Here's a cheaper one. BTW they are small enough to fit in your coat pocket.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Portable-Ca...658540?hash=item2a54a3f86c:g:WJsAAOSwyQtVrNtY

 

Try it when your car has been sitting all nite, at 10 below zero F.

 

I have one of these.

I have an SLA based booster for each of my vehicles and, having already replaced two with worn out batteries, I'm tempted to give this a try. Being smaller makes it more convenient to share; but I'm a little suspicious of the current capacity of the jumper cable. Seems too small to carry 200-400 amps; even for the time it takes to start...

 

Previously, I wondered about the CCA specs and how they compared to AH specs.

What I found out was CCA was a 30 second time period.

Since it is Cold Cranking Amperes, temperature is a factor.

Those battery packs rarely are above 10 aH batteries, from what I've seen.

 

I am currently looking for a mini jump starter for my bike and I was thinking about Bolt Power D28. Anyone had experience with this one?

 

Yeah I believe they are strong enough and reviews say good stuff about them.

 

Just a little tip for those boosting other vehicles with your own or vice versa. When you connect the jumpers, make sure good vehicle is shut off. Attempt to start the dead vehicle. If it does not start, oh well. If you want to run the good vehicle for a while to charge the dead behicles battery somewhat, you run the risk of overworking your alternator. If you start the dead vehicle while good vehicle is running, now you are placing the demand of two vehicles on one alternator. Say goodbye to it and thank it for its service. Any time you start z vehicle on a dead battery, you will overwork the alternator. If it is sulphated, even worse.
As for the new lithium titanate booster cells, they are strong enough to start a class 8 diesel truck and a very impressive little piece of equipment. They should be okay for deep cycling just as they are in hybrid vehicles.

 

Just a little tip for those boosting other vehicles with your own or vice versa. When you connect the jumpers, make sure good vehicle is shut off. Attempt to start the dead vehicle. If it does not start, oh well. If you want to run the good vehicle for a while to charge the dead behicles battery somewhat, you run the risk of overworking your alternator. If you start the dead vehicle while good vehicle is running, now you are placing the demand of two vehicles on one alternator. Say goodbye to it and thank it for its service. Any time you start z vehicle on a dead battery, you will overwork the alternator.

What kind of crappy vehicles do you drive?

All mine have properly designed and built alternators that have survived that sort of direct abuse for years.

 

What kind of crappy vehicles do you drive?

All mine have properly designed and built alternators that have survived that sort of direct abuse for years.

First of all, I don't drive crappy vehicles. Secondly, why do you feel the need to belittle people? Does it make you feel better about yourself? Thirdly, having been an alternator and starter rebuilder for a number of years and over 37 years as an auto electrician, I think I may be a little more qualified than you to comment on alternator behaviour. Alternators are very well designed and built, but they are nor made to be battery chargers. When you max out an alternator, they overheat and diode and stator failure occcur. I have heard and seen countless stories about this very incident.
If you don't have anything but sarcasm to offer, keep it to yourself because there is no value in your comment.

 

having been an alternator and starter rebuilder for a number of years and over 37 years as an auto electrician, I think I may be a little more qualified than you to comment on alternator behaviour.

Well, I've been rebuilding and modifying them to custom applications for ~25 years and have no reason to feel that any decent properly made ones can't handle that sort of service work being I have personally seen many put in applications where they were running flat out non stop at 100% of their capacity, many putting out above their actual stock ratings too, for days at a time.

In my books an alternator is exactly a battery charger! That's it primary purpose, to recharge the battery and keep it charged and many of the newest verison have purpose built smart regulator system that are specifically designed for optimal battery charging purposes.

So as I said. If they are properly built they have no issue with such service work. Now the over priced cheap crap they put on many vehicles today well, they're junk and every knowledgeable self respecting rebuilder knows it.

Maybe you have been building low quality over priced junk all these years and didn't know it. Not my problem if you dd but I bet you customers would have liked to have known about it.

