Jump starter recommendations?

I've been in the same boat as you. Bought one when they first came out and it is definitely showing it's age. Tarylfixesall raves about the NOCO starter so I tracked it on Amazon and nabbed one during a lightening deal. But last week Project Farm did a vid of testing different ones (

). I was shocked and disappointed about the NOCO performance. Check Amazon for the one that showed to be the best and that sucker was 1/2 the cost of the NOCO and is labeled as their best seller. So needless to say, I bought a few of them as Christmas gifts. I'll probably just keep the NOCO in the garage for small engine stuff (lawn tractor, moped, etc) as it did start my Ruckus easily.

 

My two cents, look into a replacement battery for the ailing one. Might be around $50~60, good for another decade. Recharge them about every 3 months.

The new, light-weight lithiums might be the bee's knees, not sure. For now I'm still with JNC660, have one, and have given them as gifts.

Funny thing, at least for ours, it's pretty much pure cargo-cult, have needed it, and with our kids having their own now. And I'm armed to the teeth with chargers, testers, lol. Once in a blue-moon there's good samaritan opportunity in a parking lot, that's about it.

 

haha, my mind went straight to the Li-ion packs, not the bigger ones like the JNC660. What would be the benefit of the big one over the small lightweight Li-Ion ones? Looks like maybe just a bit more "powerful"? The drawback is that they are bigger and heavier.

Strangely enough, I've started more boat engines over car engines with our jump pack. People think they need to run their stereos at the sandbar without having a second battery

 

I opted for the (now no longer available) smallest DBpower on Amazon li-ion

It was $30 (i think cheapest now is around 45-50)

It is small enough to keep in my "c" center console.
I think the cord takes up more space then the unit itself lol

I have jumped a pathfinder batt, and also a small atv batt for shits and giggles and testing it out.

 

I've not followed through, but googling (something like JNC660 replacement battery") I get results like this:

(If you've got an Ad-Block running you probably won't see the above (amazon) link, will need to turn it off.)

Then, straight from Clore, a little more expensive. It might have better specs though, should compare:

Clore PROFORMER Replacement Battery for JNC4000/JNC660/JNC770/JNCAIR/JNCXF - Clore Automotive

Then here's another Amazon link, selling the same battery, best of both worlds?

Considering what's riding on it, and if you get 8~9 years out of it, maybe the OEM Clore is the better deal.

Appreciate this is my case, guess I'm just trying to explain what I'd do.

 

I have the jncair, built in air compressor. It’s bigger and better because you can jump start vehicles many many times before you even need to top them off again. I can jump start vehicles just using this battery while the car 12v bat is completely unhooked from the car. It last for many years and can jump diesel trucks and it won’t cry mercy. You can replace the brake internal battery and or interchange to keep and fresh one in case you need to swap it. Great when pge turns off your electricity, you can use it with a 12Vdc to 120vac converter.

And it’s a real man’s jumper, not a wussy one.

 

Yeah. If you're not wearing safety boots, and you drop it you'll break your foot.

 

so your take away is that those that use the more compact and convenient Li-po packs aren't men? Meh. Guess I'll be a wussy not real man then. Seems like a weird statement coming from an owner of a vehicle that isn't really at the forefront of being a "manly" car. /shrug

btw, you can jump start a car without a battery using these little packs too, if thats what you want...so that argument isn't that valid. I'd say the one good point you made is about diesel trucks. Even though they claim they can do it, the little packs do struggle more. But if you watched the video i linked, you would have seen that they will in fact a couple of them put a good crank to those engines.

 

Seriously, I just get the sense the old-school jump-n-carry's have more "legs". I could be wrong though. Mainly it's what I've got, the devil I know, lol. They are very flat, fit in the underfloor tray in the hatch. That side of the car maybe rides a little lower though, they're almost 20 pounds...

C'mon, us over-the-hill guys aren't that manly any more, just big kids again. The whiskers never quite though... And you get hair growing in all sorts... Rambling.

 

It was my post bait to gather prospective signature quotes.

 

I tend to jump on the wussy stuff, not the manly thingys

But they do have the cheapest one back on Amazon here

 

I bought DBPower jump starter with lightning deal couple months back without knowing such comparison video exists. But this DB brand is not too bad, tied for 3rd place

Come to think about it, one I bought is not as high amperage as the 20000A being tested, but it's all good, I don't have big V8 or diesel truck, for jump starting my Prius and Sienna van 600A or 1000A (I forgot what rating bought) is sufficient enough.

 

'if i'm going to wear a jumper, it had better be small and lightweight'

 

Here is a yellow one

It was $33 but up to 36 on my side, i suppose due to the other seller being out of stock
still same one

The low amps is fine for a prius as they dont need much.
can also start most cars, but maybe not that 7 liter etc

 

What are you going to be jumping? If it's for a Prius, you don't need much.
They should say on the box or in the description on what size limit for the engine.