Arteck A7 Lithium Battery Jump Starter

[Nimrod103]

Anyone else out there got one?
I bought one in August, and had cause to use it yesterday for the first time, and it let me down. The blurb said it was sufficient for a 4 litre petrol or 2.5 litre diesel, but failed to start a 2 litre diesel Hyundai. It was clearly trying to turn the engine over, but just not man enough for the job.

Would I be advised to get a more powerful, higher rated, one instead? Or is it just not worth the bother?

[Redmires]

I have a Streetwize 1400 Ah Power Bank but unfortunately my experience is the same as yours. In my case it's failed a couple of times to start a 1200cc motorbike. Luckily, I have a full size (old fashioned lead-acid) 12v starter which did the trick. I'm left wondering if these new fangled ones are all they are cracked up to be.

[bungeejumper]

I have the 12v battery that came out of the wife's Golf the last time I changed it. And a trickle charger, and a pair of jump leads. I sleep easily. And it does garden lights on summer evenings as a back-up act.

BJ

[DrFfybes]

Do these Li-on jump start packs still need to be kept topped up?

Paul

[niord]

I have had one of this type of charger for the last two years, it has been used once on a neighbours car and it worked perfectly

I top it up every 6 months.

[Mike4]

It's all about semantics. If you read the description of your "Battery Jump Starter" I bet it isn't called anything of the sort. Probably a weasel-worded "battery booster/supplementer" or something equally meaningless but designed to lead you to believe the thing has the power to actually start an engine all by itself.

They rely on the fact that most 'flat batteries' are nothing of the sort, just batteries discharged slightly too much to get the engine started. These things are usually a one or two Amp Hour lithium battery in a box with some whizzy electronic display to impress you. If you read the instructions they probably say connect it up and wait 20 minutes THEN try to start the engine, or something along those lines. The 20 mins give the jump starter a chance to top up the battery charge just enough to get you going. The builder forums are full of tales of people using the 18v batteries from their cordless tools for exactly this!

The huge variable is juat how flat your car battery is. If the terminal voltage is down at 1 Volt because you left the headlights ON overnight then not a prayer of the jump starter containing the energy to recharge the car batt. If you just left the interior light on for a couple of days leading to a terminal voltage of 10.5 and the car electronics refusing to use it, the battery booster thing will probably work just fine.

[PinkDalek]

It's all about semantics. If you read the description of your "Battery Jump Starter" I bet it isn't called anything of the sort ...

The subject header suggests the OP is talking about a Jump Starter.

We've used one of these (not for my car) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B015TKPT1A/ref=pe_3187911_185740111_TE_item for the past year or so, which I may have found mentioned on TLF or on a review website linked to from here, and so far so good.

[johnhemming]

I have a jump starter which is a lithium battery and it copes perfectly well and does not require any period of time to charge the failing battery. It basically starts the car. I have a land rover so I got a reasonably powerful one and it has also started a Taxi.

[Nimrod103]

I have a jump starter which is a lithium battery and it copes perfectly well and does not require any period of time to charge the failing battery. It basically starts the car. I have a land rover so I got a reasonably powerful one and it has also started a Taxi.

Can I ask which model and power level you bought?

[Nimrod103]

It's all about semantics. If you read the description of your "Battery Jump Starter" I bet it isn't called anything of the sort. Probably a weasel-worded "battery booster/supplementer" or something equally meaningless but designed to lead you to believe the thing has the power to actually start an engine all by itself.

They rely on the fact that most 'flat batteries' are nothing of the sort, just batteries discharged slightly too much to get the engine started. These things are usually a one or two Amp Hour lithium battery in a box with some whizzy electronic display to impress you. If you read the instructions they probably say connect it up and wait 20 minutes THEN try to start the engine, or something along those lines. The 20 mins give the jump starter a chance to top up the battery charge just enough to get you going. The builder forums are full of tales of people using the 18v batteries from their cordless tools for exactly this!

The huge variable is juat how flat your car battery is. If the terminal voltage is down at 1 Volt because you left the headlights ON overnight then not a prayer of the jump starter containing the energy to recharge the car batt. If you just left the interior light on for a couple of days leading to a terminal voltage of 10.5 and the car electronics refusing to use it, the battery booster thing will probably work just fine.

It is described on the box as Jump Starter and 1200mAh External Battery Charger, but I take your point about whether it is powerful enough to start a completely drained battery, as opposed to one which still has a certain amount of charge.

[johnhemming]

I have a jump starter which is a lithium battery and it copes perfectly well and does not require any period of time to charge the failing battery. It basically starts the car. I have a land rover so I got a reasonably powerful one and it has also started a Taxi.

Can I ask which model and power level you bought?

Flylinktech CF100 20,000 mAh (20Ah) 74WH It is powered from 5V USB (which I charge from the cigar lighter) and has the jump start mechanism which is quite clever and requires setting the device into start mode and two USB ports.