 Worked for us | | Review Date: June 16, 2010 | | Reviewer: LM1000, upstate NY | If I had read all the bad reviews on here, I probably would not have bought this product. However, for the price we found it for, I figured it can't hurt to have an option in case we needed it. A couple days ago we had a reason to try it out. After cleaning the vehicle in the garage, I left the radio on and door open, went into the house, and forgot I left it on. When I came back out about 2 hours ago, the batter was dead and the car wouldn't start. We pushed the vehicle (a Saturn Vue) out of the Garage and lined it up next to our other car hooked this up according to the instructions, and waited. When the lights turned green, we unhooked it and tried to start the car, and it worked.
Maybe it matters if the vehicles are new or not (we have one 2008 and a 2009) or maybe it matters what type of vehicle you have (both of ours are GM products), but it worked for us fine. |
does not work for me | | Review Date: January 2, 2010 | | Reviewer: Guo En Lin, | | i tried this thing during a really cold day. i have two car, one of them is parked in side of the driveway so my jumper was not long enough. At first i was happy that this device was long enough and was easy to use; just plug the black outlet to the working vehicle and orange outlet to the nonworking vehicle. after i waited about 30 min in side my house. i went outside and tried starting my other car, it did nothing. the battery was still weak and could not start the car. do not buy this junk. pay a little more and something else that works. |
don't buy | | Review Date: January 24, 2010 | | Reviewer: cubsfan1975, il | | i knew i should of bought jumper cables. the only good thing about this product is the long cord. i tried jumping my vehicle with this and it sucks. it takes 20 minutes to charge. the set up is easy. i tried charging with the temp outside in the 40's. it had enough charge to make my dome light on the inside come on. i cranked on the ignition and nothing at all. opened the car door afterwards and the dome light went off. just opening the door sucked out all the power that this thing gave me. terrible product. buy jumper cables. |
I can't believe Black & Decker would put their name on this! | | Review Date: March 15, 2010 | | Reviewer: J. P. Kelly, Aurora, IL United States | | I picked one of these up for the wife to keep in her car. We had a chance to use it the other day thanks to the kids leaving a light on in the car. We hooked it up per the instructions and I let it sit for 45 minutes. No luck. Switched over to my trusty old jumper cables and it fired right up. I am not sure if B&D forget to test this on a real car or what, but it is awful. I saw Michelin has a new set of "foolproof" jumper cables that tell you if they are hooked up right - and will not allow you do damage the electrical system. I may try these next. Thumbs down on this Black & Decker model! |
does not work | | Review Date: February 27, 2010 | | Reviewer: J. Silvestri, | | Got this as a gift. Our Honda Pilot is always parked in our driveway, and it seems like once per month the kids leave a light on that kills the battery. Our Pilot is parked in a single-car below-grade sloping driveway, cant get jumper cables to reach to the top but I can plug this thing into the Pilot's cargo area outlet and get power from a car parked in the street! I was psyched. Let it go for 30 minutes, then realized I did not have the key of the dead Pilot turned to accessory (was not getting charged). Once I realized the mistake, I tried it again for 20 minutes, the LEDs turned green, then nothing... the Pilot just clicked when I tried to start it. Let it go antother 30 minutes, still nothing. This charger is not stong enough to do the job, dont waste your money. Gotta wait for AAA to get here. |
Why these things are no substitute for real jumper cables | | Review Date: March 25, 2010 | | Reviewer: HMMWV, santa clara, CA USA | I've seen dozens of late night infomercials showing the stranded lady and 2 kids in their nice warm car with tons of snow outside just plugging a jump start device into the cigarette lighter outlet and turning over the dead vehicle which now starts like magic. It's all ficticious, and bad acting to boot.
First off, the starter motor on my honda pilot draws 240 amps. On my humvee it draws 680 amps. The fuse on ALL vehicle's cigarette lighter outlets is 10 amps and not a penny more - so there is no way you will ever run the starter through the cigarette lighter without adding a blown fuse to your list of electrical problems.
But what about letting a running car use the 10A to put enough charge into the dead car to start it. BZZT - that ain't gonna work either because the running vehicle has probably a 14VDC voltage at the lighter socket, while the dead car has lets say 8VDC for a difference of 6V! That tiny wire that they use has such a high resistance that the whole 6V difference is lost in the connecting wire leaving nothing to charge the dead car.
There are 2 ways to jump start a car..
If you do it occasionally, buy a good set of 4GA cables and keep them where you can get to them. Amazon has some good ones like Coleman Cable 08666 16-Foot Heavy-Duty Truck and Auto Battery Booster Cables with Polar Glow Clamps, 4-Gauge which are not too long and use heavy duty 4GA cable capable of actually running your starter from the other vehicle's battery+alternator together.
If you do it professionally (eg fleet vehicles or tow trucks) install an "anderson" power connector in the front bumper and hardwire it to your truck's battery - then on your set of cables remove the two clips and install the mating anderson connector so you don't even have to pop the hood to jump yourself or give someone else a boost. You can also put anderson connectors on your battery chargers/testers so you can check your battery without having to climb into the engine compartment. Nicely done this is a very convenient high current 12VDC outlet on your vehicle with alot of uses.
Basically the lighter socket should be used for running cell phone chargers (0.25A) or portable worklights (1.0A) - but anything that claims to get more than 140 watts from a lighter is stretching it and possibly going to blow your lighter fuse. |
Battery Booster? Maybe for an Ipod.... | | Review Date: February 14, 2010 | | Reviewer: Lydia Fularski, | | I was really excited when I saw this product. I drain my car battery a lot because I somehow always forget to turn something off inside. Since, I don't like to drive around with jumper cables, I thought that this was a great alternative. I recently drained my battery, and thought I would finally give this a try. I plugged everything in like it was supposed to, and my car started to make a clicking noise. I didn't think much about it, and the interior light on the dashboard turned on, as well as the dome lights, but dim. I was happy because that was a lot more than what I was getting before. I waiting for about a half hour until the lights turned green. Then I tried to start my car, and NOTHING! I thought that maybe I did something wrong, so I tried to boost it again, and again I waited for the lights to turn green, and then I tried to turn on my car again, and NOTHING! Needless to say, I pulled out the jumper cables, hooked them up, and jumped my car with no problems. I think that this product is a complete waste of money. I don't think it could charge anything the size of a car. I was very disappointed to say the least! I thought Black and Decker would produce something better. |
Waste of time and money | | Review Date: May 1, 2010 | | Reviewer: A. Forisha, | | Despite the poor reviews I still bought this device determined to make it work. Mainly because I don't know how to use jumper cables. This would be the coolest thing ever if it worked, which it doesn't. I went to use it and I am a woman so I spent about an hour inspecting the device and reading over instructions line by line. Like I said I was determined. I tried it twice 20 min each time. Manuale said not to exceed 40 min. Still no luck. I searched every where in the manuale and online for some trouble shooting issues, thinking I had to of missed someting. Nothing on trouble shooting issues anywhere, and Customer service was just a waste of my Cell minutes. Please do not do what I did listen to these reviews DO NOT BUY this. I am now going to return this product and try and figure out how to use jumper cables :( |
Not worth it!! | | Review Date: July 13, 2010 | | Reviewer: jakenjuli, | | I too purchased these, thinking they would be great for an inexperienced teenage driver. Boy was I wrong. Thank goodness my child hasn't been stranded and needed them. I have tried to help a neighbor with these, but nothing happened. Now, my own car is dead in the driveway and I've been "charging" between the two cars for almost an hour. Nothing (and yes, I did check to be sure the cig lighter stayed "hot" when the ignition was off). I am very unhappy with this useless product. |
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