Car: battery charger, jump starter, tyre pump.....recommendations please.

[mark]

I am looking for one of those all in one: charger, starter, tyre pump thingies. I don't know the proper name.

Recommendations please.

mark

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I've not seen one that is a charger too - the one supplied with the pack is usually just a wall wart for charging its internal battery.

I have one bought from Lidl many years ago. It long since ceased being any use to actually start a car - it can't deliver high current any more - but still works just fine as a tyre compressor, and holds the battery charge well. And I suspect pretty all of them will be the same - only a limited number of starts before the battery is knackered.

[newshound]

That was my experience when I bought one many years ago. These days my device of choice is a beefy mains charger from Machine Mart which gives

20 amps or so on "high", and has a "boost" setting where it will deliver lots of amps for a few seconds. This will start my 2.8 diesel. I tend to give it five minutes or so on "high" first. I've never needed it away from mains but I expect a small petrol generator would run it OK (at least for the high charge).

[Bill Wright]

have two of these. Very good, although we don't use them for vehicle starting. Invaluable in a power cut.

Bill

[David WE Roberts]

IIRC most of these only have puny batteries and so aren't much good for jump starting vehicles. If you look at the size of them compared to a normal automotive battery you can see that they can't have a very large battery inside. If you are looking for a proper jump starter then look for one that garages or the AA/RAC use every day - however I think that the price might scare you :-) Generally these don't come with a tyre pump included. Better perhaps to get a proper battery, a charger to keep it topped up, and a stand alone tyre pump. You can use a cigar lighter socket to drive the pump off the battery if you want. Nowhere near as cheap as the 'all in one' solutions you see at Hafords but then they will probably do the job.

Cheers

Dave R