 

I can tell from this post and some of your others that you are a piece of work. You don't even know me and you attack me personally twice. You know, I usually like to think that forums are a place where one goes to find or share information, not sit behind a facelss keyboard and attack people for no reason. I can tell you are of the highest caliber when it comes to technicians, and apparently do everything right and know everything there is to know. I have met you many times before, just with a different name and face. You win my friend, keep educating the masses with your brilliance. Merry Christmas.

 

I always (or I did) keep my engine idling when jumping. And that was the only thing I paid attention to....was my engine idling.

When the jumpie cranks his engine.......if the sound of my idle drops a lot.......I will stop the process and have him wait awhile for my car to charge his up. And then allow continuous cranking........until I could hear a heavy load again.

Some jumpies don't want to quit cranking. So keep one ear to your engine and one hand on jumper clamp.

 

Disagreement does equate to belittling\bullying.

Playing the victim card is not a rebuttal.

Exactly and thank you.

I meant no direct attack on anyone anywhere at any time. Snowflakes tend to have a hard time with disagreement and take it personally when it doesn't need to be.

Simply, my life experiences have shown me that not all devices are created equal and by and large way too many people equate price with quality despite the reality being near opposite of it. That nad many who may very well have worked with something for a lifetime may not necessarily be anywhere near the all knowing experts they think they are.

Believe me, I have been around enough licensed contractors and certified mechanics and such with decades of experience who didn't know squat to say that thanks to them I have made and still do make a fair percentage of my life income fixing their mistakes that to me many are bonehead obvious faults that they missed simply because they don't know the details of how the things they work on for a living actually operate beyond a very basic class triand limit.

As for jump starting off of vehicles, I know many new vehicles come with warnings no to now because they will burn their alternators out in a minute or two and a new one will set you back several hundred dollars or more. I don't drive those types of overpriced over engineered under built crap made vehicles. What I do drive has reasonably well designed and built components that don't have an issue with suich action now and then but to be fair they would not stand up to the applications I have seen full on commercial units handle like reference to earlier about running flat out for literal days at a time without failing.

So from my experience any alternator that costs several hundred of dollars that can't do a basic jump start without damaging itself is overpriced under built junk and likely a fair representation the vehicle it's in as well. Price be damned , you own an expensive fancy looking shit mobile just the same!
Especially so when I know from experience that I can buy a brand new commercial grade alternator that has equal to greater output ratings and 100% full power duty cycle capacity for the same of likely less and probably from the same brand of alternator manufacture at that and likely in a similar sized fame spec to top it all off!

 

First of all, not playing any victim card, not in my personality. Just stating facts.
As for price and quality and offshore components and whatnot, totally agree that failure is imminent. I too can build a "commercial" alternator that will run all day, every day at 100% output and not blink an eye. Unfortunately, we are dealing with the masses on this forum and most people don' t have commercial grade alternators on their vehicles. So with that being said, I will stick with my initial post. There is the distinct possibilty that you an cook a regular every day alternator by jumping another vehicle, and I have rebuilt many of them with the stories to go with them. When I say I was a rebuilder, I mean just that. That was my business and livelihood for quite a few years.
You say that there was no direct attack, and I call BS.
Snowflake.

 

I realize this is an old post, but I have some relevant information to add.

I received a Winplus Li-ion jump starter from Costco as a gift. The performance of that unit has been abysmal.

I bought my Wife a Viking unit from Harbor Freight a week ago. I tried using it to start an Explorer with a 3.5 liter engine and a completely dead battery. The Viking unit was able to start the engine, but it took three attempts. After the engine started, the unit's battery gauge indicated 100% charge. The instructions recommend charging after each use, so I did.

The Winplus unit couldn't manage more than clicks. After 3 attempts, battery level was down to 25%.

I charged both units overnight and tried again this morning. The Winplus couldn't manage more than clicks and I gave up after 3 attempts; battery level was down to 50%. The Viking unit started the engine after 2 tries; battery level was still at 100%.

What changed between yesterday and today is that I had the car battery on a charger for 3 hours (and still couldn't start).

A trip to Harbor Freight is in my future because I've been carrying that wimpy Winplus unit in my car for a few years and having a false sense of security. Winplus is 0 for 3, Viking is 2 for 2.

The Winplus unit will be relegated to duty as a flashlight and phone charging device...