Customer Reviews

Black & Decker BB7B Simple Start 12-Volt Battery Booster

5 star:		(67)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(25)
1 star:		(133)

 

 

Note that this thing CHARGES your car battery, so that the car battery will have enough juice to hopefully start your car. This does NOT jumpstart your car. For jumpstarting your car, you really need a jumpstarter with lots of current, and direct connection (i.e. by opening the hood) to the car battery terminals. This is NOT meant for that. It is a battery *booster* which means it adds more charge to your car battery. Recharging takes time because it cannot pump too much current through that cigarette lighter (otherwise it will damage it). That's why you'll need to wait 15-20 minutes. There are faster chargers in the market, but because faster chargers put out more current for the charging, you will need to open the hood and connect directly to the battery terminals - not a tough job, but that takes at least 5-10 minutes anyways and you have to get out of the car, which can be dangerous if you're stalled by the road.

Also, note that depending on your car model, you WILL have to turn your ignition key to the "accessory" mode (i.e. car radio on) before you can charge through the cigarette lighter. I believe this is the problem of an earlier review where the charger beeps right after plugging it in.

I have used it a couple of times and it works perfectly. Sure, 15-20 mins is a long time to wait, but hey I always have a good book handy.

I dock 1 star from the ratings because I thought the instructions could be clearer and I wish the TV commercial hadn't been so misleading - letting people think that you can jumpstart through the lighter - big NO NO... But otherwise, as a charger, this is GREAT!

I just bought this a week ago after my battery first started failing. Since then I've had to use it twice and it's worked great both times. All you have to do is plug it in and press "Boost Vehicle". The only downside is it takes about 10 minutes before you can start your car versus the 4-5 minutes of one of the larger battery boosters. But you can't beat this small size and weight and especially not having to get out of your car when it's raining or cold. 5 stars all the way!!

Nice little package with lots of claimed potential, however, when our less than two year old 2005 pickup truck battery ran down from an unchecked map light, and we tried using the fully charged BB7B as advertised, letting it complete it's cycle with appropriate lights and sound feedback, it could not boost the truck battery enough to achieve a start. Recharged BB7B and tried again - same results. We had to go and get a regular battery charger to recharge the truck battery.

Bottom-Line-Up-Front: Please do not waste hard-earned money on this product. It will not do the job, and you will be stranded anyway.
I am so dissappointed. I trust Black & Decker to produce quality tools, but in this case the company has created a real dud. I received my Simple Start with much excitement, charged it for two full days, and followed the directions included with it to start my wife's Chrysler Town & Country minivan. (Her battery was dead because our young son left the interior lights on all night.)
The charger made the right noises and lights, but did absolutely nothing to charge our battery.
I thought at first that the fault must be mine, so I carefully read the directions again, charged the Simple Start another full 24 hrs, and tried again with the same result.
The nifty little flashlight on the device works well, as do all the annoying beeping noises it makes. But it just won't charge a car battery. I ended up getting out my trusty old jumper cables and jumping her van from my truck--precisely the task I bought the Simple Start in order to avoid.
The Simple Start is best used to hold your picnic blanket down on a windy day at the park. When it gets dark, you'll have an extremely massive (and expensive!) flashlight to pack up by, and a handy blunt object to toss if attacked by wild dogs. Otherwise, buy a traditional battery charger and laugh at us who wasted our money.

My wife has a bad habit of leaving her lights on and running down her battery. I researched a lot of the other battery starters and settled on this one because it allows her to jump her car without having to flag down another motorist or stand under the hood with her back to the road/parking lot on dark or rainy nights. I feel a whole lot safer knowing that the next time she runs into issues, she can sit safely inside her car and get it started back up quickly. Its a great tool, works very well, and pays for itself 100 times over with the piece of mind you'll have! A definite "must have" for your family members!

