Portable jump starter

[undyingking]

I was quite pleased to see that there exists such a thing as a portable jump starter, ie. a device that you plug in to the mains to charge it up, and you can then subsequently use it to jump start your car. This one at Maplin is an example.

Unfortunately, a bit of hunting around turns up reviews ranging fairly evenly from "it works, brilliant" to "it doesn't work, rubbish".

Anyone actually tried using one of these, and how does it compare with a normal trickle charger?

Comments

[rotwang.livejournal.com]

It does depend on the car and the charge required to start it. My diesel requires a lot of current - the couple of times I've had Green Flag out to start me their industrial strength portable starters weren't up to the job and they ended up attaching both them _and_ regular jump leads from their van engines to get mine started.

When I had to start mine from bibliogirl's car, I needed to run hers for about 25 mins charging mine before it would jump.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

This is a petrol car, I think they're a bit less demanding. We shall see...