emergency car starter

[tuscan bev]

Has anyone used one of these?
you plug in one end to cigarette lighter of a running car and plug the other end into the cigarette lighter of the car that's not running and it charges the battery. It says a safe way to charge your dead battery.
do they work or are they likely to blow any fuses in the car being charged.
worth buying or not?

[madbadger]

Accumate is fine if you are at home in the garage.

If the battery does go flat will these do the job instead of jump leads? bearing in mind how big a pain it is getting jumpleads onto the battery terminals. Especially if you havn't got a jack handy.

[tvrgit]

madbadger said:

Accumate is fine if you are at home in the garage.

If the battery does go flat will these do the job instead of jump leads? bearing in mind how big a pain it is getting jumpleads onto the battery terminals. Especially if you havn't got a jack handy.

Only if you let one car charge the other's battery a bit, and then unplug the leads before you try to start the dead one. I don't know how long that would take - depends on the state of both batteries and the "donor car" charging system. I read instructions on one once and it said about 20 minutes IIRC.

They cannot carry full starter current like proper jump leads can.

[kevin63]

I have bought one of those power pack thingys, it has a compressor for pumping the tyres up, a light (that's for when it's dark) a 12v fag light out let thing and jump leads. I forgot to plug in the accumate once and car didn't turn over on starter, so i connected that up and car started no problem, not bad for £19.95p.