1. The battery booster will not start a car with a dead battery. It only works with a battery that has run down to the point where it will not turn over the engine. You will need a much stronger booster to start a car with a totally dead battery.
2. The booster can ruin the computer electronics on some cars. This is stated in the instruction manual. However, when I called the Black and Decker service center, they had no list of which cars would be effected. The service tech said he wished he had a list but he didn't. I guess you're just supposed to try to use this product on your car and find out later.
3. I have not returned the product since it will boost phones, etc. and may have some use. However, if I had known that it did not work on dead batteries and could ruin my car, I would never have purchased it.

I bought four of these as gifts for Christmas 2006. I wanted to provide my family members with something they could safely use to get their cars started if their batteries were drained. Headlights get left on, overhead and map lights don't get noticed during the day, trunk lids get left ajar... and batteries get drained.

It doesn't matter whether it's cold and you don't want to freeze outside; dark and you can't see outside; you're alone and you never know who'll stop to help you; you're in the middle of nowhere and don't know when (or if) another car will drive by; or you simply don't have the two+ hours to wait for AAA (I'm a member) to arrive (assuming you have cell reception).

I remembered seeing something about this type of a product a couple years ago... except that was a one-time use product. So I did some research (here on Amazon) and came across this product. Since it's from Black & Decker (I've never had a problem with one of their products) and I was buying from Amazon, who I knew would take them back if I had any problems, I bought four: one each for me, my mom, my dad and my brother. When they opened their presents I got some raised eyebrows and mumbled thank-yous. Nobody else bothered to charge theirs, of course.

Well, today my mom's 2003 Civic Hybrid wouldn't start, so we got out my Simple Start (which I had charged last week per the instructions). After pushing the power button, plugging it into the cigarette lighter and pushing the Vehicle Boost button, the unit started beeping and the LED did NOT blink (much less light). Needless to say, I got a little worried! Four of these at over $50 a pop... did I spend more than $200 for a product that doesn't work?!?

I read the instruction manual again and went to the Black & Decker website, but couldn't find any information about what it meant if the Simple Start did this. So I came here and read the reviews to see if anyone else had run into this problem. Lucky for me, someone wrote five days ago that with some cars you have to turn the ignition key to the "accessory" mode (i.e. car radio on) before you can charge through the cigarette lighter. THANKS CHOBO!

I ran back out to the car and tried again (this time with the key in accessory mode) and the Simple Start immediately indicated it was charging. Since it's freezing here right now (did I mention it's snowing?) I came back inside the house and set a timer for ten minutes... when it went off I went out to the car and it started the first time the engine turned over. Woohoo!

I've already recommended this to three people whose cars I've had to jump start this winter. Wouldn't you know it, Mom and Dad started charging their units right after Mom's car started. Can't recommend the Simple Start enough! It's great!

Tried using this to restart my battery after leaving the rear door open over the weekend. Followed the instructions to the letter, the unit gave me indication that the car battery was fully charged after about five minutes. I tried to start the engine, but the car would not start. Left it in for another 20 minutes just to be safe, tried again and the car would still not start. As a battery booster it's totally useless but it does make a great door stop.

After navigating the ridiculous "Instruction Manual" I managed to get it completely charged (the green light stopped flashing) in about five hours. The following morning, I took the unit out to the car, which (conveniently?) has a dead battery and tried to work magic. Following the ridiculous Instructions once more, nothing I could do would cause the unit's "Vehicle Boost LED" to start flashing. I inspected the Fused 12 Volt Vehicle Charging Cord" [the thing you plug into your cigarette lighter) and discovered that the washer at the tip had been installed improperly so that it prevented contact. However, fixing this did nothing to advance the project of getting the unit to start boosting the battery. I tried it with and without the key turned to Accessories.

In desparation, I called the Black and Decker 800 number and received no assistance from a very polite customer service representative.

Keep your AAA membership up to date, because you're not going to get any help from this brick.

I purchased this unit when the battery of my wife's Infiniti G35 went flat. Plain and simple, it doesn't work. I ended up purchasing jump leads and recharged the battery from another vehicle. It's the most expensive light I've ever purchased. Don't waste your money on it.