Jump starter for lawnmower?

I'm getting too old to pull-start my lawnmower. I bought a used electric start, but the battery is shot. A quality battery that actually has a specified internal resistance is about $40. And even if I'm careful to keep it charged over the winter, it's not likely to last more than a couple of years. Depending on the source, it may have been sitting on the shelf sulphating for years.

I went to Batteries+ and talked to the people. I got lots of "consumer speak", but no actual technical guidance. They're more interested in rotating stock than selling me a battery with a recent manufacturing date.

The start surge current is 46 Amps, but settles to 15A or so when cranking.

I have a bunch of old laptop batteries that I thought I'd assemble into a starter battery. But even if I parallel up enough cells, the protection circuit isn't likely to tolerate that 46 amps. Then there's the charger...

There are lithium car jump starters for around the same price as the lead acid. And that takes care of the protection and charging and may have other uses beyond starting the mower a few dozen times a year...looks like an option.

After some research, I realized that I don't know how they work. Jump Starter specifications have gone the way of flashlight brightness specifications. A typical EBAY listing has a headline that says 20,000 mAh...but the fine print says

10,000 mAH...but it's in a package that might hold 2,000 mAH of cells that are rated for 5% of the peak current required to start a car.

If you sort the listings by price, you see page after page of listings for ~$2, only to find that you get a cable for $2, but if you select the battery, it's $89...or $2 plus $90 shipping.

I considered a cordless tool battery. I have a 24V lithium drill battery with 6 18650 cells rated for 30A peak. If I use 3 cells or parallel up 3x2=6 cells, I loose all the advantages of protection and a working charger. And I'm thinking that 3-cells may not be enough and 4 cells in series might be a better option.

I'm seeking suggestions. Maybe a pointer to a good value on a jump starter that may not be crap.

Reply to
mike
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Some cut.

I have a Booster Pack ES2500. 12 volts, supposedly 900 peak amps. I've never had to use it so can't comment beyond that.

Reply to
Dean Hoffman

  • Batteries Plus is a ripoff place. DO NOT do business with them.

Walmart, Menards, and other places sell 12v garden tractor batteries for around $20 (plus core). By one, and live with it till it dies. I've had them last 5 or 6 years.

OR

Hire some kid to mow your lawn and pay them $20 every week,

OR

Go to a nursing home, where you dont have to mow, but you will pay $2000 every week for your care.

OR

Screw around with all those laptop batteries, which may cause a fire and burn down your house, costing you $200,000 (or more).

Looking at these figures, I'd say the $20 battery is your best bet.

Reply to
Bud

Do you have a vehicle you could use to jump start the mower? It's an old trick to rig up a vehicle with welder type female ends in the grill or somewhere handy. Those are connected to the vehicles battery with welding cable. Attach a set of male ends to a set of jumper cables. Plug them in when you want to jump start the mower.

Reply to
Dean Hoffman

Very sorry to hear that.

When easy things like that become a problem, it's time to consider a change in lifestyle. In this case, a new lifestyle where you don't have to mow your own lawn. Consider how long it will be before pushing the mower becomes too hard. Pulling a starter cord on a mower is not all that hard.

Otherwise, buy one of those cordless electric mowers.

Reply to
Dan Espen

I did that with my riding mower for a couple months, jumping it off the golf cart until I found out why the battery was always dead.

Reply to
gfretwell

My 20 hp riding mower starts on less than 20 amps - what motor are you pull-starting that draws more ? The riding mower batteries cost about $ 60. and they last about 5 years. Just buy one. John T.

Reply to
hubops

What are you using to measure that? The 46 amps came from a Fluke 337 that actually measures peak inrush current. I think that's an important bit of info when considering the design.

Reply to
mike

Thanks, I have a similar one. But it's too heavy to cart around the yard. The lithium ones will fit in the space available and won't self-discharge and be dead when you need 'em.

Reply to
mike

This thing is a 5AH battery with low volume/turnover. They're not typically on the shelf. Even the local lawnmower place had to order one and charge me for shipping. Depending on where you buy it, it may have been in the distribution chain for most of those 5 years. It's also not as cheap as a 7AH alarm battery.

That's insightful. My trigger point for moving to an apartment is when I can no longer take care of the yard. I plan to pull the plug before I get to a nursing home.

It's really more about the hobby than the $$.

