Jump starter recommendations?

I haven't used it yet, but I wanted a portable jump starter that can be used as a power bank to feed phones and other things in emergency. Ended up picking up this one. Much cheaper than NOCO for the equivalent capacity. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DWSYYZR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
With coupon, it is $79.99 now, but I got mine at $70, and after the purchase I also received FREE 12V Tire Inflator worth ~$20 from DBPower as a promotion.

 

Sounds like a good deal to me.
But you'll never use the tire inflator... because you HAVE one now!

 

Yeah, there are a lot of those things that I have "just in case" but never had a chance to use. In my car things like, a spare tire, flat repair kit, scissor jack, flash light, lifehammer, emergency blanket, first aid kit, etc. But that's a good thing.

 

life hummer?

A few more:

1. Some flexible wire and maybe a few zip ties
2. Tire sized plastic bag for the feelthy flat tire
3. A few odds-and-ends tools, adjustable wrench, screw driver, what have you
4. Square of plywood (to position under the scissor jack)
5. Reflective vest, collapsible traffic cone or triangle
6. Pair of wheel chocks (for the wheel diagonally opposite the flat)
7. Tire pressure gauge.
8. Flashlight.

Somebody stop me...

 

Aha! Typo...Darn auto-correct function. Lifehammer
I have other things like, tools, duct tape, rain gear, tire gauge... in my car, but those, I have actually USED in occasions, but not an emergency situation.

 

It is always better to have something and NOT need it, than need it and NOT have it!
Learned that in the army, the HARD way.

 

Does that life hummer have a seat belt cutting function. If so, hide the damn thing if there's any possibility of grand kids in the car...

Also, if you have one of these:



And there's possibility aforementioned grand kids might be coming over, put it up in the attic.

 

LOL. Oh, yes I always wanted to try that myself. I mean how quickly and easily I can cut the seat belt with it. But I resisted that temptation...

BTW, have I told you that I have never, I mean NEVER in my life, had to change a flat tire on a road. Yeah, there were a few times I had flat tires on my car. But it always happened on our drive way and all were just slow leak that after topping up the air, I could drive the car to a nearby tire shop. Only twice in my life I had flat tires on road, but no changing tire was involved. Once on our Sienna minivan with runflat tire that did not run after flat. Needless to say, there was no spare tire in the car. We needed to call a tow truck. Another time was on my Civic my son was driving. He managed to run off pavement and slashed inner sides of tires. Yes both front and rear at the same time. Needless to say, one spare in the trunk was not enough. We needed to call a tow truck.

 

Great. If you use the power pack to start a car, Prius or not, let us know how it performed, So far, mine is still in a box ~80% charged and stored in my car.

 

I did much more research than I should have on jump packs and decided to buy two of them. Both going to my daughter and her husband for their rigs -- one a Ford Focus, the other a Toyota Rav4.

Will make an O.K. Christmas present. I ended up with the Audew 500 Amp starting current; 1,500 amps Peak and 20,000 mAh. Were $60 each at many places.

They were asking about cables, as they did not have any and then the discussion turned to jump packs. They said they were going to buy them for each of their vehicles, but I know at that age, that might be in two years.

 

I bought this car jump start. The vehicle Jump Start Power is 12V, only need $43. It works great now!

 

I see in that image that the battery clamps coming with that unit are the 'dumb' kind. They have some kind of overcurrent protection built in (on the red side), but nothing else.

The first one I bought from Antigravity was like that, but I noticed as soon as I bought another of the same model to give to a friend, they had upgraded to smart clamps. Some other makers have similar ones. I saw Antigravity was selling them separately too, so I upgraded my first one that came without them.

The "smart clamps" will not let you connect them with wrong polarity, or short them, or over-discharge the pack. All of those are good things to avoid with a Li-ion battery (and with a Prius), so I think they're worth some extra points when comparing products.

Antigravity is another one of those sellers getting plagued by counterfeits, so I suggest buying from their web store if one of their products appeals to you.

 

Hmmm, Sory to hear yours didn't perform to the expectation. I better check mine too. It's been sitting in the glove box ever since I bought it. I have not used it yet, but with a good battery charger, I may never need to use it.

EDIT: I just checked mine. I left at 80% charged, and it is still 80% charged after almost 8 months. The flashlight works as well.