I have a Schumacher jump starter. Bought it to start my daughters car 5 years ago as I did not want to risk any potential harm to our car. Used it after that maybe 6 time, loaned to neighbor that could not afford a new battery. It never took more than 30 seconds after use to recharge fully
. Charged it today after 1 year of non use. 10 seconds later green light, fully charged.
AGM lead acid battery
Any way to tell if it will have enough oomph if needed?
Ummm…well, hook it up and give it a whirl? If it’s not ready to go (doesn’t have the oomph) then you’ll find out. What’s the concern?
Those recharge times do sound suspect. Should be longer than that. But it won’t hurt anything if it’s not quite up to snuff.
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Soundszs like you are recharging it after each use. A bit of overkill.
I’ve had a Halo unit for years, but have not had to use it in years either.
When I use it the first couple of times, it still showed a full charge. For a while, I checked it every week to make sure it was fully charged and always was. At the 3-month mark, it would take on a couple of minutes to reach full charge.
Now, I only check it every 6-months and it still only needs a few minutes to reach full charge.
However, QVC ran a sale last week on the HALO Bolt Ultimate 3.0 Dynamic Display Jumpstar with the internal tire pump and I ordered it (“can’t be too careful, we have three cars and having the old one in the other car does no one any good…”). The new on is due to arrive in a few days.
Unless you want to leave your lights on and run your battery down to test it, I would assume your unit is in good working order…
My AGM jump pack’s battery (basically a motorcycle battery) lasted about 4 years before it was junk. I kept it charged because lead-acid batteries do not like sitting with a partial charge and they self-discharge if left off the charger. The instructions on mine said to leave it plugged into the charger when not in use. Lead acid batteries are not ideal for jump packs for those reasons,
I bought one with a lithium polymer battery. They are happy stored with a partial charge and last longer if you don’t charge them all the time to 100%. They are smaller and lighter and usually have reverse-connection protection. These are a better solution, IMHO.
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My wife carries a battery pack around in her van. It maintains charge very well and has a Li-ion battery. Stanley Fatmax Powerit 1000.
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If the current battery in the car is good that is lame advice.
LOL. Ok then. What’s the concern again? You asked if there was any way to tell if it has the oomph needed? If the battery in the car is good, then why would you hook it up at all? Or if the battery is good but maybe it’s just dirty connections, then why would the “oomph” of the jump starter be a question? Or a problem?
I guess you just have to better explain.
Asking how to tell if the battery is good, you are the one that suggested "Ummm…well, hook it up and give it a whirl? If it’s not ready to go (doesn’t have the oomph) then you’ll find out. "
Do not have a car with a dead battery to do that.
I’d assume that it can be load tested. If you have a good, local place that specializes in batteries (I have a couple), bring it to them. If not, see if one of the auto parts places will load test it for you.
On most of these type units, after you hook them up, you initiate them by pushing the “start” button on the unit and it runs the self-test. The Self-test checks the polarity and such and I do not know if the self-test will pass on a “Load Tester…” as the tester is not energized with the Plus/Negative polarity of a battery…
Just connect the analyzer directly to the jump pack battery terminals inside the unit to test the battery. Modern battery analyzers do not draw huge currents to test the battery, it is more sophisticated and draws very little actual current…
Advance Auto cannot test the battery in the jump pack.
You have to with lead acid or it will sulfate. In fact, a couple hours of green light full charge to ensure full charge is what I would recommend. Leaving it plugged in all the time usually ruins the battery in a couple of years though.
Lithium ion is different. It will last 3 times as long if stored near empty compared to near full charge. Storage temperature has a huge impact on life.
So do what cigroller said, find a car with a dead battery, or disconnect a battery terminal and hook it to the jump starter to test.
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I wonder if the car manufacturers will ever switch to using li-ion 12 volt batteries for their conventionally-equipped cars?
Li-ion batteries are much more expensive than lead-acid batteries. I think most people would not pay the extra cost even though the Li-ion battery might last longer. Also, I suspect that more sophisticated charge electronics would be needed to ensure that the Li-ion battery doesn’t overheat during charging.
Seems likely… My Li Ion driver- drill charges each cell individually. One important advantage of the Li Ion is that the battery weight considerably less than a lead-acid equivalent. I’d be willing to pay more for that, but it would depend on how much more.
Yet people buy fully electric cars that have easily 80 times the amount of battery.
It is possible to put the battery management circuity for lithium ion inside the replacement 12V battery. Over discharge and over charge protection is required. Circuitry to slowly discharge over charged cells in an imbalanced battery would be needed too.
They are here and coming down in price
Or a less scary, more established company.
Lithium ion will be damaged by fast charging in below freezing temperatures. I wonder if they’re protected from that?
Lithium ion performance is also quite poor in very cold temperatures. Probably worse than lead acid. Are there any issues with use in northern climates?
edit:
The Voltages on 12V lithium ion replacements just don’t work out that well. 3 cell lithiom ion would be 9V discharged to 12.3 Volt fully charged, compared to 10.5V discharged and 12.6 full with lead acid. Lithium iron 4 cell is about 12V discharged to 14.4V fully charged. A 24 Volt 7 cell lithium iron would be about 21V discharged to 25.2 fully charged, which would be a perfect match for lead acid.