Hi all, sorry if this is maybe in wrong section. So battery went down on our 2008 fabia greenline 1.4 tdi. Bit surprised as it was only 18months old, one of Euro car parts budget line Lion make. They changed it without blinking an eye and after a chat let me upgrade it to a varta blue with a discount. 

Anyway my question is this. We have always had the old style jump pack Clarke or Halfords over the years but the internal battery won't hold a charge anymore. New  quality battery can be bought for £40 ish to rejuvenate jump pack ( Halfords 100). But I've been researching all Xmas the new style lithium power packs, obviously smaller and lighter. Trouble is most of the reviews are American based, and the rare uk ones are on petrol cars. So does anyone have any real life experience with these newer style packs specifically on diesel cars ?

Presume they must be tested harder due to glow plug electric consumption before turning engine over.

Or just replace battery in old pack? Any advice/ thoughts welcome. Thanks

 

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/473436-jump-starters

 

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/470075-pocket-sized-battery-jump-starter

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/445654-can-anyone-recommend-a-jump-starter

 

Edited 4 January, 20215 yr by e-Roottoot

Wow, thanks for quick reply Roottoot, I look a bit of a wally not finding that myself!

Before you spend any money on a compact jump starter here are a few notes that I found out for myself, being a dad can you fix this for the kids i bought one of these DPpower starters 1200a back in 2019, they work ok just if your battery is a bit flat and struggles to turn car over, if it needs a few cranks over these are not suitable for any sort of cranking speed, the cables that connect to the battery are not the best they get hot and one cable in the clamp had to be soldered back into clamp  most of these units have problems with the cables and after paying nearly £100 for the one i had i was a bit  disappointed, mostly at trying to get a good contact on the car that needed starting, I also found after using the unit 4 or 5 times through out the year it really struggles to work now and has been just used as a torch and phone backup battery, I landed up buying a Lucas 25ah battery for £45 and my  old battery jump starter works great again, should have gone down this road first and saved myself around £50 

Thanks Murdockman for reply. You've really echoed my own thoughts . After spending all Xmas procrastinating did what you did and ordered replacement battery for jump pack off Tanya Batteries yesterday.

£ 30 for 17ah battery should hopefully rejuvenate my jump pack for another year or so. 

Was a bit unsure if 17ah would be enough , but Tanya reckoned ok so we will see. On the few occasions in the past that I've had to use it , just attaching jump pack was enough to top up car battery to start car first go.

On a side note a bit of praise for Yusa batteries. Six years ago had palpitations when mechanic fitted one to our 1.5dci Megane for £90. Six years of school runs /shop runs still going fine, with the occasional trickle charge as it gets older. Not always worth going the cheap route.

Lots of these battery based jump packs use a Hill Billy golf trolley battery, I've replaced my one once over the past  20 years though it only tends to be used as a 12V DC power source for a tyre pump and a high speed mini drill, I only needed to use it once on a late 2009 Ibiza that had a battery draining issue that was due to a S/W issue - and it did its job okay!

 

An ex-work acquaintance had a flat battery during the first lockdown, my advice to get him going was to walk to his local Halfords which had a battery based jump pack in stock, charge it fully and use that, part of his trouble was that his car was in his garage and that garage has no mains power. Well that got him back running again, then he chose to save space and buy  a compact jump starter a GOCO GB40, having that meant that he managed to help quite a few of his neighbours to get their "under used" cars started during the first lock up.  Then he gave in with his car's original battery and went to a fast fit place and they fitted a new battery very cheaply!  A few months later, probably when the weather got colder at the start of this winter, he is back to needing to use his small jump starter, and has now discovered what was fitted to his car by that fast fit place, ie an inferior and much lower capacity battery!  So maybe he has learned a few lessons, first to get prepared for this as it was always going to happen if that car was going to be used only once a week for a very short shopping journey, and second to make sure that if your car has its original battery in it, find out what its Ah capacity is and its CCA - and only ever buy same again or bigger as it sounds like too many battery places want to get "your" business by selling you the smallest and so cheapest budget battery. I think that his spend so far has been roughly £40 + £100 + £80, the £80 probably equates to what Tayna would charge £40 for, not good.

 

I'd probably love to have one of these compact starter packs - but I'd think that I could end up being disappointed, even after buying a "good" one.

 

My own car is 10 years old in February, so based only on that, I have bought a replacement battery as I don't want to end up in trouble when away from home - if we ever get released to get away from home.

Hi rum4mo thanks for reply. Yes I'll stick with my old style jump pack, especially as I usually leave for work at 3am ish. Sure it's a bit more weight to lug around but they are dependable. Was put off in past by cost of replacement battery for jump pack being so expensive, but they seem to have got cheaper. New style lithium jumpers look attractive but 3am on an icy morning not sure I'd want to rely on one. 

On a happy note as I mentioned above ECP changed under warranty faulty Lion battery which I upgraded to a Varta blue. Changed battery in their car park ,drove home 4 miles and dumped car. Today had to go for Covid test for rtn to work and it started no hesitation after 8 days sitting there and did several stop/starts around test center with no hesitation unlike the 18 month old Lion battery that always had a hesitation b4 starting.

One good buy last year was an Aldi trickle charger. Was going to go down the Ceteck route but for £17 ish took a chance and it works. Even revived wife's totally flat battery after my air con 'repair/ bypass ahem' left battery flat.

Interesting story about your work colleague. I presume they're not confident/ knowledge enough to buy and fit a battery from a factors themselves. Would have hoped the fast fit place replaced battery under guarantee for them . Even the cheap Lion battery from ECP came with a 3yr guarantee and the Varta with a 4 yr one.

Shows how they've come on over the years, dragging my memory back to the 1980s/1990s , think if you got over a year from a battery it was a result, and they certainly didn't come with several years guarantee.