Costco 12v Jump Starter

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joeriv

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 24, 2013
Messages
287
Location
Fairfield County CT
Just bought this Li Ion unit for $60 from Costco, measures 5.35 x 3 x 1 inches, weighs 0.65 pounds. I have a more expensive unit (jump started ICE cars no problem) and bought this for my Lexus. IMHO this is an essential for a LEAF - you never have to worry about a flat 12v battery. I'll bet that in an emergency you could run the Leaf on this alone.
 
Assuming it is daytime and you do not need headlights then exclusive of the navigation module all you need is enough voltage to pull in the contactor. When it closes there will be a very large current from the inverter. In my jump statr pack it worked to pull in the contactor. Then a thermal breaker opened killing the pack until it cooled down. By then it did not matter since the 12V inverter was running.
 
When the inverter is running it puts out over 100A. That was enough to overwhelm the starter pack battery. Since the Leaf 12V battery was quite low the majority of the current flow was to the start pack. When it dropped out the inverter charged the Leaf 12V battery. At that point the car was running. I drove it to the dealer and I requested a new battery.

My "B"''s Tesla charger does a much better job of charging the 12V battery so I no longer carry the jump start pack. To maintain the gel cell battery in the jump start I charge it every couple of months. Letting a lead acid battery run down kills it. That is why a new car that is dead and needs to be jumped needs a new battery.

I once purchased a display Acura Legend. It had to be jumped and when I got home the battery died. I WAS NOT HAPPY but they came to the house and replaced the battery. Buying a high end car escalates the service level. On the other hand a simple rear end collision with minimal damage on my "B" was 4K. Good thing I was not paying.
 
Letting a lead acid battery run down kills it. That is why a new car that is dead and needs to be jumped needs a new battery.

That is often true, but not always. When it was about a year old, my 2013 Leaf suffered one day from a 12 volt battery level so low that while it would dimly light the instrument panel, it wouldn't unlock the doors first. I charged it immediately, started using a battery maintainer, and almost two years later the 12 volt battery still tests ok. You can run one of these batteries down to 5-10% or so briefly and you lose capacity, but it isn't necessarily unsaveable or unusable.
 
Lithium batteries are often specified as having ~2% loss per month, so after one year of sitting in the trunk, it is conceivable that this device might be down to 76% of rated capacity. So it might be wise to recharge it every six months or so.

Bob
 
I realize this is an old thread, but I keep running across these old discussions and finding I have suggestions or better info to offer

I've worked in the towing and repair industry a LONG time, everyone and I mean everyone uses jump n carry. I'd say about 90% use the standard JNC660 and the others might use the next model up. On a given day I will jumpstart 10-15 vehicles on the road and not need to charge the pack (although you can charge it off a running vehicle). I also worked at a casino, in Ontario. One question, please. Does anyone play at Villento Casino? What do you think about this review by Kristi Dosh - https://bestcasinos-ca.com/reviews/villento-casino.php? Recently I found this review, but I never understood whether it is possible to believe this information or not.
 
That's the problem - SLA units with enough capacity are too big and heavy for most of us to want to carry one. Remember that we don't usually have to jump even ONE car, as it's there for emergency use. I do worry about fire, but I keep mine a bit less than fully charged, out of extreme heat and the sun, and charge it twice a year.
 
I agree with Lefty - in the almost three years I’ve had mine, I used it once to give a jump to someone in a supermarket parking lot - worked great!
 
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