Jump Up Emergency Car Starter by Miles Kimball

PROS:

Easy to use

Comes fully charged

Able to be recharged

CONS:

Did not work for me

Able to power my car radio, but couldn't power the starter motor

Does not work if the car battery is truly dead

Even if it works, it takes 10 to 20 minutes to charge the car

SUMMARY:

Skip this device.

If you want to spend around $20, invest in a good set of jump cables. If you want a real car-starter battery, you'll need to spend >$50 and buy a real battery pack with those large alligator clamps that hooks up to your car battery.

THE REVIEW:

The Jump Up Emergency Car Starter is a simple device that supposedly will jump start your car by connecting through your cigarette lighter. This may sound intriguing in concept, but in practice it just doesn't work if your battery is truly wound down.

The device is a simple battery pack with a plug coming out of it that fits into the cigarette lighter. When the switch is in the up position, the LED light goes on and the device powers up your car. When the switch is in the down position, you can charge the Jump Up device while your car is running.

All of this seems clever, but it just doesn't work in most cases.

The first observation is that trying to power the car through batteries that connect through tiny wires doesn't allow for a lot of flow. Voltage and current are two different things. The battery has enough voltage to jump start your car, but it lacks enough current--or amperage--to do this effectively.

The instructions tell you to plug in the battery and wait 10 minutes and try to start the car. If that doesn't work, you need to wait another 10 minutes. Why 20 minutes to see if the thing works? Because there is a tiny wire that connects the Jump Up battery to your cigarette lighter and some more tiny wires that connect your cigarette lighter to your car's battery. No matter what the voltage of the Jump Up battery, the wires are too small to allow for quick flow of the electrons to charge your battery quickly or turn your starter motor. Moreover, you are relying on the device to actually CHARGE your car battery. With a standard jump, you actually just need to power up the car enough to allow you to trip the starter motor--you don't need to actually charge the car battery at all for a jump to work. (Once your car is powered up, your alternator will generate power to charge the car battery.)

If your battery is just on the cusp of dead (left the lights on while you spent a few hours in the mall), you might be okay. But if your car battery is mostly dead (left the lights on overnight), you are probably out of luck. There's not enough juice in this device to power up your battery enough to start the car. And if the battery is truly dead, the Jump Up won't be able to transfer the charge to the battery such that the car battery can power your starter motor.

If your car battery is mostly dead, all you are left with is enough power to effectively light up your car radio and even run it. So if the kids are bored while you are waiting for AAA to jump start your car, the device may be effective for you. Even so, you will still need something more powerful to get the job done correctly.

In most cases, a reasonable set of standard jump cables would serve you better than this device. If you really want to power up your car via an external battery, you'll have to invest in a much more expensive, larger battery--the ones with those big alligator clips that hook directly on to your car battery.

It's possible that the Jump Up might help you in a pinch if your battery is only slightly dead, but it is unlikely to work in most cases. I tried this device on my car--it failed. The old standby jumper cables still worked wonders.

It really would have been great if the Jump Up worked the way I wanted it to. This is another one of those incredibly simple solutions that just doesn't work. Sadly, I can't recommend this device.

The cold zapped my battery and I didn't want to get left not being able to start my car. On my dash I can see how many volts that my battery has and when I used this Jump Up I could see my volts rising. It really does work and it's a nice size and good idea for ladies to keep something like this in the car. So, you don't have to get out and beg for a jump from a stranger and stay safe inside your car. If you have a bad off time and need more power, just get two and keep them charged.

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I havea motorcycle with a new battery installed, but on cold mornings I run it down. Bought the jump up and pluged it and waited about five minutes and turn the key on, pushed the stater button and engine running. I keep it in my carry on bag when ever I go riding.

Read Best Reviews of Jump Up Emergency Car Starter by Miles Kimball Here

Didn't work on my 2011 hyundai. My battery was dead and this did nothing for it. I also think the switch is faulty. Good idea, poorly executed.

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I just opened the package and turned on the switch on the cord to verify that the light illuminated... which it did. Since I only needed one Jump Up and bought a 2 pack, I took the 3 screws out of the top of one unit and removed the cover. I was shocked to find 20 LR6AM3 Alkaline, single-use batteries inside.

The instructions for this Jump Up say that the unit can be recharged by plugging it into your 12V outlet. I just emailed customersupport@valuequest.biz, which is the email address listed on the product sticker, and it bounced. The website listed on the package is also dead (

I've got a bad feeling about this.

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