I've noted that my wife has a tendency to turn the map lights on and forget, although this time it might have been my kid playing with the lights. I've gotten frantic calls to help out with a jump starter, but I no longer work close to home or wherever she might be close to home.
So it won't start and is parked in our garage. She's frantic on the phone and has about 90 minutes to take our kid to afternoon preschool. I need to talk her through EVERY STEP. She might have opened the hood before, but she doesn't remember. She needs me guide her through opening the hood release, undoing the latch, and even setting up the prop rod. This alone takes about three minutes.
Then it gets down to hooking up the charger. I tell her to look for a rectangular box, and she's telling me the clamp is broken. I'm trying to figure out what she's talking about, and then realize it's an old jump starter with a busted clamp that I gave to my parents new and that they sent back to me because they don't know how to fix it. Then she's found another box, and she says it's a Black & Decker box, which was the junk Vector/B&D jump starter that I got cheap but is too weak to start most of the time. I can't find the adapter to charge that thing anyways. So eventually she does find the right one and can hook up the positive clamp to the battery but can't figure out where to hook the ground clamp. I'm telling her to look for the connector to the ground wire. In the end I think I just should have told her to put it on the battery ground, but I'm worried that it might catch on fire.
And we're not done yet. Once plugged in, it doesn't start automatically as a safety measure. You have to press the buttons and select the battery type (STD/AGM) and charge rate (3V/12V). The indicators won't light up if it's not properly connected and there's a light to give a warning if it's reversed. I'm also checking Amazon.com for a picture of the thing so I'm not screwing up the directions by trying to describe what to press from memory. I finally talk her through to the point where the STD and 12V lights are on. She says the numerical display is flashing between 12(V) and 53(%), although I suspect that it's not that accurate when first hooking up to a battery that won't start the car.
So I suppose 30-35 minutes at 12A should be enough for her to start the car. I think it's too weak to start the car, but not completely dead. When I get home I'm going to put it on a 1.5A maintainer overnight to make sure it's fully charged. I should probably go through the steps in detail just in case she needs to do this again.
I remember letting a coworker borrow my jump starter (her husband took care of actually using the thing) but she just drove a couple of miles and it wouldn't start. I think an overnight charge at 1.5A and she wouldn't have that problem.
So it won't start and is parked in our garage. She's frantic on the phone and has about 90 minutes to take our kid to afternoon preschool. I need to talk her through EVERY STEP. She might have opened the hood before, but she doesn't remember. She needs me guide her through opening the hood release, undoing the latch, and even setting up the prop rod. This alone takes about three minutes.
Then it gets down to hooking up the charger. I tell her to look for a rectangular box, and she's telling me the clamp is broken. I'm trying to figure out what she's talking about, and then realize it's an old jump starter with a busted clamp that I gave to my parents new and that they sent back to me because they don't know how to fix it. Then she's found another box, and she says it's a Black & Decker box, which was the junk Vector/B&D jump starter that I got cheap but is too weak to start most of the time. I can't find the adapter to charge that thing anyways. So eventually she does find the right one and can hook up the positive clamp to the battery but can't figure out where to hook the ground clamp. I'm telling her to look for the connector to the ground wire. In the end I think I just should have told her to put it on the battery ground, but I'm worried that it might catch on fire.
And we're not done yet. Once plugged in, it doesn't start automatically as a safety measure. You have to press the buttons and select the battery type (STD/AGM) and charge rate (3V/12V). The indicators won't light up if it's not properly connected and there's a light to give a warning if it's reversed. I'm also checking Amazon.com for a picture of the thing so I'm not screwing up the directions by trying to describe what to press from memory. I finally talk her through to the point where the STD and 12V lights are on. She says the numerical display is flashing between 12(V) and 53(%), although I suspect that it's not that accurate when first hooking up to a battery that won't start the car.
So I suppose 30-35 minutes at 12A should be enough for her to start the car. I think it's too weak to start the car, but not completely dead. When I get home I'm going to put it on a 1.5A maintainer overnight to make sure it's fully charged. I should probably go through the steps in detail just in case she needs to do this again.
I remember letting a coworker borrow my jump starter (her husband took care of actually using the thing) but she just drove a couple of miles and it wouldn't start. I think an overnight charge at 1.5A and she wouldn't have that problem.
