Jump starter that's a deep cycle with some bells and whistles?

[fuzzybabybunny]

So I'd love to get a jump starter that I can use to power other car electronics without worrying about irreparably damaging it by not having it constantly topped off like a regular car battery. Most jump starters unfortunately seem to only use regular car batteries that must stay topped off.

First and foremost I'm looking for a jump starter that actually uses a deep cycle battery. It would have to have at the least a cigarette lighter outlet to power accessories.

Things that would be very nice include:

Built-in Inverter (important)
Air Compresser
Light
AM/FM Radio

 

[soydios]

get a deep-cycle marine battery and attach your own inverter and 12V accessories?

 

[Gillbot]

Any battery that is cycled heavily will wear out.

 

[soydios]

Any battery that is cycled heavily will wear out.

yeah, but a marine battery that is designed with heavier-duty plates for deep discharge use will wear out slower

 

[Gillbot]

yeah, but a marine battery that is designed with heavier-duty plates for deep discharge use will wear out slower

Hence the "Deep Cycle" nameplate, but my point is they can and will wear out also.

 

[Eli]

I doubt you'll find one. The batteries in those jump starters are AGM SLA's.

While deep cycle SLA's do exist, they are the exception.

I would buy a nice Optima yellow top, and build a small box for it.

You could throw an inverter inside and have a 120V recepticle on the outside of the box, along with a female cig lighter socket or three. Wire it into your car so that it only gets power when the ignition is on. Oh, and throw in a 100A diode on a beefy switch. That would make it so accessories and the starter can't draw current from it, but with the flip of a switch it would be an emergency jump start.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

I doubt you'll find one. The batteries in those jump starters are AGM SLA's.

While deep cycle SLA's do exist, they are the exception.

I would buy a nice Optima yellow top, and build a small box for it.

You could throw an inverter inside and have a 120V recepticle on the outside of the box, along with a female cig lighter socket or three. Wire it into your car so that it only gets power when the ignition is on. Oh, and throw in a 100A diode on a beefy switch. That would make it so accessories and the starter can't draw current from it, but with the flip of a switch it would be an emergency jump start.

Damn. Why do you think no one makes a deep cycle jump starter with bells and whistles? It doesn't make sense making a power station that's designed to be drained by peripherals if draining the battery is irreparably damaging it...

 

[Eli]

Damn. Why do you think no one makes a deep cycle jump starter with bells and whistles? It doesn't make sense making a power station that's designed to be drained by peripherals if draining the battery is irreparably damaging it...

Draining any and all batters is irreparably damaging them. Deep cycles just take the abuse a little better.

While you might only get fifty 100% DoD charges out of a normal battery, you might get 75 out of a deep cycle.

Here's a chart showing how different Optima batteries perform:

As you can see, at 100% DoD, the Yellow top will take about twice as many charge cycles as the Red top. I don't know why they don't show the Red top's curve up past ~15%, but it should look similar.

I'll search around for a deep-cycle specified emergency jump starter, but I don't think they really anticipate them being used like that. They're used to simply jumpstart a car, so the added cost and weight of a small deep cycle SLA probably isn't worth it.

 

[Eli]

LOL, well that isn't very promising. This thread has been one of the top search results for everything I've searched for so far.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Damn. Why do you think no one makes a deep cycle jump starter with bells and whistles? It doesn't make sense making a power station that's designed to be drained by peripherals if draining the battery is irreparably damaging it...

Because nobody is as crazy as you and wants to try and power a small city from within their econobox automobile?

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Draining any and all batters is irreparably damaging them. Deep cycles just take the abuse a little better.

While you might only get fifty 100% DoD charges out of a normal battery, you might get 75 out of a deep cycle.

Here's a chart showing how different Optima batteries perform:

As you can see, at 100% DoD, the Yellow top will take about twice as many charge cycles as the Red top. I don't know why they don't show the Red top's curve up past ~15%, but it should look similar.

I'll search around for a deep-cycle specified emergency jump starter, but I don't think they really anticipate them being used like that. They're used to simply jumpstart a car, so the added cost and weight of a small deep cycle SLA probably isn't worth it.

At how much voltage would it be considered 100% DoD? Under 12V?

I don't think I'd be reaching 100% DoD. Maybe 50%? In which case the deep cycle can do about 1000 while the red top can only do 200...

BTW, I find it crappy that all these inverters with "smart cutoff" do so when they sense the battery at 11.8V or something. At this voltage you're already not going to be able to start your car, heh.

 

[weadjust]

I have owned a couple of Xantrax 400 power packs. First one lasted 4-5 years and will power my 27" CRT TV for about 4 hours. I took the first one apart after the battery died and I had purchased a new one. I wanted to salvage the inverter but stopped taking it apart when I discovered you can easily replace the battery with a sealed ATV, PWC or Motorcycle battery. No radio or deep cycle but meets most of your needs. I have been pleased with both of mine. 4 star rating on Amazon.
Link
http://www.amazon.com/Xantrex-XPower.../dp/B000157TP8

 

[Dssguy1]

I know, super old post but I wanted to point out that you didn't read the chart correctly if you came up with only "twice as many cycles" as the Red top. The Red top is rated at about 40 full discharge cycles before you have lowered the overall battery capacity to 50%. The Yellow top is close to 300 cycles. So not a 50% gain in number of cycles, a 750% gain.

That's a BIG difference.

Draining any and all batters is irreparably damaging them. Deep cycles just take the abuse a little better.

While you might only get fifty 100% DoD charges out of a normal battery, you might get 75 out of a deep cycle.

Here's a chart showing how different Optima batteries perform:

As you can see, at 100% DoD, the Yellow top will take about twice as many charge cycles as the Red top. I don't know why they don't show the Red top's curve up past ~15%, but it should look similar.

I'll search around for a deep-cycle specified emergency jump starter, but I don't think they really anticipate them being used like that. They're used to simply jumpstart a car, so the added cost and weight of a small deep cycle SLA probably isn't worth it.