Question - Battery booster things - Page 2

#21 03.12.2015, 08:46

	Quote:	John_H
	FWIW .. The booster has been on charge since yesterday and pressing the little button today to see it's charge, the needle goes off the scale, past 14v. So charging the charger was probably a good call .. We'll see later if it works, once i've got time to go drive it for an hour - if it starts.

Do bear in mind that the instructions (and I checked, it's the same model as mine) suggest charging it for 72h, i.e. 3 days solid, before use, so it may still not be at full capacity.

Tom1234 · #22 03.12.2015, 08:50

	Quote:
	Do bear in mind that the instructions (and I checked, it's the same model as mine) suggest charging it for 72h, i.e. 3 days solid, before use, so it may still not be at full capacity.

Near the beginning of the thread:

	Quote:	Tom1234
	It says it needs a 30 hour charge before use. You can check the charge state by pressing the red button. It's not a charger by the way. It also says in the manual, and this may be pertinent...

#23 03.12.2015, 09:00

	Quote:	Tom1234
	Near the beginning of the thread: It says it needs a 30 hour charge before use.

Yes, I know you said that, but wasn't sure where it came from, which is one reason I checked the model number and found it was exactly the same as mine, with the aforementioned 72h stated in the manual. Are you reading the manual for the same model too? Not that it would surprise me very much to find such an inconsistency.

Landers · #24 03.12.2015, 12:30

I've had cars with heavily discharged batteries barely turn over even with jumping from another car while it was running. When I scrapped one car, there was no battery in it when the guy came to collect, he attached his powerpack (like yours but I suspect a "pro" version") and it fired up like it never did before. I think the old battery takes much of the power instead of it going to the starter. If you wanted to risk it you can try disconnecting the battery first then immediately reconnecting it if the car starts up.

By the way, you can get tiny lithium power packs now which will jump start a car engine. I was thinking about getting one but I'm still unsure about the reliability. 50-70 euros on ebay or 150 chf (reduced from 250 chf!) on galaxus.ch

I don't use my car often and have no way to trickle charge it where it sits. The battery is often run down and then I take it into the house and charge it for several days (with an old reducing current charger) then it's OK again. I dare say it's far from an ideal state but a couple of discharges isn't (usually in my experience) going to ruin a battery.

rob1 · #25 03.12.2015, 13:09

Why don't you just disconnect the battery instead.. it will hold its charge longer.

#26 05.12.2015, 19:11

I know you've all been desperate to find out what happened next ..

Finally i got around to trying again today, the booster had been on charge for what 4 days? Connected it to the car battery, waiting a couple of minutes, turned the key .. and it started instantly

I then went for a drive along the highway for an hour to give it some charge and parked it in our underground .. and put the booster back on charge. Tomoro I'll try it again and take it for longer drive.

#27 05.12.2015, 21:56

	Quote:	John_H
	... I know size may not always matter but the battery in the Honda is tiny, thought it would be a breeze .. Oh it's an automatic / semi automatic.. Not to be hill started I guess? ...

mibbe, check your owners manual, some automatics (eg Smarts) have a procedure for bump starting them. Glad you got it sorted in the end.

SwissPete · #28 05.12.2015, 23:21

	Quote:	John_H
	[...] I then went for a drive along the highway for an hour to give it some charge and parked it in our underground .. and put the booster back on charge. Tomoro I'll try it again and take it for longer drive.

Did you turn the lights off?