Powerstation 1200 Amp

Submitted: Saturday, Aug 12, 2017 at 14:13
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I purchased one of these on Friday and it states on the manual it is recomended that they are left on 240 v I do not understand the deep inside workings of a battery and my dear darling wife is not happy with this , how can I explain this to her in ways she can understand , from what I gather it lasts longer and there is a saftey device from over charging so it is safe

some information on what I got on special for $150 in Broken Hill auto parts

The new range of 'Battery Link' Powerstations are designed to jump start selected petrol & diesel engines and for powering 12 volt devices. The two stage charging system allows for permanent connection to 240V AC power for recharging

22 Amp Hour Sealed Lead Acid Maintenance Free Rechargeable Battery

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Reply By: RMD - Saturday, Aug 12, 2017 at 15:44

Saturday, Aug 12, 2017 at 15:44
A 20ah gel cell or sealed lead acid battery cannot deliver 1200 amps to the jumper leads, nowhere near it.
It may assist in starting a car with a battery a bit to flat to start itself if a few more amps are available from the unit at the battery clips. 1200 amps? NO.
Because it is a lead acid battery and many times charges are designed to be on 240v all the time because the circuitry monitors the battery condition/voltage.
Unless you need to have it on ALL the time I would not do that, because the battery and charger and box it is in, is a similar price to a small dedicated charger only. Possibly the circuit may turn down the charge rate, but it will be less technical than than purpose built chargers. Therefore trust in the sales pitch has to be strong to leave it on all the time.
After it is charged, why not run it on a timer for a 1 hr a day if need be and it will be ready for use when required.

When you say it was on special, was that a genuine new stock ON SPECIAL or older stock on special to move it out of the store?
A unit which has been on the shelf for a while, ie, many months will mean they haven't charged it and the lead acid battery may be damaged/stuffed because of sitting with low charge for a long time. If damaged internally, ie sulphated, no amount of charge will restore a dud battery.
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Follow Up By: allein m - Saturday, Aug 12, 2017 at 18:47

Saturday, Aug 12, 2017 at 18:47
new stock ON SPECIAL
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Reply By: The Bantam - Saturday, Aug 12, 2017 at 18:02

Saturday, Aug 12, 2017 at 18:02
Yeh . .... a 22AH Sealed Lead Acid is MIGHT, produce 1200 amps short circuit for a very very short time( may be a millisecond), but I ain't going to come anywhere near 1200 cranking amps.

BUT .... they will jump start a small car ..... seen it done ..... but ya only gona get one shot and not much cranking.

Most small car starter motors have a stall current around 100 to 120 amps .... and probably spin the motor at around 50 to 80 amps. ..... within the capability of a healthy fully charged 22AH battery.

As for the charger ...... yeh they are calling it a two stage charger ... it will be a simple voltage regulated, current limited charger ..... perhaps bassed on a common 3 terminal regulator.

That means that it will be regulated at 13.8V or there abouts and current limited at 1.5 amps or something.

In the early stage of charge it current limits ( thus the voltage drops), until the state of charge rises then it will float charge at the nominated voltage.

Nothing special nothing staggering.

But if left uncharged, the battery will self discharge over time.

If you don't want to leave it on charge all the time, put it on charge overnight once a week.

cheers
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Follow Up By: Nomadic Navara - Saturday, Aug 12, 2017 at 18:27

Saturday, Aug 12, 2017 at 18:27
I think its claim of a CCA of 300 A is more indication of its capability.
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Follow Up By: Zippo - Saturday, Aug 12, 2017 at 19:57

Saturday, Aug 12, 2017 at 19:57
They actually deliver a lot more than "ya only gona get one shot and not much cranking." I have one with a 17Ah battery which did 7 starts within about 10 minutes. One was a particularly difficult 3 litre Jap turbo machine that hadn't fired in over a year, and we needed to move it. The on-board battery didn't help, but we hoped it would keep it running once started. Nope, several times when the brake lights lit, it died and needed a re-jump. Never a problem, as I said 7 starts.

They aren't the b-all and end-all, but they DO deliver.
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Follow Up By: The Bantam - Sunday, Aug 13, 2017 at 10:09

Sunday, Aug 13, 2017 at 10:09
yeh depends on what you call a start ....... I've tried to jump start vehicles that simply would not go ..not even with an N70 and an alternator running.

