The Best Battery Jumper: Update to the Update, and I Promise This is the Last of This

Final update:

After doing my usual ferocious cyclone of superfast ninja research, this is the one I settled on: the Hompow 4000A. Pretty sure the "hom" is pronounced "home": home power, geddit? I like that this shows its own charge clearly on the unit (the "100%" in the picture above) and has a little light on the plug for the cables that confirms that you have it properly hooked up.

This rates highly on Project Farm (there's one video guy I don't need to speed up to 1.5X to watch!), seems simple to operate, looks nice (design aesthetics matter to me, might not to you), and comes with a case, so it can knock around in my trunk/boot. It does three basic things: 1.) jumps your battery, 2.) serves as an emergency charger for your phone or other devices, and 3.) it's a flashlight.

Re No. 2, I do recall being lost in Michigan when Xander had snitched my charging cable, being dependent on the phone directions as the charge drained from 4% to 2%, then 1%, then going blank. I ended up stopping at three gas stations before finding one that could sell me a paper map.

This one doesn't have a tire inflating function; if you want that, the Vtoman X7 is the choice. I want a separate tire inflator, because I can just see myself getting a dead battery somewhere and discovering that the jumper box is back at my garage because I had been using it on the tires.

Finally, Mike P. found the clever thing pictured above: it's the "Locisne Car Door Assistance Handle, 5 in 1 Vehicle Support Handles Multifunctional Portable Safety Hammer Seatbelt Cutter Car Handle Assist with Lighting Function for Elderly and Handicapped" (really, Amazon? Editors needed everywhere), an emergency escape hammer and seatbelt-cutter that has a nifty extra function: you can use is as a temporary handle to help you or others get in and out of the vehicle! Like so:

Mike says it helps when getting an elderly relative in and out of the car. Wish we'd had that for Loyle. I half think I need it myself, to ratchet my ponderous self out of my little, low sedan.

By the way, pretty sure an escape hammer follows the umbrella rule: if you have it, it will mean you never need it. Because that's how that works.

That's it for this subject, you have my word.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2023 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

Featured Comments from:

Joel Becker: "Mike, it's not that you're getting old, it's that the Pandemic has messed with all of our senses of time. Something that 'just happened last year' might just be four years in the past, etc. I have that experience with remembering visits with friends, home repairs, and everything else.

"We got a bruiser of a jumpstart battery during lockdown, because our van battery did not like being idle for months at a time. The NOCO Boost Pro GB150. It goes bloody forever, and I'm never going to have a car without one again."

Mike replies: That one comes in first in all the tests but is approximately three times more expensive than the alternatives. A great choice if the cost is not a worry.

Jim F: "Didn’t we have this discussion before. Just carry a good pair of jumper cables. They never need maintenance and never wear out. You probably never drive where you would need to self-rescue or die. The directions on how to use them is likely in your car’s user manual."

Mike replies: We did have the conversation before (good on you for remembering!), but the technology has changed radically since then. The jumper packs then were capacitor banks, which worked by slowly building up a charge from the depleted car battery (3–15 minutes), then delivering it back into the system in a big lump to give the car enough juice to start. For one thing, those didn't work on completely drained batteries.

This year's roundup by Project Farm on YouTube contains only one capacitor type; battery technology has improved so radically that now they all contain actual lithium batteries, and work right away.

MARILYN NANCE: "Consider a bag with a small blanket, spare mittens/gloves (they don't have to match), sweat pants and a sweatshirt that might fit anyone in your car (don't have to be pretty). And a knit hat and scarf. AAA is definitely worth it. Don't leave home without it. Your flashlight should be one that has a winder since batteries are always dead when you need them."

Mike adds: Good advice, and easy to implement. Also, don't leave the car on in a snowstorm unless you get out regularly and clear the exhaust pipe. Remember poor Anndel Taylor, only 22, who died in Rochester when she went to sleep in the car during a blizzard with her motor running.

Here's one more thing that occurred to me about AAA: the more easily you're able to afford it, the more likely you are to have a late model car that works. And the worse or older a car you have, meaning you need AAA more, the less likely you are to be able to afford AAA. But that's life!

Comments

[Christian Beck]

The use of that tool as a door handle seems like a nice enough way to visit your car mechanic… I can‘t believe that pulling down on that single screw (sometimes two?) was envisioned while designing that bracket for the door closing mechanism.

[John McMillin]

Maybe this is all far afield from TOP's mission statement, but all these gadgets are more relevant to me than another new lens or camera.

Except for the car door grab handle. I won't be needing that, because both my cars are so easy to enter and exit. That's among my main car-choice criteria. To feel comfortable, I need a car that stands about my own height. The seat must be adjustable to my preferred hip height, so I can step in as easily as sitting in a chair. Unlike most of today's truck and SUV buyers, I refuse to climb up into the vehicle (and my legs aren't long).
Like 20th Century auto baron Walter Chrysler, I insist on a car I can wear a hat in! (He said that around 1960, when men stopped wearing hats...)

The roster of vehicles that meet those requirements isn't long. For me, a 2017 Ford C-Max PHEV handles the short trips, giving 65 mpg lifetime. My Mercedes GLK 350, a 2014 recently bought with only 12,000 miles on it, is optimized for road trips and utility chores. Both are great cars in completely different ways, both comfortable, reliable and rewarding to drive. The Ford is very low-slung, but a higher seat makes up for that. The Merc's stance is like high-water trousers - a low seat in a high car (that's still has a foot lower profile than most current SUVs). Both are sportier than they look: the C-Max is a rebodied Focus, with crisp, Euro-developed steering and ample power. The GLK, with robust V6 power, has a wide, boxy and compact body that reminds me of one of my old GTIs, all growed up.

