I live in an apartment so I don’t have access to any outdoor plug outlets for plugging in a trickle charger. Nearly every car battery charger requires a plug outlet. I’ve had issues at times in the past with my car battery dying and would like to be better prepared especially as winter approaches in a few months. Not that it’s happened that frequently, but it’s severely annoying when it does happen.
Can anyone recommend one that has its own big battery to supply power from? It would be particularly nice if I could get a good one that trickle charges my battery from the cigarette lighter inside the car, so I could leave it locked in my car charging overnight.
Would it not make more sense to have the battery checked to see if it needs replaced ? A portable battery jump pack would be more useful. What you are talking about does not exist that I am aware of.
Some other posters on here have mentioned installing a small solar panel on their dashboard that they wire through a device that acts to trickle charge the battery. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to have your battery checked, though as @VOLVO_V70 mentions to make sure it still has sufficient charge and life to it. A portable jump pack would also probably be a simpler solution than setting up a solar panel.
Huh?
You want to use the power of your car’s battery to… charge the battery?
Or, did you mean that you would plug a trickle charger into the lighter outlet?
In any event, you can find battery-powered jump-starting devices and you may find it helpful to carry one of these in the car in case your battery goes dead.
The best I can suggest is what is known as a jump-pack. It is a battery and a self contained charger that can be used to jump start your car. They have an on-board charger for the pack so you charge it in your apartment and carry it to your car for a jump. Most have a charge port (cigarette lighter socket) and a double ended cable that allows you to plug it into the car’s power port while it is running to charge the jump pack. When the car is not running, charge goes the other way if the battery is running down. They look like this;
? The cigarette lighter gets its power from the battery, so this makes no sense.
I had good luck with a jump starter, a Schumacher XP400, until its battery failed after a couple of years. I kept it plugged in inside on a shelf out of the way.
The solar panel, a 1.5 watt unit from Harbor Freight, which should have produced more power than it loses when sitting around, did me no good at all. I can measure the current it produces (about 10 mA) and what my car uses (6 mA when off), so I don’t know why it didn’t help.
You may have a parasitic draw or a failing battery, either of which would be better to fix.
I replaced my car’s battery and just started it after 7 months sitting around in a minute.
My car battery is still fairly new, less than 2 years old. And I do already have a portable jump starter which often works, but not always. I want to stress as well that these are not frequent battery issues, just maybe a few times every few years. They’re just very annoying when they happen and I hate the feeling of powerlessness, being stranded, and of having to call and wait for help in case my portable jump starter does not work.
Getting a portable trickle charger and checking the battery regularly to make sure it is maintaining a healthy charge would make me feel much better.
I wouldn’t run out and buy a portable battery jump starter. I see that the car owner/operator draws attention to the approaching winter. Without knowing where the car is located and how cold it gets in the winter, a jump starter is possibly not a substitute for maintaining an adequate charge.
A discharged battery will freeze in areas of very cold winter weather and then will not take a charge or jump. In fact jump starting a frozen battery can cause an explosion. The battery will need to be thawed out before a starting attempt is made. CSA
I found from testing that at least in my case, a 10W panel on the dash was necessary.
Sitting in bright sun all day the battery reaches 13.4V.
5W wasn’t enough to satisfy.
I’m a weekend driver and mostly short trips: an hour or less.
So I want to keep the battery full and happy.
A jump pack will help in a pinch, but it won’t prevent short battery life due to chronic undercharging.
Hmmm… What’s the warranty? Mine came with an 8-year. What model is it?
Why not? You should get one that can charge from the cigarette lighter when the car is running if you’re worried about it not-starting when you’re out, and you should keep it charging inside when you’re home.
BTW, I buy the largest battery that will fit in the space I have, larger than the recommended model. I used to drive out into the wilderness for long times; didn’t want to get stranded. I’d listen to the radio in bad weather, read a book with my LED lamp.