On the other hand I can start my 60Hp two stroke if it's been started recently.

Hell I know a bloke who claims to have started his L300 with a 7Ah alarm battery.

cheers
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Follow Up By: Ron N - Sunday, Aug 13, 2017 at 10:24

Sunday, Aug 13, 2017 at 10:24
Yeah, I know a bloke who reckons his car is so well-tuned, he only just looked at it sideways, and it jump started itself! [;-)

Cheers, Ron.
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Follow Up By: Zippo - Sunday, Aug 13, 2017 at 11:30

Sunday, Aug 13, 2017 at 11:30
Well Bantam, despite your cynicism I'll elaborate on what I call a start.

92 Supra with 3-litre 7MGTE, battery absolutely shot as the car hadn't been started in over a year. Even when it was his daily it was quite an episode to start it. When he had to move house, I was tasked with getting it out of there. Left the "900A" Projecta (17Ah) connected for over 30 secs before the immobiliser saw enough volts to permit anything, then cranked for another 20 before it fired and died. Recranked and it held up on the alternator. Drove it out of the drive and it died when braked at the road. Jumped again. Died at the stop sign. Jumped again. Died at the traffic lights - jumped again. Getting tired of this as the bonnet on those things is a monster.

Two starts on another vehicle that was there for the move-house operation took it to seven.

Of course there are vehicles that simply won't start on a jump-starter, just like they won't start on their inboard battery - as you quoted, an N70 plus alternator would be more capable than the on-board unless you're using figure-8 jumpers.

The actual test is whether they start something that WILL start on its own if the on-board battery is healthy and charged, i.e. not mechanically challenged.

YMMV as always.
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Reply By: Les - PK Ranger - Saturday, Aug 12, 2017 at 19:18

Saturday, Aug 12, 2017 at 19:18
I have a couple of Supercheap Aust jump packs.
The purple one is supposedly 1900 amps, and has 2 x 18 amp/hr batteries (36 amp/hr).
The yellow pack is 900amps, and has the 1 x 18 amp/hr.

I use them for another work related purpose in general, but the few times in 4 or 5 years I have had to start the Ranger with them, the yellow is virtually useless if only a little assist was needed.
The purple pack is adequate, but (as with leaving a battery hooked up to another vehicles battery while running) I find leaving the pack hooked up to the flat battery for a few minutes before start attempt is helpful in putting a little charge into the main battery.

Interestingly, SCA only sell current jump packs without the amps info on them now, just rated 4 cyl, 6 cyl, 8 cyl, 8 cyl heavy duty.
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Follow Up By: Nomadic Navara - Saturday, Aug 12, 2017 at 23:50

Saturday, Aug 12, 2017 at 23:50
If you are going to get a jump start battery get one with a lithium battery. Lithium batteries have an internal resistance much lower which means they will give a bigger kick for a battery with the same Ah capacity of a lead acid battery.
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Follow Up By: RMD - Sunday, Aug 13, 2017 at 09:23

Sunday, Aug 13, 2017 at 09:23
Although some assistance is achieved from a SLA battery, the size of the flat terminals become a fuse after a certain amount of current flow.

The 900 amps would not be achieved because the terminals would melt.
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Reply By: Ron N - Sunday, Aug 13, 2017 at 10:55

Sunday, Aug 13, 2017 at 10:55
Two things I've learnt about Chinese products over few decades of buying their stuff (and who hasn't got 2/3rds of their possessions, from clothes to batteries, made in China?).

One - Chinese never fail to overstate the capacity and performance of their products - particularly electrical products.
They live in a society which is one of the most competitive in the world - and they face intense competition throughout the world in every market.

One way of beating that competition is to claim your Chinese product is stronger, lasts longer and produces more power than any other competing product.
No need to fear any regulatory backlash from false claims, it never happens, because once it's in another country, it's in another jurisdiction.

It's not like the ACCC or Consumer Law can impose penalties on any Chinese manufacturer. They are free to make any claims they like, and they do so with impunity.

Two - of the 1.4 billion Chinese, only a tiny fraction speak, write, or understand English - or even understand numbers.

