Cold Cranking Amps necessary for a portable jump starter

Maintenance/Repairs
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1

I understand that when purchasing a portable jump starter you should buy one that can deliver slightly more CCA than that of the battery you’re trying to jump start. My battery claims to be rated at 575 CCA, but I have yet to see a jump starter that delivers that much amperage. Can anyone tell me what CCA is really necessary for jumping a battery? It’s a v6 engine. Thanks!

2

Jump packs are rated for peak amperage output. These can range from 1700-3000 amp peak output. Depending how much you want to spend will dictate the peak output of the jump pack.

Tester

3

http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/kkjnc660.html

http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/kkjnc950.html

Insert Tim Taylor man-grunting here.

4

It would seem to me, that for the average driver, it would be cheaper to just replace the battery as soon as it begins showing a reduction than bothering with a jump battery that will also need to be replaced.

Since you can have your battery checked for free at many part stores, I would go with that if I had any question about my battery and not worry about it.  I wonder how many people have bought those only to find that by the time they need one, the jump battery is dead.
5

Good point…

6

So anything within that range should be sufficient? Thanks for the info!

7

Thanks for the recommendations…these are both highly rated. My only hesitation is that this is for a novice who would likely be distracted by a 2 year old, and would want safety features such as reverse polarity warning. It’s my understanding that these don’t have this feature since they are probably intended for someone who does this more regularly. Any other recommendations would be appreciated (other than one that suggests one shouldn’t be jump-starting a vehicle if one doesn’t know what one is doing).

8

The one I have has a peak output of 2400 amps.

But I live where I might be trying to jump start a vehicle where it’s -20?.

Tester

9

Buy the biggest jumper you can afford. Leave a few dollars to buy are really good, durable, and well built flashlight. Assume your jumper will be used in the worst conditions, dark, raining, miserable night because that is always when a battery decides its life is over.

If the person using the jumper can’t be trusted with the help of a good flashlight to hook up the jumper correctly, then don’t even give them the option of having the thing in the 1st place. Give them a AAA card instead.