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HF 3 in 1 Centek jump booster on sale
#1
It is down to $44 from $53. I pd $53 just before Hurricane Florence came through, now they are on sale through tomorrow for 30% off.  Oh well but maybe someone wil benefit.

I actually like mine, its the no air compressor model but has two 12v outlets and a 2.1 amp usb connection. The 17 amp hour SLA battery took about 2 hrs to fully charge and then I left it on another 6 to make sure. I checked it a week later, its at 13.1 volts (reading off the booster cables)., so I presume its at 100% SOC. Seems a bit high but that could be the multimeter as well.

Anyway, if it helps someone, great.
"Life is short, smile while you still have teeth."
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#2
That certainly is a good price for that battery and accoutrements.

There are a few things one should know regarding these.

They have an ~18 AH AGM battery in them.

These batteries are not immune to all the other things which kill other lead acid batteries, nor are they immune from the charging requirements of other AGM lead acid batteries.

These AGMS do not have the super low self discharge of higher quality AGMs, and like all AGMS, can be tickled to death when cycled deeply and then fed very low current for a very long time.

The charger which comes wth these booster packs is a single voltage, low amperage charger.  Likely capable of 0.5 to 0.75 amps maximum, and it will put that out until ~13.6 to 13.8v is reached, and then hold that voltage as long as it is plugged in.  The green light which comes on indicating full charge is not to be trusted as the ONLY way to know when an AGM is fully charged, is when amperage at ABSORPTION voltage tapers to 0.5% of the battery capacity.  Full charge cannot be determined  by amperage at float voltage.  It can be guestimated only and that guess will likely only be  80% accurate and only relevant for a short period of the battery's lifespan when it is newer.

When the battery is new, these low currents for long enough can fully charge the battery, but once aged, 13.8v forever will never actually fully charge the battery, especialy not when the maximum current is only 0.5 amps and the battery could no longer charge a cell phone( 5 to 10 watts).

An 18AH AGM discharged below 50% would ideally want 5 to 6 amps until it is brought upto 14.5 to 14.9v, and held there until amperage tapers to  0.09 amps or so.  At that point the included charger can hold it at 13.6 to 13.8v float voltage and prevent self discharge, but the included charger cannot even come close to what this battery would ideally want for maximum longevity and performance during that lifespan.


But there is no doubt these jumper packs are convenient and can easily help a depleted starting battery to turn the engine over, but they likely cannot, by themselves, turn over any but the smallest engines in warm temperatures and likely only then, when the battery is still new and healthy and at or near maximum capacity.  

If used as a house battery and drawn down deep, and only recharged wth the included charger, the battery within them wll NOT last very long and might not have the gusto to do its job of jumpstarting the engine when required. Could be a false confidence. So I recommend people save them solely for jumpstarting and use their larger engine battery for USB and 12v ciggy stuff.

The battery within is not all that difficult to replace.  They range from about 38$.

https://www.amazon.com/Mighty-Max-Batter...ting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1539475827&sr=1-5&keywords=18+Ah+Agm

This is the type pf product which goes on sale when the batteries within are likely sulfated, as these batteries will self discharge 5 to 9% per month or so, and once under 80% charged and left there to still discharge, the sulfates are unlikely to ever redissolve backinto the electrolyte, and certainly will not do so with the included charger at 13.8v and half an amp to achieve that.

I have no recommendations for a proper charger for these 18Ah AGMs when regularly deeply cycled, but ideally, one should seek 5 to 6 amps and an absorption voltage of 14.5 to 14.9v, and be able to hold that voltage until amperage tapers to very low numbers.

These Chinese AGM batteries, if they get the proper recharge regimen and do not sit for very long in a discharged state, are actually surpisingly durable.  But they can be heavily sulfated new off the shelf, depending on how long they have been sitting and self discharging.
[-] The following 1 user says Thank You to sternwake for this post:
  • TWIH (10-14-2018)
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#3
I’ll just add a couple comments... the whole unit is darn near the cost of the battery. Theres a guy on YT, some prepper, who used the components and the case to build his own power box, which was my idea to follow.

He removed the jumper cables and used the holes for their wires for places to install another 5v 2.1 amp usb outlet and a voltmeter. He kept the nice on-off safety switch so that he could know the unit was for sure on/off. He added a dc charge port so he could also recharge it from his car. The original ac recharger was a fixed 500 milliamp unit but I didn’t see what its voltage was, this he removed and put in a type of 750 milliamp battery tender (not the actual name brand one) which had a microprocessor in it.

Thus he used the case and some of the components and made himself a decent little camping pack. I think for the price and effort, it turned out well.

All the concerns over the Chinese 17 ah agm issues notwithstanding, it was a very economical little unit.

