Car Jump-Starter

[Khandro]

I've just ordered an //Arteck Car Jump Starter Auto Battery Charger and 8000mAh External Battery Charger Car Jumper for 12V Automotive, Motorcycle, Tractor, Boat, Phone with Clamps, LED Flashlight, 300A Peak 2.5L Gas Max//

Has anyone got one, or something similar? It has very good customer reviews on Amazon.
Car door left open in garage all weekend and battery 'as a pancake'. My trickle charger is on but is ancient and will take a long time to charge up, I was looking for a more robust charger and came across this.

[bhg481]

If you've run your battery that flat you may have wrecked it. You might have got away with it but be prepared to repl\ce it.

[Khandro]

5 hours with a 4-watt trickle charger and she fired up fine. I've just done 20mile run and everything's back to normal.

[bhg481]

The problem is that the battery may not hold its charge, in which case you'll have problems if you don't use the car for a day or two.

[Khandro]

I'll have a test done on it.

[bhg481]

Good idea - lots of places do a free test.

[Garaman]

I bought something similar a while ago when my car battery was flat and the car was in an awkward place. I haven’t used it to charge a battery, just to start the car on a few occasions. A friend borrowed it when he was having trouble with his battery and ended up buying one himself. I am very pleased with it and it gives me reassurance knowing it is in the boot. I have done the white knight bit too and started someone’s car when they were attempting a bump start. The driver thought I was a bit batty when I stopped and said that I would help then pulled out this tiny device, but he probably has one now.

[Khandro]

Garaman; What I wanted to know and it isn't clear on the website, is how does the juice get into it, do you have to keep it charged up?

[Garaman]

You charge it up from the mains and then it will store the power and will start the car several times from full charge. Mine has lights to show how much charge is left. It seems to hold the charge for ages. I have started the car with it, left it in the boot and started it again months later without recharging it and it was fine. As I said, I haven't used it to charge the car battery, just to start the car, so I don't know if it needs to be connected to the mains to do that.

[Garaman]

Sorry, Khandro, lots of 'its' in there! I meant of course that I have started the car a couple of times, months apart, without plugging the charger/starter into the mains again. I don't know but would imagine that you need to have it plugged into the mains whilst you charge the battery though.

[Khandro]

This may become a mixed blessing; I thankfully have not needed it for myself, but have used it twice for my lady-neighbour. It now needs re-charging and the instructions say: "Insert the micro USB into the input socket of the jumper [OK done that]. Plug the USB cable [the other end] into any USB wall charger or any USB car charger - not included."

So what is a USB wall charger? The lead from the jumper has a male USB plug so do I have to now find a female USB socket which will plug into the mains via a transformer and is there such a thing please?

[Khandro]

OK chaps, I've found an old phone charger and an adaptor which when combined do the trick :0)