Hi,
I'm looking for a cheap jump starter for my 3.6L VE Commodore
Will the small packs jump start my car fine or do I need a bigger one? Supercheap say 900A ones should only do 4 cylinders.
http://www.kmart.com.au/product/jump-starter---900-amp/11979…
This Kmart one looks like the best deal currently, $74 including postage.
The supercheap one has been cheaper but does not include an air compressor
i have a Repco Mechpro 900A i got for around $65 had it four years still going strong used it a few time on my old vt station wagon with no complaints
they are one sale at the moment not sure on prices but may be in the current catologue.
Had a look in the repco catalogue. 600a is $50, 1200a is $109. Not bad.
Would the 600A be enough for a V6?
I got the 1900ah for $99 from Super Cheap, thing's a beast
Have a look at the small handheld lithium battery starters. They are amazingly powerful and will start 6 and 8 cyl engines and even diesels. This was just posted as a deal, I don't know about this one specifically but they are strangely generic…
I bought one from costco and one from target. I tested the costco unit on a completely dead yeĺlow top optima and it started fine.
I'm wondering why you need to jump start the car. If you need the jump starter becuase your battery is dying, go and buy a new battery instead. If you want it keep running the battery flat by leaving the radio on to listen maybe getting a portable music player is a better option, or buying a portable version of whatever you are running to flatten the battery.
The battery was ran fully flat whilst it sat for a month or so, recharged it and it seems fine. It is more for emergency's than anything
I'm not sure of their value for emergencies given how infrequently they occur. Maybe you'd be better off with a roadside assist package. Yes, it is inconvenient to wait if you get a flat battery, but the number of times I've had an 'emergency' flat battery in the last few years wouldn't justify it if the jumper wasn't getting used for something else as well, eg camping power supply.
Out of half a dozen flat battery's in as many years, an emergency jump pack would have made a difference in maybe one.
Personally, I try to avoid the cheap jump starter brands in SuperCheap (and other similar discount auto stores) regardless of their specifications. My last two would quickly lose performance of a year and become useless for jump starting. This was back about a decade ago but maybe battery technology and quality has improved a lot since then.
Since you are leaving your car still for weeks consider whether a solar charger is suitable. These require you to do your own wiring to the battery and the car to be in the sun. Though it means you can leave your car knowing it should start.
Sorry I purchased the car from the auctions where it sat for a long period of time I believe, I do not constantly let it sit otherwise I would just leave it connected to my Ctek charger.
Thanks for that, I will do a bit more research. I think lithium batteries have come a much longer way in 10 years
I own a Kmart one, friends own super cheap ones.
We take them camping for lights, air pumps etc. and jump start if required.
Don't let the air compressor influence you, they are garbage and useless for anything more taxing than inflating a soccer ball.
This is my 2nd Kmart starter and the first had a dead compressor after a couple of years.
Internally, the Kmart has a 17ah battery. This sets the limit on how much total energy it can store, and how much peak current it can deliver. Bigger batteries can do more. Your car likely has a battery that delivers something like 800cca (cold cranking amps), that figure and the "900amp" figure aren't really comparable.
When you jump start the car, the starter draws a very high current for a short time - 5 seconds maybe - until the motor turns over. If you want to start a car with a dead battery, your jump starter needs to be able to output at that rate. The cheap Kmart and super cheap ones will not achieve this. The guys at the mechanics have a starter pack on a trolley that delivers 2500amps, and it can do it.
With the cheaper ones, you connect up the leads, leave it to give the car battery a bit of a charge for ten or twenty minutes, then start the car relying on the combined power from the jump starter and the partially recharged battery. Either Kmart or super cheap will achieve this.
The build quality of the Kmart model is much poorer than the super cheap one.
And finally, the super cheap ones go on sale approx twice a year for 50% off.
If you need it now, the Kmart one is adequate, if you can wait, I would get the super cheap one step up from the base model when it goes on sale.