Maplins Jump starter unit - any good for boat diesels?

Burnham Bob

Burnham Bob

Well-Known Member
Joined
18 Jul 2009
Messages
1,803
Location
Burnham on Crouch
Visit site
I have a paranoia about ending up dead in the water with both domestic and starter battery drained. (I know it should never happen but we've all got our problems.........)

Maplins are selling a jump start unit for £19. Presumably it will start a standatd family saloon, so has anyone used one to start a diesel? Mine is a Beta 14 two cylinder so hardly a large installation.
 
I used one on several occasions to jump start a Mercedes diesel car, it was ok as long as it did not need a lot of cranking, if you ran out of fuel and not bled through properly you may struggle.
 
Burnham Bob said:
Maplins are selling a jump start unit for £19. Presumably it will start a standatd family saloon,
Click to expand...

The one I had wouldn't jump start my 1.6 petrol engine so I wouldn't buy another. They have the tiniest LA battery imagineable inside, and frankly, unless you are going to connect it permanently to a charger then you are likely to find it sulphated when you eventually need it anyway. If you do connect it permanently to a charger then why not just buy a low end car battery and do the same ? Similar money, and I know which I'd prefer to be offered to start an engine with...

Boo2
 
Yes, useful thing to have on board. Can be used to start your engine in the event of both fixed batteries being flat, but is also a portable 12 volt supply for other purposes. I use one to power the dinghy inflator as its power cord won't stretch from the foredeck to the batteries. I have a spare lead for the chartplotter with a cigar-lighter plug on it so it can be used if the boat's electrical circuitry fails (it's also useful for checking it at home over the winter).
 
Burnham Bob said:
I have a paranoia about ending up dead in the water with both domestic and starter battery drained. (I know it should never happen but we've all got our problems.........)

Maplins are selling a jump start unit for £19. Presumably it will start a standatd family saloon, so has anyone used one to start a diesel? Mine is a Beta 14 two cylinder so hardly a large installation.
Click to expand...
I have used one to start my Perkins 4-107 successfully. Keep it fully charged and recharge it straight after use.
 
Burnham Bob said:
I have a paranoia about ending up dead in the water with both domestic and starter battery drained. (I know it should never happen but we've all got our problems.........)

Maplins are selling a jump start unit for £19. Presumably it will start a standatd family saloon, so has anyone used one to start a diesel? Mine is a Beta 14 two cylinder so hardly a large installation.
Click to expand...

These jump starters are equivalent to batteries - small units are rubbish - the bigger they are the more likely they are to deliver when required. I would steer away from a bargain £19 job as it is likely to let you down as my friend found out. My larger unit did the job.
 
Last edited:
Small Jump start batteries

The battery if it is in good condition will supply quite a few amps. I don't think they would alone start a diesel but can be useful to add to the amps available from the main battery. However I would not buy one. The batteries don't last a very long time and they need to be kept charged. Far better is a proper dual battery system and the discipline to regularly test each battery capability of starting engine on its own. ie don't as many do always start on both. That way if one dies of old age you won't know it until both are dead. olewill
 
I've had a look at the Maplins web site and the one for £19 is similar to one I got last Christmas except mine has a compressor which this one doesn't. A couple of times last year I had run my car battery down, a 2litre deisel, and it would not turn over. Once the booster started it first time and the second time it didn't quite do it but since it is also a charger and it was outside the house I connected it to the 240 and after about 15 minutes there was enough to start it. I would imagine that it would have no problem with your engine and for £19 may have lots of other uses as well.

The compressor on mine is slow but will do car tyres fine and is great for pumping up inflatables, but the price does go up for these.
 
VSR better

A better plan is to fit a Volt Sensitive Relay type battery isolator. That way you can't accidentally drain your engine battery by leaving manual switches in the wrong position. BEP do one for about £60 v easy to fit. Carry some jump leads so that you can use the leisure battery when the start battery fails and you are sorted!
The problem with jump start units is that they also need charging and may not be so when you need them.
(you could fit an extra switch to allow engine starting from leisure battery instead of jump leads mentioned above))
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top