[hugh crawford]

Forget those little electric air compressors, they’re awful. Get one of these https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Bike-Floor-Pump-Automatically/dp/B07G11BC6J

I don’t have that exact one but one like it. It’s faster than the electric pumps, can go to a higher pressure, because bicycle tires take much higher pressures than automobile tires. Oh and btw, cars use “Schrader Valves”

[Kye.Wood]

Putting that kind of torsional load onto a part designed for a load in a totally different direction?

No. No. 1000 times, hell no.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

I'm sure it's mostly just that the tech now allows hand-portable and reasonably cheap jumper units; but it feels so much like people really love not depending on the community of drivers to get them started when the weather gets nasty.

For me...that portable jump unit would never be charged when I needed it, so it's not useful. I carry real jumper cables. 95% of their use has been to help others.

[Project farm compared jumper cables. There are lots of potential problems jumping from one car to another with modern cars, apparently. Also as I understand it the modern jumper packs do not need charging very often; all they provide is a big dose of amperage every so often; they're not running anything continuously. So they don't drain fast. You can use them multiple times before having to recharge them. And they're certainly easier to use to help other people! You don't have to position both cars and the front of the disabled car doesn't have to be accessible. Disclaimer: IANAE. --Mike]

[Christer Almqvist]

Mike, how do you charge it? USB cable? How long does it take?

[Roger Kobayashi]

Be forewarned:
The "umbrella rule" you cited also applies to HOMPOW units.

[Dave]

Ordered a jump starter and got it from the company website. No worry about counterfeit items and the price was better than "big A".

That toy air compressor (two minutes to add 20 psi??) is rated for a five-year life. No thanks at that price!

I wouldn't use that "assistance handle" thing to help get out of the car, unless you want to repair the scratched paint around the door latch every year! My car has assist handles above the top of the door.

[Earl Dunbar]

That charger is much cooler than the NOCO I bought about a year ago after my battery died in March in Toronto. (Plus the manual door luck was frozen and it took a LOT of time and effort to get into the car.) Luckily my daughter’s boyfriend had a charger pack and after jumping the car battery back to life I left for home - I filled up the tank first but left the car running. That’s something I would never do otherwise, but I didn’t trust that I could start again.

The battery was brand new so I was able to get an exchange at no cost. My mechanic told me that battery quality has gone down significantly in the last few years, so don’t expect a brand new battery to last, IOW, “They [truly] don’t make ‘em like the used to.”

[Jeff]

A secondary benefit of AAA is that one can get discounts for many purchases: restaurants; hotels; car rentals; travel insurance; fuel, eye wear; personal insurance; various retailers; and more. I often forget to ask about AAA (or AARP) discounts, only to be pleasantly surprised by savings. One can quickly earn back the relatively modest annual fee ($75).

[Mark Sampson]

AAA Plus is a necessity, like insurance and in NY State, four snow tires. Just part of the "cost of doing business" if you're going to drive a car.
I've had AAA coverage all my driving life. I was lucky, though; when I was an impoverished student (and later, an impoverished portrait photographer) the membership was often a Christmas present from my mother (God bless her).
I do appreciate your research on battery jumpers, though; I was unaware.

[William Giokas]

Think about this...when everyone is driving electric cars how do you jump start them?
You can't ! Your out of power!
Bill

[James]

Or they could put decent batteries in cars instead of the lead-acid monstrosities.

Left to my own devices, living in the city, I will go months without driving, with the result: dead battery. This has happened to me multiple times, and of course, it takes months of inactivity for me to even find out about it.

As for the bike pump to inflate car tires. I guess you could do it, but you'd have to pump for a while. Even nice bike pumps don't have that large a volume of air per pump. But also, don't worry about which is Schraeder and which is Presta. If the pump has only one, surely it will be the car kind, and if it has both, the wrong kind will fail to fit in an obvious enough way you won't break anything.

[Bryan Geyer]

Re. Marilyn Nance's comment that "Your flashlight should be one that has a winder since batteries are always dead when you need them"…Well, no, that advice is quite (since late 1970s) obsolete. Instead, simply use lithium iron disulfide (LiFeS2) cells; e.g., Energizer's L91 (size AA) or L92 (size AAA) non-rechargeable batteries. They'll retain ~ 95% of their original energy after 20 years of passive storage, and they'll never leak. Here's a good source: https://www.batteryjunction.com/energizer-aa-ln91-opt

[Alan Whiting]

Mike, I'm mildly surprised you were able to find a paper map. My students (I tutor High School, mostly) are generally amazed that I still refer to them. Of course, turn-by-turn directions are easy, but I think they foster a narrow view of where you are. I worry that my students don't get a good idea of geography, from the city they live in to the world.

[Jim Arthur]

It looks like solid-state lithium batteries (solid electrolytes) are next up for release. They are apparently lighter and have higher power densities which would be great in an EV. Wikipedia says all the car makers are currently working on solid state batteries and a company named Yoshino has already released a solid-state portable power station.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

Yeah, positioning flexibility is one of the really clear advantage of the modern packs!

[Dennis Ng]

Sometimes you have to eliminate the problem. Well out of our affordability but soon enough there would be a Ford truck that can be both power generator as well as a car that plug in. If you have two (as backup to each other :-) and a solar/wind/... station. Very science fiction but for those who live in house or even have a large garden that might be what the science novel described about (at least not those by can android sheep dream etc. but say Asimov.