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Battery jump pack review

Scouter

SPONSOR
Exeter Maine
I have a slight attraction to battery jump packs, I have several strewed among planes, pickups, tractors, some I dont know what I did with them. Ever since I got off a jet at 1am 160 miles from home and found out I left the lights on, I always throw one in my bag. Here are my latest 2

EarthX jump pack

Its the smallest I have seen, a little too big to fit in your pocket, but not by much. EarthX is claiming 400 burst amps, whatever that means. I dont see any cold crank rating which is what you need to know. It is a Lithium Iron Phosphate battery, supposed to be superior to other types. It came with a wall charger, and they hook you for 15 bucks or so for a cigarette lighter charger. My test vehicle is my friends jeep wrangler with a totally dead battery yesterday. Outside temp 22. Connect up the clamps and wait 30 seconds, whirled it over like mad. After that I charged up my dead iphone with the supplied usb cable in about an hour . I took it on a jet last week and had to explain what it was to the TSA. Lithium batts have to be in your carry on. It has a flashlight that works good. Earth X has them onsale for
99 bucks plus shipping. It works good and is compact


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I bought a Suaoki unit off Amazon because it looked interesting. They are claiming 800 amp rating, 200000 a/h using a Lithium Cobalt battery. EarthX is saying the Cobalt batts are inferior. I have used it quite a few times now, it hasnt failed to start most dead stuff, and worked good on the dead wrangler yesterday. The trick is to let it sit for 30 secs to a minute. Also will charge a cell phone in about an hour, USB cord included. In fact the wall charger and cigarette charger is included as well. Its made in china, but seem to work ok. Has a decent hard case about twice the size of the EarthX One annoying thing is if the battery is completly dead, the unit cant sense any voltage and wont let the 12 v pass thru the handle. You have to press a small hidden button and that bypasses the safety. PIA. It need to be rewired so it is 12v live. The idea is to prevent fireworks if the pos/neg reversed. There are tons of these things on Amazon. This one works good, and is 89 bucks free ship. Has a good flashlight and a compass in case you get lost

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The cables and connectors are pretty light, they wont last with much boosting. Lots of current when you throw the starter, I can see this being an issue if used a lot to boost.

I want to find one the size of a pack of cards that will start a cold soaked diesel

Jim
 

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Huh. My EarthX Jump Packs are blue. And yes, they work great. The only problem is they're so small they're easy to lose. I need an obnoxiously bright carry bag so I don't walk away and forget another one.
 
+1 for the Earth-X.

Most of these things (the cheaper ones at least) use Lithium-Cobalt chemistry. This is the kind of battery that you hear about melting and catching fire - admittedly only occasionally.

The Li-Fe-Po chemistry in the Earth-X is substantially safer, though that might be more of a concern with a permanently installed battery rather than with a portable jump-pack.
 
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A while back on the subject of hand propping a starter equipped A/C I mentioned these units eliminate one reason to hand prop. The only other is a broken starter which can be FedEx overnight. I consider one of these packs " must carry" because they will eliminate the temptation to hand prop when the starter will not swing the prop at least 80%of the time the cause of course, a dead battery.
 
For what it's worth, I have been selling the Earth X stuff for a few years now and I have a ton of testimonies about the little Jump Pack. That thing is incredible. Kind of scary how much power is in that little box. Ford V-10's, Dodge diesels, many outboard motors and jet boat engines have all been cranked up by friends of mine. One guy actually ran his river boat on the Jump pack alone for 4 miles of up river travel. Saved his bacon that day. I've been told Earth X is one of the few that can actually be used over and over. Some of the others can only be recharged a few times before they die. I think the Earth X is a great product and the people at Earth X are great to work with.

Mike
 
Love these things! I will order and try an Earth X, But I have to give credit to M Power Jump it! They are now hard to come by, easier to find the jump it Mini. I have used the Jump It for large Diesels, V10s, Old tractors, Large High compression v8s. My first one was still going strong at over 2 years old when I gave it away and bought a fresh one. But at 2-2.5 years old it still held full charge and performed as it always had. The M Power Jump it jumped many vehicles before charging and even multiple Diesel Jumps.
 
I have been wondering about these for awhile. How does an airplane engine compare with a car engine in terms of compression / energy required to turn it over? I have no idea.
 
This sounds like just the ticket to carry in the Cub. I go places where there is no help available if the battery decides to go belly up. And under the circumstances, hand propping is not a good idea. I've had batteries quit with absolutely no warning or indications of a pending malfunction. It can be a helpless feeling.
 
This sounds like just the ticket to carry in the Cub. I go places where there is no help available if the battery decides to go belly up. And under the circumstances, hand propping is not a good idea. I've had batteries quit with absolutely no warning or indications of a pending alfunction. It can be a helpless feeling.[/QUO Great tool. I carry one all the time. Haven't used it yet on my own, but did boost and old mooney last winter (0360 with a dead battery in cold weather) and it turned it over like warm weather. Will keep a coupled of those around from now on. I really like the way they work for such a small and light item.
 
A charged Jump Pack holds that charge for a very long time. I'm less concerned with airplanes but 4-stroke outboards, snowmachines, Rangers and Rzrs don't have pull starters so the easy to carry spare battery source is handy. In my case its a good solution for a common problem.
 
