VERY useful tool for jumpstarting engine

[Greg Mason]

One of the power drags I never considered when quanitfying the electrical needs of the boat was my ham radio. Broadcasting at 100 watts. In Moorea, I had been on the nets longer than usual one night, noticed the lights dim when I pressed the mike. Simply turned my selector switch to all. Great bottle of wine. Next morning, no go says the Perkins. We hadn't seen marina since Mexico. Brought the Zodiac alongside, connected a jump wire from the rectifier to the bank, and in 15 minutes, we could start. Yamaha to the rescue!

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by Greg Mason

One of the power drags I never considered when quanitfying the electrical needs of the boat was my ham radio. Broadcasting at 100 watts. In Moorea, I had been on the nets longer than usual one night, noticed the lights dim when I pressed the mike. Simply turned my selector switch to all. Great bottle of wine. Next morning, no go says the Perkins. We hadn't seen marina since Mexico. Brought the Zodiac alongside, connected a jump wire from the rectifier to the bank, and in 15 minutes, we could start. Yamaha to the rescue!

Moments like this are why I don't like setups that make it easy to draw down the engine start batteries accidentally. On my setup, for example, there's no switch to do that. To either start from the house bank or draw house power from one of the 2 start banks you'd either have to move a cable on an ACR to bypass it or use jumper cables to transfer power.

[warrior 90]

I think those little units are very useful and not only for engine starting like mobile devices, camera gear etc. Maybe also good as a last resort for communication but definitely great for engine starting problem. You can always take it on shore and charge while having some coffee or shopping or You can also charge it at the boat of Your neighbor at anchor.

I believe that is the best unit on the market at the moment

https://www.audew.com/Audew-20000mAh...-p-100058.html

Of course all batteries have a self discharge rate. So from time to time You should plug it in for a while.
Good place is using around the cockpit where You usually don´t have a 12 V plug. Another use is charging all mobile devices in the night when You don´t have solar. The thing is to use it on a regular basis to make sure it always gets charged

[EmeraldCoastSailor]

Thanks so much for posting. I bought a NOCO Boost type unit a long time ago and like you I didn't want to run my start batt down to test it. My house bank is completely separated from engine from a consumption perspective (of course not separated from a charging perspective) so I have two ways to start engine if start battery goes south. 1) jumper cables to jump from house. 2) NOCO Boost lithium unit.

I also like the NOCO Boost unit in terms of giving it to a fellow boater with a dead battery (better than trying to jump or towing) or using it as a power source for phones and VHF in a pinch. Glad to know its primary purpose can be fulfilled.

[bjp447]

I got a NOCO one but have not used it. However I had two WM AGM marine batteries that were down to less than a volt. None of the tricks I read about charging really dead batteries worked, Noco claimed their charger could recover a battery below 1 volt, so I figured what the heck and bought it (I needed one). Took a little bit but both batteries are back at 12+ volts and have been working for the last 3 months with no issues. They were dead, bilge pumped stayed on and killed everything. This isn't a paid/unpaid referral just my experience.

[kryg]

The other solution is a mechanical spring starter motor that is used in the mining industry, to prevent sparking - no battery required just pull the spring on the starter till it wound tight. Then trigger the starter to start the engine. A close friend sailed around the world with one and never had an issue starting his engine. Here is the link, I have no involvement with this company, though my starter just failed this week and now I'm considering purchasing one.

Mechanical Starter motor,
https://startwell.com/the-startwell-mini/

Originally Posted by Rohan

Just passing this along as a tip.

This type of item is becoming popular, a portable battery that includes jumper cables because when it is at least 3/4 charged, it is supposed to be strong enough to jumpstart a car or truck engine. The instructions don't say anything about boat engines, but since my Yanmar 29 hp 3YM30 diesel engine is much smaller than many of the engines this thing is supposed to handle, I figured it should work.

It sat around unused for awhile, because I didn't want to purposely run my battery down far enough to test it out. However, last week, one of my battery banks failed, and was down to 11 volts, which is considered a dead battery. I couldn't start the engine. So it gave me a chance to try this out, and it worked like a charm!!

The connection was a little finicky and you have to watch your boat's voltmeter to see when it jumps up a bit and then the connection is solid. But once you got it, you are good.

