12V Power Packs - which one?

[Scotty_Tradewind]

Are the 12V power packs any good for emergancy start up of a 16HP marine diesel ?
If so is there one which may suit most/all my needs to have aboard ?
e.g. to heat plugs and start engine, compressor, light, emergency 12v domestic supply.

 

[sarabande]

so, what's the difference between a Power Pack from Maplins (£128, 40 AH, 1 small set jumpleads)

and

a 100Ahr battery - about £60
one set of industrial leads - about £20
a torch - about £3

apart from the packaging ???

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

so, what's the difference between a Power Pack from Maplins (£128, 40 AH, 1 small set jumpleads)

and

a 100Ahr battery - about £60
one set of industrial leads - about £20
a torch - about £3

apart from the packaging ???

ability to be easily portable?

 

[rickym]

DIY?

In reply to the OP I have a Draper power pack. Only used it twice in 8/9 years it has started the engine fine, both times the engine and domestic battery had been left on for a few days and were too flat to start the motor. The boost the Power pack gave was enough to start the engine.

Just remember to keep it charged!

 

[pvb]

Are the 12V power packs any good for emergancy start up of a 16HP marine diesel ?

As long as you keep it charged, yes. Remember that marine diesels are generally much smaller than car engines - your 16HP is probably only about 650cc.

I've been looking around recently at power packs, and this one on eBay at £27 looks half-decent value.

 

[JustMelfort]

I have one of those - or very similar. I've had it for years. Its only a 14 or 17Ah battery (can't remember) but it starts old 2.5l diesel landrover, boats, cars; powers mobile phone chargers during power cuts and pre-cools my 12v cold box. I've also run echo sounder and autohelm from it and pumped trailer tyres and bike tyres from it. So at 20 odd squid - a very useful bit of kit and easily recharged.

 

[agurney]

I've had a cheap version from Lidl for several years. It starts my car (2L diesel) without a problem, and can turn my boat's 1GM10 for several minutes. The bult-in light and compressor come in useful from time to time, and I can use it to power a laptop etc. if I want to save the boat's power. It looks similar to the eBay one.

I used to think they were a joke, but started taking them seriously when I saw half a dozen in the corner of a car showroom.

Alisdair

 

[steverow]

Would it work on a 210hp GM 8 cyl diesel?

 

[jakeroyd]

I only have a single battery system on my boat and have one of the yellow cased Rolec type starter packs available evertwhere for about £35.
It would start my 1GM10 from flat but would not quite start a Rover Metro with a completely flay battery.
It has a 15AH battery inside , this will be biased towards lots of current for a very short time and so will be fairly modest as a standby system.
Mine will run my laptop via a Maplins DC to DC unit for about 3 hours.
Seems to hold it?s charge pretty well.