Hi all. I'm looking to invest a bit of cash in a jump pack. I've used the normal largish 'yellow' ones that I'm sure most people have seen. Looking to spend upto £40 no more.

So my question is,
Has anyone use the newish small compact ones that you can get now?
If so are they any good?

It's only really to have it as a back up, rather than using a car to jump from and I can't imagine it's going to need to try and crank over a car for a long period of time.

Any thoughts or opinions would be great.[emoji4]

just buy a battery for £40 then you wont need a jump pack!!?

dac69er said:

just buy a battery for £40 then you wont need a jump pack!!?

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I wasn't looking to buy one because I have a problem with my car battery. Obviously if I was I would buy a battery, that goes without saying really.

I was buying one to add to my tools/garage kit. As an alternative to having to use a car to jump start from as/when or if required.

jaygrint said:

Hi all. I'm looking to invest a bit of cash in a jump pack. I've used the normal largish 'yellow' ones that I'm sure most people have seen. Looking to spend upto £40 no more.

So my question is,
Has anyone use the newish small compact ones that you can get now?
If so are they any good?

It's only really to have it as a back up, rather than using a car to jump from and I can't imagine it's going to need to try and crank over a car for a long period of time.

Any thoughts or opinions would be great.[emoji4]

Click to expand...

In general you get what you pay for and a <£40 jumpstart pack is not going to be great. Also the compact ones tend to use lithium batteries which have a nasty habit of catching fire. The ones that work via the cigarette lighter won't work on modern cars where the lighter socket is only live with the car on if the battery is completely dead (no power to activate relay).



Robert G8RPI.

I got an icon bit FTB12000JS for such emergencies/convenience (and camping trips) and it works a treat. Cost more than £40squid though...double that in fact BUT has come in handy twice now for jump starting, and has a myriad of attachments for charging all sorts of things. (And yes, I ended up getting another battery for the Cinq in the end ?)

Hi.

I bought a JS1010 from Machine Mart. Around £75 at the time I think as MM were having VAT free sale. Comes with work light & tyre inflator. The quality feels really good and it has started some bigger engines with no problem. When hooked up to my Seicento it spins over like a rocket! Highly recommended.

I would second the comment about caution with Lipo type batteries. They look good and have power but can be risky. I work with a guy who has needed to move to a rented house for 3 months now after the lipo of his R/C quad copter went up while on charge and nearly burnt his house down- the fire spread so quickly. if you get one please, please don't charge it unattended! Airlines are very cautious about allowing then in the hold so that tells me a lot about how safe they are considered to be! Having said that, I saw a demo of one the size of an old video cassette starting a 2l Mondeo. Impressive certainly

Star Fleet use Lithium crystals on the warp core on the Enterprise and that blows up occasionally. If they haven't got it right in the 26th Century, you've got no chance today.

Metalguru3 said:

Star Fleet use Lithium crystals on the warp core on the Enterprise and that blows up occasionally. If they haven't got it right in the 26th Century, you've got no chance today.

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Standard bulky Jump Pack it is then.
At least I won't burn my house down and die, always a bonus in life I guess.
Thanks for all the advice. Good, bad, indifferent and down right funny. [emoji4]

No, that's Di-lithium crystals. Farnell used to list them on their website but they were always out of stock. Management must have spotted the spoof because they were taken off.

More seriously Litum batteries are problematic. You can't post them and they are banned from hold baggage on aircraft. For cabin baggage there are limits e.g. 100Wh which is just over 8Ah for a 12V pack so most of the car packs are totally illegal to carry on aircraft. I'd think twice about even a branded one and would not touch a cheap one from eBay or the far east with a barge pole and flamproof suit. I've see various lithtium batteries catch fire and explode and don't want it happening in my house or car.

Robert G8RPI.