Portable Battery Booster

How effective are the portable battery boosters versus traditional cables? Any booster recommendations? Amazon has a ton of options. Which one?

 

They work fine, but the lithium battery ones are a fire hazard if you leave them in a hot car. I had one that puffed up real badly, lucky nothing happened. I'm sticking with cables and a AAA membership for now.

 

I think both have their place. Booster is great because you don't need another car but need to remember to keep it charged. I've had one made by liftmaster (garage door people) for 10 years and still works great. I've been able to jump my completely dead Cobra with it and that's a supercharged V8.

 

I keep one in each truck. Both are the Gooloo brand; a 1500a and a 1200a. They come in handy! Back in January I was moving and it was a bitter cold week. The UHaul I rented the battery was not adequate in single digit mornings and I used the 1500a one several times to get it going. Battery on the jump pack barely ran down.


EDIT:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08V8BLJLL?ie=UTF8

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B092M62DG1?ie=UTF8

 

Friggin' great. They can jump an engine easily without dealing with cables or getting two vehicles close enough and all that BS.

Beyond that, they make great power supplies for charging devices or lighting up stuff.

We have one in each vehicle. My daughter was able to help jump a friend with no problem.

 

I have a Hulkman that I got from Amazon along with a case. It stays behind the rear seat of my truck and I check it every couple of months to make sure it's charged. Back in February the starting battery in my wife's Prius died, and the unit started it twice with no issues. I keep the Hulkman and a Makita tire inflator in the truck at all times.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08M41FX48?ie=UTF8

 

I've got one of these in my truck (under the rear seats) and the wife's car (trunk.) Came in handy quite a few times. I live in Phoenix and haven't had any problem with the heat.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015TKUPIC?ie=UTF8

 

If they are effective this would be great. Tired of the large battery boxes for sure

 

They are nice enough that after a year of non-use I'm thinking of removing the jumper cables from the truck.

Actually by sheer coincidence I took my jump pack out and verified the charge this morning. Still full after my last use 3 months ago. Ran the flashlight for 3 hours, charged it back up in one, and I just now put it back in the truck.


They are my go-to for jumping others. The last person I jumped on cables insisted that he hook them up to his car, and he had to take gentle corrections on how to hook them up properly before I would even approach my truck with my end. Then after his engine turned over I had to race him to the cables to make sure my end was unhooked first. It's amazing how people work hard to do it the wrong way, and will endanger yourself and your possessions to do so. I don't think it was even out of spite or pride, but just out of a human's remarkable ability to miscommunicate.

Using the jump-pack was night and day. I hooked up the stranded person's car, didn't even pop my hood. Even on a frost covered morning, his car started right up. That was enough to convince me to put one in every car, and convince work to start carrying them in the company vehicles.

I use the Noco brand. They seem to be quality.

 

Project Farm has some great test videos on them.. here ya go.
https://youtu.be/JN8A2nIMUWA

https://youtu.be/ixWPx79g3yk

 

Great! Looks like I will be adding to my Amazon cart here soon!

 

My first pack will very slowly drain over time. It's 20,000mAh and has two USB A and one USB C outlet. So, it will be sticking around. The two TackLife ones that I have in the other cars have less capacity, but dang, they always report 100% when checked every 6mo or so.

 

I love the three I have. I keep a NOCO GB150 in my truck and a GB40 in my wife’s car and my work car. Never had any issues with any of them. Plenty of jumps on them from small cars to big forklifts and trucks at work haha. Also got bolt on cables for my wife’s car so she just plugs it on to the battery and doesn’t have to mess with the clips. very effective.

 

The NOCO Boost is awesome. Used it out in MOAB when I was solo-wheeling. It's also come in handy for charging phones and other electronics that died along the trip.

 

I have tried several and continue to keep one in all my cars but I have liked the Antigravity Batteries the best. They have come in handy to not only jump start vehicles but I've used it to charge my phone on long camping trips away from power sources even used it as an occasional flash light when needed.

I will add that I think many of the companies that make these are lying about their peak amps and performance overall. My advice is to do a little research and buy a quality brand. I keep the microstart heavy duty XP-10-HD by Antigravity Batteries in my Tacoma.

 

I can't speak for all that are out there, but the ones that I have were pretty easy to verify. For capacity, just see how many times that you can recharge a known capacity, like a cell phone. I could get five good hits out of mine. For peak power, if it can turn over the rated engine, or the biggest, cold engine that folks have at home, I'd say that the job is done. Mine is rated for a large V8, but since the biggest engine that I tried it on was our V6 completely flat and cold, that is good enough for me.

Of course, all of this means giving it a test before you need it or at least trusting it close to home before you trust it remotely.

 

Went away from the battery packs to capacitor based because of no brainer, no maintenance:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B086L29DL9?ie=UTF8

Already have juice in various devices. Just use the juice from anything to load it up. Verified bailout last summer.

 

I have the Noco GB40..OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE!!!!
$98 on Amazon as I type this.

 

As the man says. I went with the Audew 2000.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN8A2nIMUWA

 

I keep one in each vehicle and ditched the heavy jumper cables. The electronics are so sensitive now, I don't want to risk connecting batteries.