Choosing A Jump Starter. The most important feature to consider when choosing a jump starter is the size. Jump starters come in a range of sizes and different size engines will require a particular size jump starter. The size of a jump starter doesn't refer to the actual physical size, but rather its amp rating. Battery Booster / Jump Starter Pack. Duralast Battery Booster/Jump Starter Pack. The Duralast 1200 Peak amp power station can be used to jump start 4-8 cycle engines.

1. Duralast Jump Starter 1200

In the world of portable jump starters, confusion abounds. Today in this post, I thought I’d put together a few helpful tips to get you pointed in the right direction.

I’ll look at sources for reviews, sources for procuring, and how to safely use a jump starter. First, let’s go over the main reasons why you should own a portable jump starter. • A jump starter is portable. Just keep the starter in the trunk. • A starter pack gives you peace of mind when your car battery is weak or dead.

• You can boost your battery yourself without the need of another vehicle. • A starter pack also provides portable 12 volt power to charge or run other devices like a laptop or cell phone. • No need to worry about damaging the other vehicle, or your own if you are helping someone. As with any device intended for emergency use, proper care and maintenance is needed to ensure your jumper is ready for use when you need it.

Keeping the portable jumper’s battery fully charged is key. It is generally recommended to recharge your portable jumper pack every three months. There are few thing to keep in mind when considering which portable booster you should buy. • Proper strength (amps) • Weight • Accessories To properly size your starter pack consider the amp ratings. Here is a page that outlines the significance of amp ratings and how to size the right jumper for your application.

Most portable jumpers range from 8 pounds to 40 pounds. Weight generally goes up with the strength (amps) of the unit because a bigger battery is required. Pick one that is the strongest in amps for your application, that you can still comfortably lift to about shoulder height. Also, consider the need you might have for emergency lighting, tire inflation, and recharging cell phones and laptops. Imagine the worst case scenario. Your car battery is completely dead, it is dark and your cell phone is also dead.

Well, good thing you have a portable power pack in the trunk right? Portable Jump Starter Reviews When you have narrowed down the basic type of portable jumper you want by strength, weight, and accessories, a good thing to do is check out a few portable jump starter reviews. A good review will give you technical information, features, as well as customer ratings. Most review sites endeavor to be honest and factual, even though they have affiliation with the particular product. Which means, when you make a purchase through the review site, the site owner will receive a commission. Some folks will see this as a conflict of interest, and others will not. The way I see it is like this.

If the review site is serving up good, useful, quality information, the site owner should be compensated for his efforts. That said, there are plenty of “thin” sites that are not really useful. You may want to stay way from those sites.

Here is an article by that has merit, although “thin” and limited in it’s scope. I still believe it is useful because it is from a trusted source. Portable jump-starters We Put Them To The Test. Larger portable jump-starting devices that clamp to a car’s battery have become common in the past few years. But even smaller devices, which plug into a car’s power outlet, are now on the market. These devices, which cost between $20 and $50, do not instantly start your car.

They take 5 to 10 minutes to charge your battery when it’s low. But our testing in four vehicles of various sizes with drained batteries showed that only two of four portable jumpers, the Black & Decker Simple Start, $40, and the Schumacher e-Charge EC-4000, $50, worked on all the vehicles. All models were fully charged before each test.

Duralast Jump Starter 1200

These models have lead-acid batteries that can be recharged and used again. But they must be periodically recharged even if they’re not used because they lose their charge over time. They’re also larger and weigh more than 4 pounds, so you’d probably want to store them in the trunk. Five of nine Schumacher batteries started our test vehicles, but two of them required additional charging beyond the manufacturer’s instructions. Four appeared to come with dead internal batteries and weren’t able to start our test cars even with additional charging.