They have 10 different dialects amongst themselves, and quite often, Mandarin speakers from one part of the country, are struggling to make themselves understood, by Mandarin speakers from another part of the country!

98% of the population are still the illiterate peasant class. The Chinese employ the illiterate peasants by the hundreds of millions, to manufacture and assemble the products we buy.

These peasants are instructed to place decals, ID plates, instructions, size measurements, and a host of other information on those products - in a foreign language they don't understand - and usually drawing on various types and numbers of those decals, ID plates, instructions, and sizes, from dozens of containers, holding all those various pieces of information.

Little wonder then, that the peasants care not, whether a decal says 300 amps or 1200 amps - it's all just puzzling Engrish to them!

They grab what they think is the right decal - and unless a supervisor with tight managerial control and good English skills, is actually controlling exactly what they install, it can be a real piece of guesswork for them.

The bottom line is, there are so few of those Chinese supervisors with those kind of skills, you would be lucky to find half a dozen in each factory, where thousands of peasants are employed.
You only have to look at the instructions you get with every Chinese item to realise that their grasp of English - even when they are supposed to be competent in English - is very poor indeed.

You can understand what it would be like, if we were all employed in factories, and asked to put the right labels on the products, in Mandarin!

Cheers, Ron.
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Follow Up By: The Bantam - Sunday, Aug 13, 2017 at 13:34

Sunday, Aug 13, 2017 at 13:34
I think you overstate the situation in China.

Except in the rural parts of China, Mandarin, simplified Chinese text, and pinyin ( romanised Chinese), is taught in schools and pretty much universally spoken thru out china. The Chinese government takes universal literacy and the common language (Putonghua) ( mandarin) very seriously.

Remember while there may be 8 or 10 common dialects or seperate languages they are all pretty much written similarly in simplified Chinese.
While many may not be able to speak the others dialect they may be able to understand to some extent. ..... for all the mandarin dialects the difference would be like an Australian speaking to a Scott with a broad Glasgow accent.... slightly different word usage, idiom, slang and accent.

In the large cities and the industrial areas, English is widely spoken ( at least to some degree) and many of the better off Mainland Chinese have very good English.

English as a second language is huge business in china, if you are a family of any sort of status, at least one parent will be learning English, and the child will almost certainly be learning at least basic English from primary school.

While less than 1% of Chinese have been identified as English speakers that is still 10 million. mostly concentrated in the commercial and industrial cities.

Literacy has been very rapidly improving in China for years .... the literacy rate has improved from 78% in 1990 to 95% in 2010 and continues to gain rapidly. ...... young people aged between 15 and 25 the claimed literacy rate is 99.6%.

I take an interest, in what is going on in Asia, I have friends who import from China and Taiwan, I socialise with Chinese and Taiwanese people, ranging from long term Australian Citizens and Australian born Asians to pretty Fresh off the boat Chinese.

Things are changing rapidly in China.

The responsibility always falls to the Australian importer, the Chinese will put whatever sticker you ask on the product they order.

The overstating of current capacities on, batteries, jumper cables and like jump start products can not be blamed on the Chinese .... the Americans have been doing it for years.

It is the Americans, who have been responsible for many, misleading, irrelivent, overstated and unhelpful ways of specifying automotive products ..... and this has been ingrained for decades ...It is the Americans that are obsessed with being bigger faster and better than everybody else.

A very very large portion of what is manufactured in china is tailored and packaged specifically for the American market.

Ya cant blame the Chinese for what people get them to make.

cheers
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Follow Up By: Nomadic Navara - Sunday, Aug 13, 2017 at 15:43

Sunday, Aug 13, 2017 at 15:43
From Ron - "It's not like the ACCC or Consumer Law can impose penalties on any Chinese manufacturer. They are free to make any claims they like, and they do so with impunity."

The responsibility of things sold in Oz is not the responsibility of the manufacturer. The liability is placed on the importer, ie the first person who handles it in Oz. It s the importer that the ACCC will take action against.

To take that further, if you import something via Evilbay and it kills some one else then you are the one who is culpable and not the manufacturer. So be warned. It is the importer whether it be a person or a company that has to accept the consequences for the liability.
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