Ok the question we are all asking: Did his truck start to levitate?
If this thing is able to put out more than one amp, maybe two at 12v I would be surprised. There is just not enough battery surface area to give out 200-400amps, and the comments in the amazon ad seem to support this.
Lithium-ion batteries are amazing gram for gram but are made for low amp storage, I would love to find some which could create a few seconds of cranking amps anywhere near what is claimed.
For the clamp and start like in the BB story I suspect dirty or loose automotive battery connection.
(edit) reading the comments this thing sounds like a real battery bomb, I doubt it has a UL or CE safety cert.
(edit2) [quote=“Jim_Kirk, post:4, topic:50033”]readily available[/quote], I guess so, I have used smaller ones, perhaps this is possible to do with the off the shelf high amp batteries then, though the undersized cable and reportedly melting internal soldered components seems like more of a emergency hack, admittedly cool, but a hack that is way overstressed for the components used. Considering the fast high amp batteries used though and that Li-ion is damaged by discharge using this for your tablet seems to be a bad idea if you want it to last.
High discharge rate lithium batteries are readily available, I’ve seen up to 35C rating, so a 10 A-h battery could produce 350 Amps for a short time. Popular for RC cars, helicopters and the like. There are trade-offs, the lifetime in number of charge/discharge cycles is not as good and such, but the technology exists. (I’m not endorsing the subject of this boingboing post, I simply don’t have any information on this brand.)
How long does this hold a charge? Part of the problem I’ve had with these devices in the past is that they need to be regularly topped-up, and if they’re not they’re useless.
It was about 45 days since I’d charged this one, and it worked. It is nearly identical to my Anker 13000 mAh 2-port USB battery I carry for phone charging, just with a different port for the jumpstart clamps. I am sure its a different battery internally also, as the high discharge rate seems silly to pay for while charging iPhone and GoPros.
I am waiting to see how the conversation above about the relative safety of these goes. What I’ve read suggests there should be no problem, L-ion batteries pack energy more densely than an SLA battery, but availability is certainly less. You want to wait a few minutes between massive drain events. From what I understand you could not start your car again and again off this battery without charging it up, and charge times are much slower that SLA? 2-3 starts in 30minutes from a fresh L-ion and it’d be dead. It might take 10-15 starts from an SLA in the same amount of time to kill a fresh battery.
I do bow to the greater intelligence of the group mind here and want to see what others have to say.
Wow, I’m used to American companies charging silly money in the UK, but $99 vs $300 is just ridiculous…
This battery type is rather common in the world of RC aircraft. I’ve used them for various projects, from the Loud Bike to underwater robots. The ones sold by HobbyKing cost very little, but have ZERO protection devices built in. They are also known for catching fire now and then. Don’t let it self-discharge too much, or overcharge it! That’s a sure way to ruin it.
I know, I’ve just seen the price of these in Mud Island. Fuckers.
For what this costs, I can buy 2 years of a basic AAA membership, which includes free battery jumps. And I get towing, emergency fuel delivery, flat tire service, and they’ll winch me out of ditch, all at no extra charge. But they won’t recharge my cell phone, so I guess there’s that.
Yes, there’s insurance, where you pay for the cost of the service whether or not you will need it. I have saved that cost many times over by keeping my 3 cars in good maintenance and not needing such services.
For a small fraction of what this gizmo costs, I purchased a nice pair of jumper cables 15 years ago that still work and have no annual maintenance fees.
I buy AAA premium for the tows 
My VW van is fairly reliably and my 2nd car is one that has no spare, so every flat turns into a tow (and a 1 day wait for the tire I want.)
Waiting for AAA to jumpstart your car is a long, long thing in the SF Bay area. A few short while back I had a battery go dead dead on me and I called AAA to try their battery delivery service. It took the SF based delivery/install guy 90 minutes to find me in his home city of San Francisco, even with modern GPS. He called me 2x for directions. If I had had this in the car, I could have driven to a shop and bought an Interstate.
FWIW the AAA guy told me they get their batteries from the same factory as interstate and the case sure looked identical to the one he replaced. I do not know where my brand affinity comes from.
The last time I had to jump-start my car was in 2012 at Burning Man. I had noticed that the battery was old while stopped in Las Vegas, so bought a spare battery. I didn’t install it because the air conditioning compressor was in the way (Thanks a lot, me.). Sure enough, the playa kicked in and killed it on Thursday. Since then, I’ve replaced the battery twice to forestall future problems.
I also remember having to charge (then replace once I could open the hatch) the tiny battery in the Prius last year, but it was 7 years old and overdue for replacement. None of these cost me any money, and time is free on the playa.
Moral of the story: Don’t keep old batteries in your cars!
“But I have jumper cables!” screams the man, all alone on the deserted road.
I also had to get a new battery, while I was visiting relatives in another state. Instead of wasting half a day of the vacation dealing with the battery, I used the AAA app to buy a new battery (at a very reasonable price), and a guy shows up, confirms my old battery was a goner, installed the new one, cleaned the cable contacts, ran diagnostics to confirm everything was good, and was off.
Best thing about AAA, in my opinion, is that it doesn’t matter who’s car I happen to be in. If it breaks down, AAA will handle it, even if I’m just a passenger. I was so impressed with their service, I eventually switched my auto insurance from State Farm to AAA, and saved nearly 50%. I gave State Farm the chance to meet AAA’s quote, and they couldn’t get anywhere near it - most likely because AAA is a non-profit organization.
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