Reply to
mike

Buy a good lead acid battery spec'd to fit from a high volume retailer and it will NOT be more than 3 months old. It should last 5 or more years (the one on my Yamaha blower has gone through 5 seasons)

That's $10 a yearf for dependable starting - and it's not dead yet --

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Reply to
Clare Snyder

Forget the welding cables - a good extension cord will crank the lawnmower.

Reply to
Clare Snyder

If it's a hobby, then do it right. Get a REAL mower battery, as I suggested. Then modify that mower so you can mount the battery, and connect that. I kind of know what sort of battery is in the mower and they were never really useful. They are too small and too costly to replace. It was a poor design right from the factory. Your job is to IMPROVE their poor design. If the actual mower batteries are too large to fit anywhere, motor cycle batteries are a bit smaller, or find a Gel Cell on ebay and use that. The Gel Cells are typically 12V, but some are also 6V. They are used in road barracades with flashing yellow lights, and other things. They are just a small scale lead-acid battery like a car battery, but the acid is a gel, not a liquid.

If you have a farm supply store nearby, these Gel Cells are also sold for Solar-Charged Electric Livestock Fencers.

Reply to
Bud

Actually pretty hard to find a real gel-cell today.

The majority are the MUCH better Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM) VRLA battery

- also known as "starved electrolyte"

Reply to
Clare Snyder

They are still sold and called Gel Cells for the electric fencers. Back in the 90s I used to get them at a place that sold overstock items and they were cheap. I used them to power one of them big camcorders that everyone had back then. (withe the vcr tape inside). It also doubled as a battery for a portable CB radio made for temporary use in cars.

I simply mounted the gel cell in a strong canvas bag, and put a cigarette lighter female socket on a wire that hung out of the bag. The bag had a strap so I could hang it on my shoulder. I could run that camcorder for many hours off that single 12V Gel Cell. Probably 5 times the capacity of the internal battery pack made for that camcorder. The CB radio ran a whole day on that battery. I would charge them with a standard 2A car battery charger. Worked great.

The ones sold for the electric fencers are very expensive. I'd check ebay.

Reply to
Bud

Isn't that what I'm trying to do? Put in a lithium that will still be charged when I need it and maybe have other applications.

I'm not entirely stupid. I have motorcycles and batteries and computers and batteries and power tools and batteries. An an engineering degree. Fire insurance. I've got a battery tab welder. A balance charger. I've built computer controlled battery analyzers. The hardest part of the whole project is the overdischarge protection. 46A is a lot for the disconnect switch. Available/affordable packaged cell monitors draw a lot of current doing nothing. It's conceptually trivial up until you have to start packaging it up into a usable box.

My question was not about any of that. The question was about a pointer to a specific cost effective lithium jump starter (see the subject line). All the rest was just context to stimulate...

If the actual mower batteries are too large

Reply to
mike

On Sat 14 Apr 2018 12:11:53a, mike told us...

Your whole damned post was "just context to stimulate.." Ask a direct specific detailed question and you might just get an answer instead of conjecture.

You're just a windbag with way too much time on your hands, and wasting everyone else's time.

Reply to
Wayne Boatwright

I bought a battery for my 23hp walk-behind last week. It's 275 CCA, and sells for $30 at Walmart.

The mower requires I buy a new one every 3-5 years, depending on if I bring it inside during winter and connect to my Battery Tender. I've done this for many many years.

Don't take this wrong, but if you cannot pull-start a mower, or afford a battery every few years... you probably shouldn't own a mower. Even a self-propelled requires effort. Certainly more than starting one usually requires.

Good luck.

Reply to
83LowRider

That's a good point. A properly working lawn mower should start with one or two easy pulls. Even my 5hp snowblower, which has electric start isn't har d to pull start. I opted for electric start there because it has to start i n freezing temps, is used infrequently, is a larger engine, etc.

Reply to
trader_4

Best answer, go for an electric lawnmower. Everyone I know who ones one lo ves it. Quiet, no gas, low maintenance, always starts, does a good job. N ot suitable for a huge lawn but fine for most.

Okay answer, buy a battery that doesn't die as quickly. The chemistry on m odern batteries means they lose half their life every time you run one down . Find an old style one - cop cars use them because with all the extra ele ctric draw they go through batteries quick. They're expensive but at your age you might only have to buy one.

Reply to
TimR

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