Portable battery chargers

[FarmerPug]

Has anyone got one that works? Ive seen a few different videos on YT about them and they do seem to work in the tests, but usually the cars being tested are petrols or small diesels.
These are the sort of things I'm on about:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/easyjumper-Mult ... mp+starter
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00M1OUBES/r ... Q5UC&psc=1

Anyone tried one of these, i wonder could they start up an old xud with knackered glow plugs on a cold morning?

[Rolebama]

FWIW, with the AA, we had a battery pack with a standard 036 in it. (Mine had been used by a previous Patrol, and I had it for ten years, at which time it was still working well.) It lived permanently connected to the vehicle, so when needed for use it could have up to 14.2V in it. It would start just about anything, except Peugeot diesels. Bearing in mind that it would need to pass the resistance of the vehicle battery. Ten minutes with the jump leads on Peugeot diesels was usually enough to get them going. No problems with lorries etc either because the battery pack on one, and jump leads on the other and they were away.
Point is that most of the booster packs are rubbish because they are too low an Ah, and they cannot give the wattage necessary for a 'reasonable' sized diesel. The last one I saw, which was owned by a friend who asked me to check it as it had stopped working, had only a 20Ah battery. Just not good enough for anything needing a good burst of power.

[Doggy]

Agree with the above, but be aware the temperature of the battery you're boosting from has a huge effect on it's capacity as the chemical reaction required to release the energy does not work as well at low temperatures. - At 0 degrees C the actual capacity is something like 2/3 of that at 25 degrees C, at -10 degrees it's down to about 55%. If the booster is kept indoors, (or in a warm AA van), it's going to work much better size for size than a jump start from another cold battery.

[nutski]

I've got the Noco GB30, had some Amazon vouchers and it was on a Lightning Deal on Boxing Day, so far it's only been used once to start a 306 1.8 Petrol with a knackered battery and it did the job without any hesitation. I did see a video of a 4x4 being started by one with no battery at all connected, one day when i get a chance i'll try it.

[FarmerPug]

I bought a good set of jump leads, but i still could be doing with one of these jump starters, the battery in the subaru is usually flat, and its a heavy bastard to push out of the mushroom house to roll down the hill, at least it does start on the hill, the battery ran out on the 305 and one of the disadvantages of having an automatic was noted.