I received the below response from a query I sent to the folks at EarthX. Be careful of what make/model "jump start battery" you use!

"Can one jump a small motorcycle sized lithium battery (as in the Earthx 680C commonly used in experimental planes) from an automobile battery?
NO. It is not a good idea to “jump” a motorsport battery from a car or truck battery. It is much better to re-charge it if at all possible. On the top of each battery is a label that will specify the maximum amount of charging amps to use and a “jump” start from an automobile is about 150X more amperage than maximum amperage recommended, if not more. This can cause the cells to rupture and even catch on fire. This is true for all batteries, lithium or lead acid, if you must jump start the battery, do it from a like sized battery. A lead acid is much more tolerant than a lithium battery as they absorb the charge completely different. It is perfectly fine to jump start the EarthX battery from another motorcycle sized battery or use a jump pack."
 
I received the below response from a query I sent to the folks at EarthX. Be careful of what make/model "jump start battery" you use!

"Can one jump a small motorcycle sized lithium battery (as in the Earthx 680C commonly used in experimental planes) from an automobile battery?
NO. It is not a good idea to “jump” a motorsport battery from a car or truck battery. It is much better to re-charge it if at all possible. On the top of each battery is a label that will specify the maximum amount of charging amps to use and a “jump” start from an automobile is about 150X more amperage than maximum amperage recommended, if not more. This can cause the cells to rupture and even catch on fire. This is true for all batteries, lithium or lead acid, if you must jump start the battery, do it from a like sized battery. A lead acid is much more tolerant than a lithium battery as they absorb the charge completely different. It is perfectly fine to jump start the EarthX battery from another motorcycle sized battery or use a jump pack."

I think they mean you should not jump-start a lithium battery from a large lead-acid type. It's fine to jump start a lead acid battery from a lithium jump pack (of any type or make), or an Earth-X lithium battery from an Earth-X jump-pack, or an Earth-X lithium battery from a small lead-acid type.
 
Ahhhh...
the power of peer pressure. AND Supercub.org

I just ordered an EarthX Battery Jump Pack, from EarthX. They had best price.
Just got the usps click n ship notice too..!

thanks for bringing attention to this.! It beats carrying around a spare odyssey in the survival bag.
 
I think they mean you should not jump-start a lithium battery from a large lead-acid type. It's fine to jump start a lead acid battery from a lithium jump pack (of any type or make), or an Earth-X lithium battery from an Earth-X jump-pack, or an Earth-X lithium battery from a small lead-acid type.

Seemed to work fine when I jump started Joe last month from a big lead acid jump pack

Glenn
 
Anybody know of a 24v version out there, I emailed EarthX to see if they could assemble on but no response yet.
 
Since they are small just connect two 12v in series. That is all a 24v battery is, except that it is in one box.
I thought about that but was afraid it might fry some internal doodad, think I'll ask if they see any issue or could offer a series wired jump harness.
 
Anybody know of a 24v version out there, I emailed EarthX to see if they could assemble on but no response yet.

My current 24 volt jump start pac weighs 42 pounds, so heavy I rarely take it in the plane (count on the Sat phone as the emergency backup). I have carried an XP 10 for three years for non-aviation use, it has worked flawlessly to date. I have also thought about wiring two units in series, we do it with our solar in the outpost cabins and used to have some tractors/trucks wired like that. Let us know if you come up with anything, I would also prefer to have a lite single 24v unit.
 
EarthX jump pack

Its the smallest I have seen, a little too big to fit in your pocket, but not by much. EarthX is claiming 400 burst amps, whatever that means. I dont see any cold crank rating which is what you need to know. It is a Lithium Iron Phosphate battery, supposed to be superior to other types. It came with a wall charger, and they hook you for 15 bucks or so for a cigarette lighter charger. My test vehicle is my friends jeep wrangler with a totally dead battery yesterday. Outside temp 22. Connect up the clamps and wait 30 seconds, whirled it over like mad. After that I charged up my dead iphone with the supplied usb cable in about an hour . I took it on a jet last week and had to explain what it was to the TSA. Lithium batts have to be in your carry on. It has a flashlight that works good. Earth X has them onsale for
99 bucks plus shipping. It works good and is compact


View attachment 30073

Jim
Thanks Jim for bringing this to my attention. Mine just showed up in the mail box today. It's hard to believe that so much power comes in such a small package.
 
Anybody know of a 24v version out there, I emailed EarthX to see if they could assemble on but no response yet.

You need to google for a Goliath jump start kit. I sell these here for the Beaver drivers. Similar to the Microstart kits excpt they operate on 24V.

Web
 
Thanks Jim for bringing this to my attention. Mine just showed up in the mail box today. It's hard to believe that so much power comes in such a small package.

Pete
the best part is when you whip it out to jumpstart a car and all the skeptics start with the
razzing. One guy asked me what was in the makeup bag. Nothing better than when the car starts
and you are a hero

jim
 
How long are cables? Do you attach with cowl open, pressing start standing on ground or floats. Will they reach to cockpit? My Odyssey battery is on firewall.
 
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