Anyone tried a "Porta Jump" Emergency Jump Starter/

Havent had any actual experience with them BUT,,,,


Call me old fashioned but I wouldnt like to be putting a one or two hundred amp surge through a 10 amp cigarette lighter wire on its way to the battery.
I presume thats what a dead battery is going to want to draw to start the car. Go a good quality 1000amp porta pak or top class jumper leads.

White man magic. Seelink.

Yep got 2 the 900 & 1200. Gave Dad the 900amp one. Prior to having a 2nd battery in the car we used to use the jump pack to power the fridge overnight. Lasted 4 days.

Also used it to jump start a few cars. You need to note that once you've jump started a vehicle you'll need to recharge the battery pack.

A good cheap investment.

Cigarette Lighter sockets are fused at 15 amps as well as having an internal thermal fuse.

I wouldn't count on that to charge my battery in an emergency.

Derek at ABR has a device which charges a flat battery here-
ABR Car to Car charger
I have used it and it works great but dont ask me to explain the electronics.

Cheers

This works by charging your main battery through the cigarette lighter before starting the car.

I see a number of issues with this sort of device:

(1) If your car battery has died then nothing like this is going to start your car.
(2) The device is rechargable, as with all rechargable batteries, they go flat on their own and require frequent recharging in order to be effective. You buy the unit, throw it in the glove box. Is it going to work 2 years down the track when you finally need it?
(3) If you battery is dead flat after leaving the headlights on all day then it probably wont have enough power in it to get the battery in a charged up enough state to start your car.
(4) If you are one who leaves the headlights on, then it may be better to fit a headlight reminder to your car
(5) Once my battery gets to 3 years old, the moment it sounds like it is slowing down when starting the car, usually the onset of winter, I fit a new one. I have not had a battery issue in the last 15 years of driving.
(6) Most cars need the ignition on to make the cigarette lighter work, the power demands of the computers running (my current car has 5) are going to diminish the effectiveness of these units.
(7) A good set of jumper leads always work, but you must know how to use them correctly, particularly on the modern fuel injected vehicle.
--- call 131111 for someone who cares

I'll tell you how the "porta-Jump" works.

The porta jump is actually higher in voltage than your car battery. I measured the "Open Circuit" voltage and I got around 32volts. The Porta Jumps works by provideing your flat car battery with a surface charge which might just be satisfactory to start a car, However, It won't be any good if your battery is completely dead. If you've left your lights on all night and the battery is dead flat, forget the Porta Jump.

The Porta Jump won't help you if your battery has a bad cell. In fact, If your battery isn't very healthy it won't work.

Before anyone says that the Porta Jump can't be a Higher Voltage or it'll wreck your car.. The Porta Jump limits it's current so it won't destroy any sensitive electronic equipment etc. Might be Higher Voltage but that voltage soon drops as soon as you plug it in to your cigarette lighter socket and turn your key to acc.

In my opinion, The Porta Jump is another piece of Useless, Money wasting piece of crappola that misleads people. I know a lot of my customers who have bought one and as soon as they try to use it they soon realise it doesn't work and that's when I get the callout to go get them going.

The fact is, The Porta Jump was made to jump start a Vehicle with a battery which is "Just" Flat. You can interpret that as you will. I don't know how to explain it any better..

I have used an old Blue Apple Outback pack for jump starting a few times. It was 24ah. Used it in the car park at work a few times with cars that had interior lights left on for a week or so. It did start them but there was a cost. They were so deeply discharged that they sucked the guts out of the Outback. I quickly lost enthusiasm for this volunteering and they could ring the NRMA or be more careful in future.

A 75ah Thumper would handle it. Anything less is not going to be up to repeated use and maybe will not even work at all when needed. There is no point having this sort of gear if it won't work when you need it. All or nothing at all.

Flynnie

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Hmmmmm The spelling mistakes in the FAQ dont generate any confidence either.

If they cant get that right how can they build something that has a battery that NEVER goes flat.

They state that the device will not go flat if left for "years" wthout a charge.

I understood that most types of batteries self discharge at about 2% a month.

How come we have never heard of this significant scietific breakthrough.

Don't know about that brand Dazza, but I have one in the shed that has a larger battery. They are great as they can run a distant light in a toilet or shed, jump start your gear Ours has helped our 67KVA generator, our irrigation pump motor, Toyotas, Nissans and a Mercedes as well as the lights in the toilet at EO Pyrenees events.

Get a good quality one though, I think the $50 one have small batteries. It is the size of the battery that provides the umph you need with a flat battery, some have only 7 or 12 amphours, but they hide that information.

Small wires, does not equal good bit of gear...............