Jump Starter Pack Recommendations

Welcome to the best Prius forum anywhere. From my experience, jump starter packs are bad news. They’re not as strong as your car battery, and they only work for two or three years before their internal battery goes kaput. I feel you’d be better off borrowing a full-size battery and using jumper cables to get yourself to Autozone or someplace that will install a new battery for you. I am guessing yours may still be the original, and they don’t generally last more than seven years. Expect to pay around $200.

 

Of course, he has to say that. if we find another car to jump our prius, he won’t get calls from us and be out of business. If he was a real gent, he’d say don’t use your prius to jump start another vehicle.

 

I have one of the small lithium ones, fits in my glove box. I bought one of the smallest available. The guy who said the Prius "takes a lot of power to restart" was mistaken; it takes a lot less than a conventional car.

On the other hand, if you are jumping because the car's aux battery has gone doornail dead (and who isn't?), you can find that a lot of the juice in the jump pack gets sucked into the aux battery before you get a chance to start the car.

If you are in freezing weather or stuck somewhere you really do not want to be, you can minimize the chance of that by disconnecting the car's aux battery first, then starting with the jump pack, then reconnecting while the car is READY. You'll have to reprogram your radio presets and such, but if it was that dead, you were probably going to have to anyway.

That goes against everything you may have heard about cars with conventional alternators and never starting them with the battery out of the circuit, but a Prius doesn't care much. Just be careful not to let loose cable ends touch the wrong stuff.

Disconnecting the battery was way easier in Gen 1 and Gen 2 because the cable back at the battery could just be unplugged. Starting in Gen 3 you need to get a wrench and fuss with the clamp on the battery post.

If considering any of the lithium packs, I would recommend some research to find out who were some of the original, most reputable manufacturers, and buying directly from them if you can, not from cheaper sellers even if the products are advertised as being the reputable brand. You can see reviews on Amazon where people received counterfeits of a major brand.

Cheaply-built lithium battery gadgets are Roman candles, so I would be a little picky about one that will be in my glove box.

 

Are we assuming the traction battery has an adequate charge?

 

Yes. Most of the time when somebody needs to jump-start a Prius, it's entirely because of the aux battery.

Recovering from a seriously depleted traction battery is a whole other kettle of fish.

 

@Timar I would focus first on getting a charger, then jump starter. Jump starters are just for getting out of a jam.

 

I usually clip to the jump point in the fuse box and to one of the nearby bolts of the inverter cover ... no problem to reach with my little pack's short cables.

 

For neg connection I've used the stud/nut (hold down for EGR valve), just to left of fuse box (as you stand at front).

For a charger rec:

CTEK 4.3

Its just one of many, but it's worked well for me. We're low use, especially with COVID, and ours is hooked up more than not. By a long margin.

 

Jomgand JW401 is a 12V emergency car starter, portable charger, LED stable flashlight, smart protection system, 10W wireless charging five-in-one multifunctional portable jump starter. Jomgand JW401 jump starter is able to start 8.0L 12V gas engines or 6.0L 12V diesel engines, motorcycles, ships, snowmobiles or other 12V engine-driven equipment.

 

I have had a Halo Bolt jump starter for a year or so. It has a usb port, flashlight and even a 110 inverter built in. I've used it more for charging phones, etc while camping but it's a nice backup. The only car it's jumped is my neighbor's Prius V. Twice, because they won't listen to me and get a new 12v.

 

Just stumbling on this old post, I see I was wrong about that; Gen 3 also has an easily-disconnectable battery connection. It's the fat white one in the underhood fuse box.

 

Anyone have any experience with those jumpstarters that use capacitors instead of batteries?

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Halo Bot! Works great! Jump started my Van several time... And a few other people's cars.

 

My friend has a super capacitor jump starter: asked his wife to charge it up before bringing it to him, when he needed it. Because the charge dissipates kind of not immediately available when needed. The manufacturers say you can power them with the dead battery BUT the time it takes to do this is too long….