Customer Reviews

Wagan EL9796 Easy Quick Jumper In-Car Jumpstarter

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

This device actually works very well but takes time. Our Dodge Stratus battery was completely dead due to interior lights being left on. There was no glow from any interior lights. It was completely out of current and had been for several days. The temperature was 15 degress, it was snowing out and the car was parked so there was no way to get close enough for a traditional jumpstart (would have needed at least 20' jumper cables).

I plugged one end of the Wagan device into the cigarette lighter of the "running" car and the other end into the dead car. The "red" light on the device went on as expected. I waited about 10 minutes in the comfort of the warm running car and the green light on the device went on signifying that the battery was charged. I tried to start the dead car (it was only 15 degrees and snowing)and it only cranked over once and quit. I plugged the Wagan in again and noticed that the green light on the device stayed on so I unplugged it from the cigarette lighter and plugged it in again. It then went red. After 10 minutes it again went green. I didn't try the dead car this time but rather unplgged the cord and plugged it back in again and waited 10 minutes for the green light to come back on. This time when I tried the dead car it sprang to life and ran fine. It took 30 minutes for the whole process but it did work!

This system has enough cord length for about 18 feet and will fit through a partially opened window so there is no need to open the hood or get at the front of the car. This system allows a person to jumpstart it from any angle so long as the the cigarette lighters of the 2 vehicles are within 18' of each other.

Remember - You must turn the key of the dead vehicle to the "accessory" position for the cigarette lighter to be able to pass current through the cigarette lighter sockets.

The beauty of this system is that any car can be jumpstarted this way. Many of the new cars don't have accessible battery connections. You don't have to know how to jumpstart a car. You don't have to know how to even open the hood. It is safe (no battery explosions or getting corrosive chemicals of hands or clothes)and can be done by anyone, regardless of mechanical knowledge.

I was able to jumpstart a completely dead car in 15 degree temperatures, in a snow storm with getting dirty or cold in about 30 minutes. Doing a traditional jumpstart would have meant getting dirty, opening the hood and having snow blow into the open engine compartment. Getting the engine compartment wet with snow (or rain) can compound your problems!

Every car should have one of these devices for the occasions when jumpstarting using conventional cables is not possible, practical or available. The $18 price for this device makes owning one a no-brainer.

This works, but you you have to realize its limitations. It is limited primarily by the fact that it can only slowly move power into a working battery in another car that happens to have run-down its charge.

It will let you get enough charge into a well-working car battery in order to start a car.

It will NOT, however, let you move enough power from one car to another to start a car that currently has an old, broken or worn out "dead battery." For that you'll still need jumper cables, an AC starter, a jump box OR a new battery to get a car going that has a truly dead battery.

This product is a great, safe idea, and it'll let you get a car going when someone let the battery run down, BUT, it will not let you jumpstart a car when its battery has died due to age or malfunction of the battery itself.

Picture this as a straw moving a bit of power slowly into the discharged-but-working "dead" battery, while you really need a fire hose (jumper cables) to start a car that has a no-longer-working battery.

To summarize : Great when someone left their headlights on, worthless when someone's battery has given up the ghost for good.

I bought this a number of months ago, just in case. Yesterday, I accidently left my blinkers on too long and my car just wouldn't start. So I pulled this great device out and hooked it to a fellow co-workers car(who also happens to be a woman) and it took about 5 minutes. It worked quickly and easily with no fuss, no guess work, no messy car stuff, no worrying about hurting yourself or blowing anything up. Yes, there are still women out there who don't know how to do this stuff by themselves. For me and I think many other women, this is a great way to not have to rely on someone else or get messy in the process.

The Easy Quick Jumper is a cinch to use, but may not actually take less time than the tried and true conventional jumper cables. Ok, sure you don't have to open the hood, but it actually takes anywhere from 10-15 minutes to charge up the battery in the dead car enough to start the vehicle. If you're in a hurry and feel confident in knowing what you are doing, jumper cables are the way to go. However if you want something that's safe, easy and are willing to allow a few extra minutes, the Easy Quick Jumper is not a bad alternative and works extremely well.

I thought this idea was so great I bought 5 to give as Christmas gifts. People were really excited to get them and thought it was a neat idea. However, jump starting your car isn't something you necessarily do on Christmas morning -- or even the following month.

When we finally had occasion to use them, two turned out to be DOA -- entirely non-functional, and the other three were ineffective. Of course, by that time the Amazon 30-day return policy had kicked in, and my stocking stuffers had turned into trash can stuffers. My suggestions for this product fall into three categories:

1. If you buy it, don't wait until you need it to try it out.

2. Don't buy it early if you're giving it as a gift. (You won't be able to return it.)

3. Don't buy it at all.

I used it once. I was able to chanrge my car battery (I charged it for 15 min to be safe).

Never worked. Got hot, smoked, and did not charge the second vehicle. Good thing I taught my wife to use standard jumper cables. Great idea, just turned out to be junk.

One important warning to this nifty gadget though--- it takes 10 minutes to work. In my husband's opinion, that significantly reduced the "cool factor" since you had to wait a while for the jump to take doing it this way.

This product seemed like a great idea, especially for the less mechanically inclined members of my family. In 2002, I bought 5 of these, 4 for Christmas gifts and 1 for myself. Last night, my battery died and I needed to use it for the first time. It didn't work! Nothing happened. Thank goodness the other motorist who offered the jump had a set of traditional jumper cables in her car. Of course, it's now over a year later and it's too late to return it. All I can do now is warn the other family members not to rely on my gift.

I was surprised when I tried this out finding it "pumps" power from the "source" car into the "dead" car. I assumed that this would let the power thru from the source (which is at a higher voltage) to the dead one & slow/stop the flow of power if the voltages equalized, but it doesn't. It continues to draw on the source to feed power into the dead one (even if it makes the source drop to under 12V while the dead one gets raised to 13+V which I saw on meters hooked up on both ends). I also tried hooking this up to a small battery to charge it and it had it at 17V pretty quick, so it doesn't regulate the voltage (over 15V is considered overcharging most batteries, but this is intended for brief use). Also the first time I tried it, it didn't begin charging (although I had it plugged in) until I started the good car. I'm not sure what held it back initially & triggered the change, but it's instantly started charging when I plugged it in ever since.

Otherwise I think of this as a 10 amp battery charger that plugs into another car instead of your house. It can't pass enough power to instantly crank your engine if that's what you think when you see "jump start", so don't expect that (especially thru a cars lighter outlet). The wires are at least 14 gauge and ~15 feet long, so it's not cheaply built (another unit said it has only 5 foot wires for about the same price). Also FYI I've heard from mechanics, "Expect a battery to take as long to recharge as it did to discharge IE: if you drain it fast while cranking an engine it'll recharge pretty fast, if you drain it slow from leaving lights on it'll take a long time to recharge".

Also remember that to get power thru the lighter socket into the car with the drained battery, you want to have the key switch in "Accessories" position in the dead car. That's because you want the lighter socket to be "on" (connected to the battery), but you don't want the cars engine circuits to be on until trying to start it (since they would be draining much of the charge power coming thru if you left the key in the "on" position). Also you do need a certain plug in the "source" car and the other in the "dead" car, so I hope the reason for 1/2 of the "It doesn't work" reviews aren't from one of those items not being done correctly.