[Aquanuke]

Hi can anyone recommend a good power pack to jump start my car. I dont use my cars much and get flat battery far to often. Needs to be able to handle a 4.6 RR and a 4.3 Lexus. Also might need to occasionaly jump 6.8 litre Bentley, but not going to pay crazy money for something thats speced for that size engine.

My RAC one went up in a puff of smoke today, but was not much cop to be honest

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/p ... %3ERAC.htm

 

[RRToadHall]

I have had my Black and Decker 450 for almost 3 years now. It has jumped many a rig including my 6.8L WraithII. It also includes a slow, but capable inflator used for air matresses and bike tyres on many a camping trip. I have drained on a few of those camping trips watching videos on laptop.

I am not sure about availability in your neck of the woods, but I am happy with mine. THen again I only paid $35 at the B&D outlet store! :thumb:

http://www.google.com/products/catalog? ... sa=title#p

 

[Chas]

Firstly, it is good to hear of someone with happy practical experience of these things. Perhaps I have always failed to invest enough money in the ones I've tried.
Google 'Black and Decker 450 Amp', as you are searching in the UK you will get UK results. Including the word Amp avoids all the 450 Watt hedge trimmers, etc.
Seems you will pay 60 to 70 UK Pounds for one.
I did pick up one US Ebay advert, for $85, so the $35 purchase sounds good value for money.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0106974263

The heart of these things has to be the battery, which in this case is 19Ah, if anyone starts making comparisons with other makes. The other 'gotcha' I've found is the ones that cannot themselves be left on mains charge for an indefinite length of time. I know that when in the car they won't be charged, but when back in the Garage or Home, having to recharge for only 2 hours, or 4 hours, or whatever, is a right pain. It seems I rarely remember, so the battery is always damaged through overcharging, or the charger melts!

I can see there is always a case for a portable power supply, but for cars in occasional use, as in this instance, I think the technically better answer would be the sort of battery charger or maintainer that can be left across the battery all the time. Trouble is, you need at least two, and some of them seem to cost as much as the B&D power pack.

Good Luck in your search.

 

[waveydavey]

The principle on battery chargers is quite simple:

The more you pay the more amps you get from it and the faster you charge.

A small cheapo Halfords one will always charge it and get it going but will take longer.

Pay a load you get more amps and it charges dead fast to start quickly.

 

[Chris X]

I agree that perhaps you may want to invest in a trickle charger like a Battery Tender or Battery Tender Jr. Or even one of the solar type versions that plug into your cig lighter and maintain a battery charge. Another option is a disconnect terminal on the battery, you can manually switch the connection off - however that does come with the downside of having to re-set everything all the time and no alarm system in some cases.

What you want to avoid is the recurring drainage of your battery over and over, this will shorten the battery life considerably, even a high quality AGM battery. You may want to look at a deep cycle battery like a Deka or Optima as well.

Now if you still want a booster pack/jump starter, they seem to have come down in price and have more features than they used to. I have an Autocraft pack that I've been using for 5 years - mostly on 4 wheelers and Jeeps and the odd camping trip. Works great. You do get what you pay for with these, so if you are going to use it a lot, I would go for a high quality name brand.

 

[Blue58]

I bought a "PowerStation" jumpstart and portable power source from Costco for £58 yesterday Dec. 27th. Got home and charged it up for about 2hrs and jumpstarted my 4.6ltr., which had a flat battery from being parked for the last 3 weeks. Car started within seconds.

Specs inc.
22Ah battery,
Starting Amps/peak amps: 400/1000,
Clamps: 400Amp H.D. insulated.

Hope that helps.

 

[Chas]

Do you have a model or stock number at all?
Googling 'Costco Powerstation' only brought up USA responses, and the item found was no longer available.

 

[Blue58]

The model No. is: PS5000EU. They have a couple of pallet loads @ Chingford, Nth. London. Very unlikely to have sold out in the past 48 hrs.

Costco, Chingford, E4 8GP tel. 0208 501 9305

 

[Blue58]

Chas

Try Costco Birmingham B7 5SA 0121 326 3505

 

[Aquanuke]

As my Range rover sits outside I cant use a Deltran. Has anyone had any experience of these solar powered trickle charges like

http://www.theultimatefinish.co.uk/sola ... panel.aspx

Are they safe to use regularly etc

I just bought a Deltran tender 800 for my other car thats garaged and I also got a Ring RPP210 40Ah.

 

[Brett San Diego]

As my Range rover sits outside I cant use a Deltran. Has anyone had any experience of these solar powered trickle charges like

http://www.theultimatefinish.co.uk/sola ... panel.aspx

Are they safe to use regularly etc

I just bought a Deltran tender 800 for my other car thats garaged and I also got a Ring RPP210 40Ah.

With a little extra effort, I think you could find room to permanently mount a battery maintainer under the bonnet and run an extension cord to your Range Rover whenever parked... unless its parking spot is really far from the nearest power outlet.

Brett

 

[Aquanuke]

With a little extra effort, I think you could find room to permanently mount a battery maintainer under the bonnet and run an extension cord to your Range Rover whenever parked... unless its parking spot is really far from the nearest power outlet.

Brett

Thanks, thats not a bad idea. Is do able. So far Ive ordered one of each a ring power pack, a Deltran and a Sealey solar panel. I kind of figured the solar panel would be useful in remote locations like at an airport car park etc so for £25 might as well try one. Should be the end of my woes :thumb:

 

[scimitargtc]

SOLAR chargers are in reality in the UK at least not that effective - most of the dash mounted ones kick out a max of around 500ma in full daylight hardly enough to make any difference - the suitcase one listed @ 4W at 18v (not 12V) is therefore .2 amps in full sunlight - to be honest from my experience of using them on my daughters cctv stable batteries you'd need to cover the whole roof of the car to make it worthwhile then you're going to need a regulator to prevent overcharging if you're lucky enough to have really good sunlight - personal recommendation is an intelligent trickle charger wired so you can quick attach/release with the minimum of fuss or hassle

 

[Aquanuke]

Yes I cant imagine its going to make a big difference. The one I got states "Sealey 12v Solar Panel Trickle Battery Charger 1.5w Per Hour"

What im hoping is it will produce enough to stop the battery going so flat that the jump starter wont work. I think all power packs wont work if the battery is too low. Im pretty sure thats what happened with my old jump starter and then trying to keep cranking it caused it to die.

Its not funny having 2-3 cars all dead when you trying to go somewhere, otherwise Id have keep a 1.0 litre fiesta to jump start them

 

[Aquanuke]

btw (as this was mention earlier) I already fitted a battery disconect terminal last year. But was not helpfull as could not lock the car and everytime I used the switch it made the alarm go off. Car did not like it one bit.