Top 10 Best Car Battery Jump Starters
In days past, we kept a pair of jumper cables in the trunk, just in case. If your battery started acting up, you pulled out the cables and hoped someone was around and willing to help by offering their car and battery to give you a “jump”.bucks more, you can buy full piece of mind with a jump starter. This handy, portable tool
Those days are long gone. Now for just a few is small enough that it can sit out of the way until it’s needed. Don’t let its small size fool you. The best car battery jump starters allow you to start your car a few times on a single charge!
Especially in the winter, each of your driving family members should be carrying one of these just in case. It’s a relatively small price to pay and little space to give up to make sure you have the power to keep rolling when you need it most. Don’t let your family get stuck out in the cold…check out our list of the best jump starters below.
Clore Jump-N-Carry JNC660 12v Jump Starter
✔ Lead Acid Battery
✔ Built-in Automatic Recharging
✔ 46-inch Heavy Duty #2 AWG Cables
✔ Heavy Duty Case
✔ Voltmeter for Battery Status
✔ Power Supply & Built-in Charger
✔ Easy to Use
10/10
NOCO Boost Plus GB40 12v UltraSafe Jump Starter
✔ 1000 Amps
✔ Lithium Ion Battery
✔ Very Compact
✔ Reverse Polarity Protection
✔ Spark-Proof Technology
✔ Available in 6 Sizes, from 400A – 20,000A
✔ Recharge Phones, Tablets, & other USB Devices
✔ Integrated LED Flashlight
9.9/10
Clore JNCAIR Jump Starter with Air Compressor
✔ 1700 Peak Amps
✔ Built-in Air Compressor w/ 12ft Coiled Air Hose
✔ Extra Long 68″ Cables
✔ Voltmeter for Charge Status
✔ Rugged, Built-to-Last Design
✔ Built-in Charger & Power Supply
9.7/10
Imazing Portable Car Jump Starter
✔ (8) Safety Features Including Reverse Polarity & Over-Load Protection
✔ LCD Display
✔ Built-in LED Flashlight
✔ Works in Extreme Temperatures
✔ Carrying Case Included
✔ Supports QC 3.0 Quick Charge
9.4/10
BEATIT G18 QDSP Portable Jump Starter
✔ Lots of Power (2000 Peak Amps), Small Size
✔ 21,000 mAh Power Bank
✔ Can Charge a Vehicle Up to 30 Times on a Single Charge!
✔ Integrated Wireless Smart Phone Charger
✔ LCD & Voltmeter Built-in
✔ Bright LED Flashlight with SOS
9.3/10
Schumacher SJ1332 Power Station
✔ 1200 Peak Amps
✔ (2) 120V AC, (2) 12V DC, USB Port
✔ Integrated 150 PSI Air Compressor
✔ Digital Display Monitors Charger & Vehicle Battery Voltage
✔ Charger, Compressor, Power Bank, Jump Starter All-in-One
✔ Very Reliable & Good Customer Service
9.1/10
Rugged Geek RG1000 Intelliboost Jump Starter
✔ 1000 Amp Emergency Jump Starter/Charger
✔ Small: Not Much Larger Than a Cell Phone
✔ Lightweight: Under 1lb
✔ Intelliboost Cables are Safe & Easy
✔ Perfect for Emergency Prevention – Buy One For Each Car!
✔ LCD Digital Display & LED Flashlight Built-in
9.0/10
Stanley JUMPiT J5C09 Power Station Jump Starter
✔ 1000 Peak Amps
✔ Integrated 120 PSI Air Compressor
✔ A/C or D/C Charging
✔ LED Battery Level Indicators
✔ Reverse Polarity Alarm
✔ Great Price…Many Poor Online Reviews
8.8/10
Clore Jump-N-Carry JNC950, 2000A
✔ Extra-Large Capacity 2000 Peak / 700 Cranking Amps
✔ 46-Inch, #2 Gauge Cables
✔ Heavy-Duty, Industrial Grade Jump Starter
✔ Comes w/ Charging Cable and male/male 12V Extension
✔ Perfect for Diesel Shops, Fleet Maintenance, Marine Applications
✔ Automatic Built-in Charger
8.8/10
Kinverch Portable Car Jump Starter
✔ 1000 Peak Amps / 500 Instant Starting Amps
✔ 150 PSI Air Compressor Built-in
✔ Bright LED Light
✔ AC and DC Charging Possible
✔ USB and 12V Charging Ports
✔ Great for Camping, Power Outages, or Emergencies
8.6/10
Jump Starter Buying Guide
These portable jump starters can be a critical tool for anyone driving a car, especially in the winter. Getting stranded with a dead battery can turn into an emergency quickly when it’s cold and/or dark outside. It’s also a major problem if you’re in a remote area and other cars aren’t passing by frequently. Even then, you won’t always have the luxury of asking your battery to give you trouble only when you’re driving through good neighborhoods.
