Red Fuel Portable Jumpstarter-Avoid.

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After a recent episode with the battery on the Ranger out in Timbucktu and waiting 2 hours for a jump start, I thought that I wanted something small that I could keep handy in the truck and use in a pinch. Even though I have 2 jump boxes, I don't care to haul one of those around with me all the time.

So after shopping, I ended up with the Schumacher unit above. Bought it from Wally World.com on "Rollback" for $35, which was $8. off the normal price. I hesitated because of the pricepoint, however I really liked the compact packaging of it, plus it was highly rated.

Fast forward to today. At the gas station and a guy as me for a jump. After filling up, I went over to his car and hooked up the jump starter per the instructions. The car in question was an Accord 4 cylinder, and had small cables on it. Before he could even get into the car to start it, the negative clamp (plastic) exploded. After not being able to readily snap them together, I ended up dragging out my jumper cables and started it that way.

Fortunately, I had the box and receipt with me. Wally now owns it once again.
I didn't expect professional quality for the price, but I would have expected it to work at least once. Somewhat disappointed, as I have had good service with Schumacher products in the past.

Back to the drawing board.
 
I got one of these for xmas 3 years ago.. I would rank it 3.5 stars.. I have used it probably 5 times and it worked on all except for the one V8, all other attempts were 4 cylinders. Never had any trouble with the clips or anything. It does hold a charge suprisingly for a very long time. Just dont expect it to provide a ton of power - just mainly for low batteries on 4 and 6 cylinders..
 
I got a Gooloo 1000 and its been good. I use it mostly for opening trunks (keys and battery are usually gone) and testing parts at the bone yard.
 
What do you mean when you say it exploded? The plastic broke? Or exploded, like, exploded exploded?

I have an old Black Friday PEAK branded jumpstarter from Pep Boys that has always worked well for me, at least for starting low batteries. Haven't ever tried a totally dead car.
 
Originally Posted By: EdwardC
What do you mean when you say it exploded? The plastic broke? Or exploded, like, exploded exploded?

I have an old Black Friday PEAK branded jumpstarter from Pep Boys that has always worked well for me, at least for starting low batteries. Haven't ever tried a totally dead car.



The whole thing just popped apart and went all over the place. No visible cracks or pieces of plastic broken off. Spent about 20 minutes trying to get both pieces of the clip back together and gave up. If they would have spent another buck for some better quality clamps, this thing probably would have been a winner. They did do a nice job packaging it, plus it came with a nice cable to connect to the unit to charge an Iphone with.
 
Originally Posted By: kpatter
I got one of these for xmas 3 years ago.. I would rank it 3.5 stars.. I have used it probably 5 times and it worked on all except for the one V8, all other attempts were 4 cylinders. Never had any trouble with the clips or anything. It does hold a charge suprisingly for a very long time. Just dont expect it to provide a ton of power - just mainly for low batteries on 4 and 6 cylinders..


It says in the literature that it is to be used on 4 cyl and 6 cyl. I guess you proved that.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Red-Fuel-Portable-Jump-Starter-and-Battery-Charger/54459184
 
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