Thread: Lithium Jump Starters

I bought one a few years back in Ulladulla as a mates kids had left the ignition on in their people mover, I'd just acquired the Disco and you can't clutch start an auto.
I can't recall if I was in the Disco or the work ute at the time, but the jumper leads were in the Deefer back in Canberra and I didn't have the facility to jump from the second battery that I had in the Deefer.

Used it once since, worked as advertised.
Plug it in once a month

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

This is an interesting report on how to maximise the life of lithium - ion batteries. It seems to require quite a different approach than for lead acid batteries.
I've been trying to get my head around this to figure out how to prolong the life of my mobile phone's battery, which is already 3 years old. I also have a Projecta lithium jump starter, which is great.
Some tips I've worked out are:

Don't deep discharge the battery as that shortens battery life.
Aiming for about a 70-80 % discharge down to about 30% seems to prolong battery life.
More frequent charging is better than occasional charging.
Don't leave the battery on a charger for more than about 12 hours as that can cause the battery to overheat (this 12 hour figure came from the instructions for my phone).

You can deep discharge as much as you like and it has no measurable effect on battery life, although if it's a multi-cell battery then you are reliant on the protection circuitry to cut off prior to cell damage. Pretty much all of them do. If you want to extend the life then you don't fully charge. 80% seems a good tradeoff of life vs capacity. A number of electronic devices have a battery preservation mode where you can limit the charge capacity in exchange for a longer life. My old 2006 Vaio was the first PC I had that did that as an option. I had 3 batteries in the life of the laptop and anecdotal evidence was it worked. I've heard some of the phones offer that option now also.

You could describe it as a Lithium battery has a life limit of supplying X number of Ampere hours. If you do that over 200 full cycles, or 2000 short cycles it's not really that much different, but they do tend to age faster if you charge them to capacity (resulting in fewer cycles).

If you want to store them, discharge them to ~40%. Put them in the fridge. Heat and a full charge are the enemy of Lithium cells, 40% seems to be the value where they age the slowest. Over discharge will kill them quicker plating the electrodes and potentially causing catastrophic failure when you try to recharge them. In this context, over-discharge is past the point the BMS would have already disconnected the cell, so it's not something you can do deliberately or accidentally. This is the reason they have protective circuits to prevent over-discharge.

You can leave them on the charger as long as you like. Chargers for Lithium batteries cut off when they are called "full". Trickle charging kills them.

Frankly without the protective BMS, Lithium batteries are spawn of the devil. The role of the BMS is to prevent them going off in your pocket and setting fire to your grundies.

The electronics have now evolved to the point where a lithium battery (one or more cells) is a robust, mostly safe and usefully dense power source. It does take the electronics to keep things in check though.

Originally Posted by trout1105

Instead of spending $200/$300 on a jump starter wouldn't it be more prudent to spend that money on a decent battery and ensuring that the charging system is working up to spec??, This would eliminate the need for the jump starter in the first place

I bought the ones that I have tried primarily to use on my boat as I spend quite a lot of time at sea in remote areas that it is a rarity to see another vessel and in many areas I go the VHF/27Meg reception is very patchy or non existent.
I tested the units by having them fully charged and stowed away for a couple of months then I try and start the engine 70HP or 115HP 4 strokes with a half flat battery fitted (wont spin the motor on its own) and I found that 9 times out of 10 they did the trick.
This "Fine" if you don't rely on these chargers as your primary "Back Up" But that 1 in 10 failure rate can get you killed in a boat or even if you are stuck in the middle of nowhere with your 4WD with No help available.

Battery "Maintenance"( dual batteries and an isolator switch fitted is a MUST on boats) and maintaining the charging system is MY Primary defence against flat batteries on my boats AND my 4WD's.
As I always carry at least 1 solar panel either on the boat or in the 4wd I use these as my secondary line of defence I case I do something completely stupid by leaving something on that flattens a battery or even both of them overnight.
Even on an overcast and rainy day a decent solar panel WILL put enough charge into a battery to get you out of trouble

In the City or suburbia these starter packs may be useful But NEVER rely on them 100% in the unhappy event of getting a flat battery Especially in a remote area.
Personally I can't be bothered carrying one of these anymore and they have been delegated to a shelf in the shed with all the other things I have bought that I though were a Good idea at the time and have been disappointed at their usefulness and are slowly gathering dust.

I would love it to be that simple for me. I have an intermittent battery drain that can disappear for months then come back without warning. I’ve tried to find the cause. I have had two auto electricians look into it with no luck. I have a solar blanket and can jump from the lithiums behind the rear seats if I had to, but the jump starter is the quickest and simplest solution. It hasn’t let me down yet.

Lithium jump starter bought from Aldi. Here's hoping to never having to use it; but if I do need to, I'll report back.

In the meantime, if I ever I get the urge to go for a 2-week bike ride without access to 240v power but in mobile reception range, I can keep multiple mobile phones charged!

Got a Noco GB70 to replace my cheaper jobbie that puffed the battery when I cranked my D1 a little long (No circuit doing any temp sensing etc).

The Noco has an impressive build including electrode jaws 3 times the size and thickness as the old one. Good kit.

Cheers