hours, so to bring up a battery to cranking state may require an hour plus of time.
Unfortunately none of that makes for a good review. Have her write something to the effect that installing this device in the trunk has given her confidence to stray far from home, knowing that, if ever stranded by a dead battery, she could jump start without having to touch the car hood. A normally very-complex jumping procedure is slashed to a trivial exercise for the non-carphile.
Find the fuse for your lighter and you will see how many amps it can handle. Probably not that many. Are there actually lighters in some cars these days or just the outlet with a cover?
I think they are not worth the trouble. Decent jumper cables or a jump-pack.
I think they are not worth the trouble. Decent jumper cables or a jump-pack.
Old scammy product that does not work.
Originally Posted By: DoubleWasp
Old scammy product that does not work.
They do work, they will just take a long time. I think it depends how run down the battery is. With such a low current, it might take 15-30 minutes. If it were really dead, it could take 3-4 hours to charge up the battery. You'd have to leave the other car running all the time to have a high enough voltage to charge the other battery. Also the cig lighter has to be on when the car is off, mine is actually off when you turn off the ignition. Battery won't charge in that case.
Old scammy product that does not work.
They do work, they will just take a long time. I think it depends how run down the battery is. With such a low current, it might take 15-30 minutes. If it were really dead, it could take 3-4 hours to charge up the battery. You'd have to leave the other car running all the time to have a high enough voltage to charge the other battery. Also the cig lighter has to be on when the car is off, mine is actually off when you turn off the ignition. Battery won't charge in that case.
Hmmm...... I don't want to ruine any car batteries especially one of them being an very expensive Odyssey battery.
Will this device burn the fuse of the cigarette lighter of the car that is doing the charging?
Will this device burn the fuse of the cigarette lighter of the car that is doing the charging?
Originally Posted By: sifan
Hmmm...... I don't want to ruine any car batteries especially one of them being an very expensive Odyssey battery.
Will this device burn the fuse of the cigarette lighter of the car that is doing the charging?
If you have the proper charger to bring the Odyssey back to full then draining it to the point where it won't start the car won't hurt it as long as you charge it after the test is done. They are made to be deep cycled.
Hmmm...... I don't want to ruine any car batteries especially one of them being an very expensive Odyssey battery.
Will this device burn the fuse of the cigarette lighter of the car that is doing the charging?
If you have the proper charger to bring the Odyssey back to full then draining it to the point where it won't start the car won't hurt it as long as you charge it after the test is done. They are made to be deep cycled.
I don't think you should you should fall for the psych trap to do work for them.
If the order were switched and instead of giving you the thing free first, they did it in order and said you need to do x,y,z and then we'll give you this thing for free, would you still do it?
If the answer is no, then you are wasting your time and you got tricked into doing a product review that you actually wouldn't want to do.
If the order were switched and instead of giving you the thing free first, they did it in order and said you need to do x,y,z and then we'll give you this thing for free, would you still do it?
If the answer is no, then you are wasting your time and you got tricked into doing a product review that you actually wouldn't want to do.
Originally Posted By: 901Memphis
Originally Posted By: sifan
Hmmm...... I don't want to ruine any car batteries especially one of them being an very expensive Odyssey battery.
Will this device burn the fuse of the cigarette lighter of the car that is doing the charging?
If you have the proper charger to bring the Odyssey back to full then draining it to the point where it won't start the car won't hurt it as long as you charge it after the test is done. They are made to be deep cycled.
There's still a limit to the number of cycles a battery can take and he will shorten the life of the battery by giving it an extra cycle. The life of them is rated at 3-10 years and about 400 cycles. It's a pointless experiment for a dubious product that's not worth much to begin with.
Originally Posted By: sifan
Hmmm...... I don't want to ruine any car batteries especially one of them being an very expensive Odyssey battery.
Will this device burn the fuse of the cigarette lighter of the car that is doing the charging?
If you have the proper charger to bring the Odyssey back to full then draining it to the point where it won't start the car won't hurt it as long as you charge it after the test is done. They are made to be deep cycled.
There's still a limit to the number of cycles a battery can take and he will shorten the life of the battery by giving it an extra cycle. The life of them is rated at 3-10 years and about 400 cycles. It's a pointless experiment for a dubious product that's not worth much to begin with.
The ones that I have seen before work from one working car to another dead car which means it's basically a battery charger so after some time the battery would have enough energy to start.
As stated, ciggy plug receptacles cannot handle much in the way of amperage. VERY poor electrical connectors.
But they are usually OK for 60 watts powering things.
But if charging current is to be run through it the voltage drop will be a considerable.
Is the ciggy plug even live with ignition off on the vehicle whose battery is depleted? If set to ACCessory, what it the parasitic draw on the car, could the ciggy plug charger overcome this?
Such a device might be enough to help start a car whose own battery is just barely below the level needed to start the engine.
It is obviously marketed towards those who get confused easily, and like to use such technical terms as thingamajiggy, followed by a feminist rant condemning testosterone and anybody who harbors it.
Note that discharging a good battery just to test this device is an insult to a good battery. A proper recharge of a deeply depleted odyssey AGM is a 40% charge rate( 40 amps per 100Ah of capacity) until 14.7v is reached at battery terminals. Hold 14.7 for 4 hours afterwards or until amps required to maintain 14.7( at 77f) taper to 0.5% of capacity( 0.5 amps per 100ah of capacity).
Your alternator would not do this even if driving for 6 hours, and this less than ideal recharge would diminish battery life and performance to some degree.
But they are usually OK for 60 watts powering things.
But if charging current is to be run through it the voltage drop will be a considerable.
Is the ciggy plug even live with ignition off on the vehicle whose battery is depleted? If set to ACCessory, what it the parasitic draw on the car, could the ciggy plug charger overcome this?
Such a device might be enough to help start a car whose own battery is just barely below the level needed to start the engine.
It is obviously marketed towards those who get confused easily, and like to use such technical terms as thingamajiggy, followed by a feminist rant condemning testosterone and anybody who harbors it.
Note that discharging a good battery just to test this device is an insult to a good battery. A proper recharge of a deeply depleted odyssey AGM is a 40% charge rate( 40 amps per 100Ah of capacity) until 14.7v is reached at battery terminals. Hold 14.7 for 4 hours afterwards or until amps required to maintain 14.7( at 77f) taper to 0.5% of capacity( 0.5 amps per 100ah of capacity).
Your alternator would not do this even if driving for 6 hours, and this less than ideal recharge would diminish battery life and performance to some degree.
- Status