Long story short, having a good, reliable, charged portable jump starter with you at all times in the car is a great safety net. They’re as essential as having a heater in your house during the winter. They also make a great gift for anyone in the family. Getting one for a younger driver you know could also be a great teaching moment to prepare him or her before they get into a bad situation.
Likewise, this guide was assembled to help prepare you for making a good decision when looking to buy a jump starter. We’ll talk about what you should look for and what’s most important. But first, here’s some of the criteria we used for picking our top 10 list above.
Our Proprietary Ranking System Takes The Following Factors Into Consideration
Power vs. Size
Customer Satsifaction
Auxiliary Tools
Price Point
Feedback/ Reviews
Features Included
Following these guidelines will help ensure you don’t overlook anything, and that you’re finding something that works best for you. What this means to you is that the best car jump starter may not be the same for everyone. More on this below.
What to Look For in Car Battery Jump Starters
There are tons of different features offered on battery jump starters these days, but there are only a few benefits you need to concentrate your thoughts on. By narrowing your focus, you’ll save time and money not being distracted by starters that aren’t pertinent to your needs.
But what are these factors you ask? The first is, and always should, the amount of power output the jump starter has. This will determine what type of vehicle it can start, and how many times it can do it on a single charge. By doing this first, it simplifies the rest of the process.
Next, let’s talk about the difference between a standard jump starter versus one that uses a Lithium Ion, and why you’d use one over the other.
Then consider if you need or want extra features like an air compressor, integrated flashlight, etc. And finally, we’ll think about the price tag discuss how to leverage online customer reviews and feedback to make sure we always increase our success rate on picking good products that others have found helpful in the past.
Jump Starter Power
As you noticed on our list of the best battery jump starters, they all have different amperage (Amps) ratings. Identifying how much power you’ll need will be dependent on your vehicle type. While what really matters to us is the cranking amps on a jump starter, marketers often play the game of advertising the product’s “peak” amps.
A jump starter with 1000 peak amps will start most cars and light SUVs, so that was the baseline we used in our list above. There are smaller, cheaper portable jump starters available but we would typically advise against them. What’s the point if having one if it might not do the job when you need it most? In fact, in jump starters, more power is always better. You can never “over-power” your vehicle’s battery.
If you plan on using the jump starter for larger vehicles, diesel engines, or even just on multiple vehicles, you should certainly consider something with a bit more power. You’ll find several options that fit this description on our list above.
Lithium vs Lead Acid Jump Starter
You may have noticed that there are basically two sizes of a jump starters above. There are larger ones, these are the standard lead acid jump starters that have been around for years. They are reliable and inexpensive for the amount of energy you get.
The relatively new alternative is the lithium-ion jump starter. Because the energy density is so high, this option is much smaller in size and lighter in weight. That also self-discharge at a slightly lower rate than lead acid, so they’ll stay charged longer in storage. For these reasons, this option is clearly the better option for storage, but the price per energy will be higher with lithium, so there’s a trade-off.
Additional Features
More and more bells and whistles are being added to the top car battery jump starters every day. One of the most common is an air compressor. Of course, you’ll likely only see this option on the larger lead acid jump starters, but it’s very convenient to have. According to Car and Driver, deflated tires and dead batteries are two of the most common issues cars face during the cold weather of the winter months.
Other common features found on both kinds of jump starters include integrated flashlights, charging ports (AC, DC, and USB), and voltmeters that display battery and charger power. Many of the lithium portable jump starters also double as power banks for your smart phone or tablet.
Social Proof
If you’re not familiar with this term, having social proof means that others that have tried the product liked it and are telling people about. They’ve left feedback or reviews online, touting the product’s success and telling you us all about it. Another form of social proof would be a testimonial or product review from someone “in the know”, or an industry expert. There is so much info like this readily available to us at no cost via the internet. We should leverage this to help us make good buying decisions. This is one of the factors we considered for our list above. Social proof can be a powerful tool.
Budget
What should you expect to spend on a good jump starter? Roughly $100 should buy you a reliable car battery jump starter that has good product reviews, adequate starting power, and some basic features. Expect to pay slightly more for something that contains more power for larger or multiple vehicles.
You’ll also obviously pay more for a jump starter that has an integrated air compressor, but we believe it’s worth the extra money if you have room for storage. Although most are slower at filling tires than a standard air compressor, this is usually a very inexpensive add-on option for what you get.
Conclusion
Portable car battery jump starters are a great tool to have and an inexpensive device for the peace of mind they bring to you and your loved ones. They can turn a would be emergency into a minor inconvenience if you’re prepared. Hopefully we’ve made the process of buying a portable jump starter easier for you and you’ve been able to find the right on for you.
As a quick reminder, at the top of our list we recommended the Clore Jump-and-Carry JNC660 as the best battery jump starter. It’s a very popular model with adequate power for most vehicles, some nice features, and tons of social proof!
If you need or want something smaller, our recommendation as the best lithium jump starter is the NOCO Genius Boost Plus GB40. It’s physically much smaller than the JNC660 and still has decent power, along with some added safety features like reverse polarity protection and spark-proof technology. There are other power options if you find that you need more than this model offers.