Question for SW, I wonder if by hooking up the probes of the multimeter to the jump cables while it is charging if that would give me a true reading of the ac charger’s voltage?

Again my thanks to SW for providing readers with the facts behind these Chinese agm’s, not being a true deep cycle and should not be viewed as their replacement. I have no idea of the sulfatedness (like that term?) of the battery, all I know is that my original desire was to have power for lights and recharging my cell phone during Hurricane Florence, and while I didn’t need it, it was nice to have. It goes in the category of the old saying “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.
"Life is short, smile while you still have teeth."
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#4
Ok as an experiment I took the unit (which has previously been charged up, last week, and had a reading of 13.14 then off the booster cables) and checked it today. It was at 13.08 volts. So I thought I could test the ac charger voltage by hooking up the multimeter again and watching the charge rate. 

So I got it hooked up, turned it on and voila, it rose to 14.26 then the “green light” (that SW is so fond of) came on and immediately the charge rate or whatever it was sensing dropped to 13.10.  I left it there for a couple minutes, no difference. Turned it off and on, same reading. 

So now I am confused, (my normal state), does the ac charger shut off when the “green light” sensor comes on? It certainly isn’t going to “overcharge” at 13.1 volts yet that’s also the voltage reading after it has been left for a week (so that shouldn’t be a surface charge, or is it?). 

I had hoped to be able to check the charger voltage, and perhaps I need to drain the battery a ways in order to see just what it actually charges at...  Thoughts?

Ok its now 30 min later and the meter is reading 13.01... no electrical draws, still plugged into the ac charger...
"Life is short, smile while you still have teeth."
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#5
Update for those interested, all one of you... After 3 hours with a small led light running I turned the charger back on, it went up to 14.66 on the multimeter then as soon as the “green” light came on (within a few minutes on ac charge) the multimeter dropped to (surface charge probably) 13.31. 

It seems there must be a shutoff built-in so that it doesn’t overcharge and ruin the battery, at least that’s what my very unscientific little experiment shows. Does that sound accurate to you more knowledgeable types?  

I searched in vain for any idea what voltage any of the battery tender/maintainer type accessories put out, never could find anything except their charging amperage, nothing on voltages.
"Life is short, smile while you still have teeth."
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#6
Going up into the mid 14.s is good, and if it has 0.5 amps to achieve mid 14's well that is on the light side for a deeply discharged AGM, but the fact it does go to the mid 14's is promising.

So that is good, and better than I expected. How long it will hold mid 14s after a 50% discharge is another matter.

The HF batterymaintainers were reported , several years ago,to have very wide voltage variance with some much higher than others and cooking batteries.

Charging sources seek to attain a voltage, when the battery is well depleted they put out as much amperage as they can to achieve that voltage. Whever method is chosen to end the higher voltage and trigger float voltage is unknown, but once it chooses float voltage it only produces as much amperage as required to maintain that float voltage, which is much less than what would be required to attain absorption voltage.

You'd need an ammeter on the charge cable between battery and charger to really see what the internal charger is doing.

I've not had one

A 13+ resting voltage does not guarantee a non sulfated battery but it also is a good sign for an AGM.

Wait 48 hours with no load or charging source and if it is still over 13 be happy.
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#7
Sounds good.  I checked it again and the highest charge rate has been 14.66 then the magic green light comes on and immediately the multimeter drops to low 13’s... so there’s got to be a cutoff switch of some kind.  Nice to know.

I will use it for something for a couple hours then see again, and report back. Idea
"Life is short, smile while you still have teeth."
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#8
14.66 is not a charge rate, 14.66 is electrical pressure, which of course influences the charge rate, measured in amperage flow.

Think of a hose on the bottom of a Giant tank that can produce 100PSI. The Nozzle at the end of that hose still has 100PSI whether the nozzle is open or closed.

The battery determines how much the nozzle is opened.

that battery accepts as much amperage as it wants at a certain electrical pressure. The higher the pressure the more the battery can accept, with diminishing returns over the high 14's.

The more depleted the battery the more flow the battery can accept at any pressurem bt the higher th pressure the more it will accept.

new batteries allow more flow than older ones at any pressure, but will still limit the flow depending on just how full they are.

So voltage = pressure
Amperage is the flow
together they form the charge rate.

that is not an absolutely correct analogy but close enough,

the 500Ma charger cannot output more than 0.5 amps, so the rate will always be limited to 0.5 amps max regardless of voltage.
[-] The following 1 user says Thank You to sternwake for this post:
  • TWIH (10-15-2018)
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#9
Black Friday the 3 in 1 Centex was down to $39...
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#10
4 day sale today through Monday at $39. Getting as cheap as the battery itself costs!
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