Customer Reviews

Schumacher IP-125 Instant Power Jump Starter With 12 Amp Hour Battery

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I like the compact and lightweight features of this unit. It has enough power to start a car with very low charge. However, it only has enough juice for 1 or 2 attempts of starting the vehicle. Maybe I have to recharge the unit a few more times to get peak performance.

One gripe is that there is no cord to an outlet. You have to provide an extension cord to charge the unit. Make sure it's a heavy gauge cord too.

Extremely compact and well "branded."

The clamp handles touch one another, making their release awkward. (This can be overcome by clipping one higher than the other on the case.)

Two problems with the plug prongs. A larger cutout on the case end would permit the use of a wider range of extension cords. (The earlier comment about a computer power cord is excellent.) The prongs are slightly loose and move inward, so that the connection with the cord is marginal.

I had to use it twice so far and both times it started my Jeep Grand Cherokee without any problems.

I have used this for five months now. I love this little battery. It hold a lot of power and starts my car easily when the battery is run down. The price was great and it is easy to recharge. I took the advise of another reviewer and us a computer cord to recharge. That is the only thing I wish were different. I wish it had its own power cord.

Edit: I've used this thing a lot, being that I hardly leave the house and have two cars. It will start a dead as a door nail battery several times before needing recharging. End Edit.

I had a battery that only provided enough power to make a click when turning the key. I ordered this, charged it for a day and hooked it to my battery. Finding the proper grounding spot is critical. I was alerted to the fact that I found a good ground finally after the 2004 Nissan Frontier Pickup's interior lights came on and the ding (key in ignition with open door) started blaring. The truck started right up.

I then later used it to start a battery in a 2000 Mustang. The battery was very drained and the car would not start, similar to the above scenario. Found the ground spot and the car started. After plugging the device back up, in less than an hour it was fully recharged.

I recommend a standard orange extension cord for this. The male end in the charger is recessed and you'll need a cord with an inline female socket that will plug directly in.

I purchased a previous version of this (back then the product name was the "Mighty-Mite") although the color (mine is more towards black) and the graphics have changed. I don't believe the product itself has changed much, with the buttons and lights in exactly the same place.

Despite the size, it has worked great over the years. I purchased two back in 2006 and they still work well.

I'm not docking off a star, but there are little things that have to be understood for this product to be more useful. Sometimes the automatic charging system doesn't stop, although the charging current is probably so small that there's little risk of damaging the internal battery. I've found that disconnecting then reconnecting showed a green "charged" indicator in those cases. Since the current draw is pretty small, you can safely use something like a simple household extension cord. Since the plug is recessed, the way I've dealt with it was to use a 2 to 3 prong adapter, which serves as an extension of the plug. The other alternative is to get something like an outdoor electrical cord with an end that will fit in the recessed area. I rather prefer this to the ones with wall-wart adapters, since I can easily obtain replacement extension cords and 2/3 prong adapters on the road and can keep different sets in the house and car. I don't particularly like storing wall-warts in the car, especially given how delicate the thin cable is.

It doesn't come with a male-male cord to recharge off of the 12 V accessory port. You can also use those to maintain the power in a car (like electric presets) when you're changing a car battery. Amazon has it, although Schumacher also sells it directly.

[...]

I own 3 of these, and I've bought 5 of them because I've given away two others.

What I really like about this unit are two things. First, you can turn the power off which can prevent accidents. Second, to charge it all you need is an extension cord. I love this because I had two other chargers and I had to have their specific wall plugs to charge them up, I have a LOT of wall chargers and they get lost or you can't remember which one goes to which. With the wall plug is it easy, you can charge it anywhere anyplace. Get a $1.99 computer cord and you can juice it up anywhere.

This little jump starter does work. I've used it twice so far to start my Grand Marquis when the battery was almost completely drained. You need to have a very good connection for the ground or it will pop when you crank the engine. It took me a couple tries to find a good spot.

This thing is completely useless out of the box without a power cord. Someone mentioned using a computers power supply cord but that does not work. Maybe the unit has changed, I tried 5 or so different computer cords and none of them would fit. So make sure you get an extension cord.

After the first use it started acting strange with the lights (showing red + green) so I just pressed the reset button a few times and let it recharge overnight and everything was back to normal.

I give it 4 stars because it is so small and starts my V8, if it came with a power cord it would get 5.

I give the IP-125 4 stars. The pros are that it works as advertised in giving instant power. I've owned other jump starters from Auto Shack like places and even on a full charge, either I would have to wait a while after turning them on or they would not jump larger cars. I just received my IP-125 a few days ago and had to jump my SUV. Ignition turned within seconds! My only gripe, and maybe mine is different from another reviewer, but there is no on/off switch on the unit. The red button in the picture is for checking the charge. So when storing it, you are warned not to let the live clamps touch or there will be arcs! Maybe thats the beauty of its operation but I take one star for not having this safety feature.

I purchased the instant power 500 battery jump start device. I unpacked the unit and plugged it in to charge.

About 2 weeks later my car would not start. Thankful that I had gotten around to purchasing the jump start device, I attached it to my battery, turned it on and to my dismay discovered that it did not work it was not producing any voltage at the terminals and I was measuring it with a multi meter. I know that the unit was charged because I saw the green charging light, and the LED lights came on with the switch. I managed to get a jump sstart a few hours later. Thanks for nothing