Ive been seeing more and more of these Miniature jump start battery's popping up. It seams like with the lack of extra room in a lot of our cars it might be a good idea too have one stuffed in the ride somewhere? I was just curious what the feed back was on these small chargers? Any first hand experience with them? Any preference on brand names, features, etc.?
I got one this summer. never needed it to jump start a car though. what's nice about it is, it fits under the seat and has multiple phone charging adapters to charge any cell phone, or run a laptop. use it all the time to keep the cell phone charged. it recharges from a wall adapter in about 45 minutes. great for boats, or camping, very compact. take it on every road trip. paid about $100.00 from a local tool distributor.
Battery technology has been amongst the slowest to surface, (high tech has been achieved, but took forever to 'trickle down' to availability to the great unwashed...) It's uncanny how small these systems are, yet will jump start a "Bus"! (like the bus cranks harder than a 'big rig'...) Still, I'm impressed. But: Wonder if they 'heat up' when in use, like some of the batteries in early cell phones...
Friend of mine bought one but I haven't heard any good or bad from him yet. Think he got his from the Snap-on man, not positive. I was impressed with the tiny size and multi-functionality. Time will tell.
I ran across them when trying to find a lite weight power source to run a total loss system using 4 LED lights on my dirt bike. I called the company above and was un impressd with their product knowledge. I'm trying to figure out how long I can run a group of 4 led's that draw 1.1 amps. If I got good info from their employee he is saying that the 12 volt outlet is rated at 8 amps and 18000mah. I think that computes out to 18ah? I am very curious as to what your individual experience is with this cool little gismos...
when people hear its a diesel they assume its the same size as a semi ( 11-16 liters) , not a 5.7-9 liter like they use in pickups and rvs . and the busses they pull the battery pack ( 6-12 batterys ) out the side and many people do not know only 2 battery s are used to crank the motor the others are used for lighting and HVac when the bus goes to idle when it stops to help take the load off the alternator . a freind of mine works for a DOE sponsored lab and they are actually using a Li- ion battery pack thats the size and weight of one battery to do the job of the 3 for semis , the only problem is they have to use a special charger to recharge it and the weight of the invertor combined with the cost and complexity of everything ( as the battery has to be cooled as its being discharged /recharged ) doesn't make it economical or useful yet . this guy uses a Li ion battery from a old medical unit ( power source for life support incase of grid power failure) in his car and it starts it real quick ( and we pulled the plugs on the car ( Ford Taurus SVO ) and it will pull the car in 2nd gear without a quick failure or getting hot for about a mile or more ) , but he has to have the special invertor charger to recharge it and the battery if he bought it new would be around $1500 , he buys the batteries for scrap value and that is still $50-100 ea , give it a few years and the industry will be up to snuff . the charging of the li-ions are the hardest part and thats were the problems exist at . and they are also experimenting with other cheaper materials too . but so far the problems with them are weight . and size .
The Jalopy Journal