This is the type I bought for about $80. But I'm not product hawking here. This is just the one I tried, but there are a lot of other similar batteries on the market now that do the same thing. If you search online they are sold everywhere.


Highly recommended. Now I have peace of mind that if both my battery banks fail for some reason, I have a backup to restart the engine. It's also useful for recharging other things, and has a built in flashlight. And takes up very little space.

[doublewide]

Do be careful carrying a loose Lithium battery around in a car or boat. Lithium batteries can brew up spectacularly if they get damaged. Many a car/house/boat has burned down from Lithium batteries. Charging is the most dangerous time. Bouncing around in a boat locker or car trunk can damage them enough to brew up, too. They should be stored with electrical tape over the contacts, in a plastic bag, and then in a well-padded case to minimize the chance that they will be damaged as the vehicle, be it car or boat, bounces about. Google "thermal runaway Lithium video" for some amusing and sobering images.

[ramitt0502]

I've found mine to be most useful for opening the engine hatch, especially after it has been winterized and the batteries are disconnected for the winter. I've used it to start the engine on our old runabout but haven't needed it to start our cruiser. Very useful.

[bjp447]

I looked up the mechanical spring starter motor and it appears to be a great idea. I just don't know how it could fit, and be use ion my Yanmar 3m in my ranger tug. There isn't much room, but if there was it would be one less concern. On the little diesels I heard you could actually attach a rope starter to the flywheel for emergency (dead battery) starting but that may have been wishful thinking.

[Larry Florida]

Bought this item at Costco $80.

My boat has 2 batteries, battery #1 is left on when leaving the boat. Lately The #1 battery is run down when I arrive the mooring. Run down to a point it will not power the engine compartment blower.

On 2 trips to the boat this jumper start the 2 cyl diesel 1 time. On both occasions it did not start the second time. Good item, better than nothing but would not trust it out on the water.

[shemandr]

Several years ago I sailed into a Marina with a dead battery. The service guy brought one of these light and powerful units to the boat and the engine was running in a minute and I was able to continue up a river. I bought one the next week and threw out my jumper cables. I've started several engines with it. They can also charge your devices and provide lighting and strobes. Try that with jumper cables. I think these are good to keep on a boat where battery problems seem to abide.

[smacksman]

Mine starts my 2 litre diesel car first time. The manual says not to crank the engine more than four times without giving it a rest to cool down. I couldn't believe it till I tried it.

[betwys1]

Originally Posted by Lancerbye

I have had one of these for about 3 years now. Have never used it to start my own engines but have passed it over to several stranded people with low or dead batteries. Their small diesel engines started right up. I have used it mainly as a 12 volt source to test things like pumps, fans and electronic gear. I even use it as a power supply to a small ATV winch which I use to go up and down the mast.

I was thinking about that topic, having hooked up an atv (2000lb) winch to my hay fork trailer which has a worm and pinion gearing. Worm & pinion winches have the great advantage of default braking as soon as you stop turning. That is bought at the cost of <50% efficiency - so you do twice the manual labor as with a ratchet=brake winch - no fun when winding up a heavy bale. I listened to someone who had been there, done that - and used two sheaves for a X3 force multiplier. The Harbor Freight model has a wire intended to connect to volts only when ignition is on - awkward when deploying a dedicated battery. My emergency starter pack (which seems to hold up very well between charges) will work nicely then, I am reassured!

[Poche]

Since the scuba diving accident in the Channel Islands off the southern coast of California I have been more than a little leery of lithium on my boat and at home. I took all of them off the boat and got rid of most of them at home and in the truck. I am replacing my cordless tools with corded. The ones left are never charging unattended.
Even the small ones are very powerful. A neighbor jump started my dead truck battery because I left the emergency flashers on. The device was about the size of a cell phone!! It started the truck easily.
I look at lithium batteries very differently now.

[sailor1026]

I bought an ultra-capacitor booster (Rezervo 300 RZ-300mini) and it works great. It can be charged from a variety of sources, including USB and a low/weak battery. I knew that my 2015 Outback battery was getting weak and had to use the booster to start the car after returning from a long trip. It worked great, charging right from the battery which read 10.5v! It doesn't need to be charged ahead of time and has no fire risk, unlike the cheap Lithium battery boosters.