I started a thread on this earlier and it got somewhat heated and was locked, but an admin said to post about the jump starter that I would buy. A month or so ago, I went to start my car and the battery was dead. I was able to get a jump and I went to two parts stores and had the battery tested, and both places said that the battery was good but low on juice. Last week, I went to a club to watch a band that some of my friends are in play a gig. After the show, I tried to start my car but it wouldn't budge. I was lucky enough to get a jump and I immediately went to Walmart (it was after midnight and I didn't have a lot of choices) and bought a Schumacher jump starter. I didn't even shut the engine off. I had my friend stay in the car to keep it safe. It is rated for V6 engines so hopefully it will start my little 2.2. The Schumacher seemed like the best choice of all the jump starters they had. I haven't had the chance to use it on my car (I hope I never need it but it's good that I have it just in case) so I have no idea how well it works. Maybe I'll come across somebody needing a jump so I can test it out. Does anybody have any experience with Schumacher products, namely jump starters? I hear that their regular chargers are excellent. As far as the charger flying around the car in an accident and hitting me in the head, I bought a second package shelf (the shelf that fits on top of the spare tire well underneath the carpet and can be installed in a higher position) (I got it for $12 at a junkyard!) and I installed it in the upper position, leaving a "trunk" area that is hidden from prying eyes. I don't know how secure it is but hopefully if I am in an accident, the starter and the toolbox I keep in the car will not turn into projectiles. Here is the charger I bought, The specs were better than a more expensive (but smaller) starter that they had.


http://www.walmart.com/ip/Schumacher-Electric-400-Amp-Jump-Starter/46167069


I hope I made a wise purchase. As long as it works, I don't care about frills.

 

Make sure it's fully charged, the one I got from Walmart was only part charged when I got it many years ago. Since these batteries are relatively small, you need all that charge available from them to be able to get a decent amount of crank time from them, but mine performed pretty well for many years, starting my V8 Ram and Camaro, the battery in it has died now, and it would cost more to get a replacement battery than to get a new jump starter, so I'll probably get one soon. For now I have the battery out of my lawn tractor, which is drained down and laid up for the winter, in the trunk just in case...

 

Thanks for the update bugo, but a battery thst tests "Good" but is low on charge means either your battery is on its way out, or your alternator isn't at its best.

Plan on replacing one or the other in the not too distant future, but now you've got something to spin it over when the battery says, "Nope, Nada, Not Gonna Do It".

And yes I was doing a bad impersonation of the first President Bush in my head as I typed "Not Gonna Do It", yup...they let me fly jets and everything...scary ain't it?



OK, it was more like Dana Carvey doing President Bush on SNL, but you get the idea. 'Scuse me, gotta plane to fly now.....

 

I have a similar jump starter that I bought from Harbor Freight that has never failed to do the job. I thought you were talking about something more compact in the other thread like the one I linked to. No experience with Schumacher jump starters but I have a Schumacher that's basically their equivalent to the Battery Tender and it I've used it for over ten years.

 

Good choice, hopefully you will never need it! And if you do please make sure you use the correct jump cable connections as per your owners manual!!

 

I have a similar one from them. It has the tire inflator and inverter and it works great. I have used it many times for neighbors and on my cars. All the features are great and it works great.

 

I noticed this at a store here, seemed good quality and construction


Home Hardware

 

This morning as I was getting off work, I heard the telltale sign of a car that doesn't have the juice to start. I offered to help her and I wanted to try out the device. The car was a Mustang which had what I'm guessing is a 3.8L V6 in it. It definitely gave the battery a boost, but we weren't able to get it to start the car. We ended up using jumper cables and it fired right up. It might work better on a 2.2 than a 3.8. I lost some confidence in it.

 

I bought one of this model, since my battery was dying, it can start the 2.2, but it takes about all the energy it has for a single crank - the battery that was in the car was holding up at about 12V, but wouldn't even crank, the starter solenoid current I guess was enough to bring the voltage down so all that happened was a chatter of relays.
With the booster fully charged the engine started well enough at about a 48F ambient, but I doubt it'd be able to do much at the 4F it was this morning, and it was significantly discharged after that one attempt, so I returned it, along with the core for the new battery I put it.

 

I forgot to mention that it was in the low 20s when I tried to jump the car. When I gave up and used jumper cables, it wouldn't start when my car was idling but I revved it up to 4K or so and the Mustang started right up.