That's crazy small. But has me wondering. It's says on the 1000 Amp one, up to 20 jump starts on a single charge. But will only charge a smartphone up to 4 times, and up to 8 times on the 2000Amp
It has to do with how a jump starter works, versus how a charger works. For jump starts, it's about joules, which is power supplied over time, much more than cold cranking amps or something like that. Most of the Lithium-Ion battery pack jump starters are essentially a 12000 mAh battery, just a bigger cell phone battery. 12000 mAh is a 12 Ah battery. That's it. A smartphone with a really big battery is going to be a 3000 mAh. You can see dividing 12000 by 3000 gets you 4 times. The 2000 amp Noco jump starter has a 24000 mAh battery in it, thus will charge a cell phone battery up to 8 times.
The Noco GB40 contains a 1200 mAh battery, which is a 24 Watt Hour battery.
Amps x volts = Watts, so 24 Watt Hours divided by 12 volts means you can draw 2 amps for an hour before running the Lithium-Ion dead. Or 1 amp for 2 hours.
Most traditional lead-acid jumper packs contain anywhere from a 12 Ah to a 30 Ah battery in there, usually in the 12-18 Ah range. A 12 Ah lead acid battery will give you about 300 amps for starting a vehicle. It'll weigh about 20 pounds. A 12 Ah L-ion battery pack gives you the same thing, for about one pound.
I'd be more interested in it as an extra power source. The power station I have now is 1200 Amps. Although mine is much bigger in size, 4 smartphone charges wouldn't even registrar a power drop on it.
There are other L-ion battery packs that are much, much better for use as a power source than the Noco. I think of the 10 units that Consumer Reports tested, the Noco (BG30 - 400 amp model) came in second to last when it comes to being a charging source for laptops, cell phones and other devices.
Top five ranked L-ion jump packs from Consumer Reports are
Antigravity Batteries XP-10 (18000 mAh battery, tho, so there ya go)
Spirit A8 Car Jump Starter
Bolt Power D28
New Brights Compact 12000mAH Mini Portable Car Jump Starter
PowerAll PBJS12000R.
These units provided strong jump-starting performance, along with good accessory charging options.
But the Noco ranked right there at the top with the rest of them when it comes to jump starting a vehicle. The difference between the various 12000 mAh jumper packs is hype, bells and whistles, marketing, and packaging paint. They will all perform virtually the same when it come to starting a vehicle.
If I had the time to pick and choose which one I got, I'd probably have gone with the Antigravity Batteries XP-10 (although, it's only 300 Amps starting current with 600A peak, versus the 500 Amps starting and 1000 Amps peak of the Noco GB40). But I needed one, and I needed it now, and couldn't even wait for 2 day shipping from Amazon. The battery drain problem started 2 or 3 weeks before I replaced the engine, and continued after the replacement, and kept getting worse. Bass Pro Shops in Toledo had the Noco GB40 in stock, so that's what I got.
But as a dedicated jump starter, sounds like a nice small addition. Which size are you using?
I'm using the GB40. The T1N Sprinter (2.7L) requires about 200 amps to start. So any ol' 300 amp power pack jump starter should be fine. But it's a lot easier to carry around a 1-pound jumper pack the size of a brick, or more accurately a paperback book, than it is a 25 pound jumper pack power station. I don't plan on using it as a power station at all. It's strictly for jump starts.
I will almost certainly get rid of my heavy duty jumper cables now. I very rarely had to use them to get a jump for the Sprinter. I've used them 3 or 4 times a year to give other people a jump, tho. This L-ion jumper pack will do the same job.
A couple of things about these Lithium Ion battery packs....
It says in the marketing that you can jump a vehicle up to 20 times on a single charge. That's probably for the smallest 4-cylinder car engine that you can find. For most cars it's gonna be maybe 10 times. For a Sprinter, I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing 5 at most. Every time I've used it I just plug in the USB cable to the 12-volt dash outlet and recharge it. Only takes about 20-30 minutes to fully recharge it. When I first bought it, it took 5 or 6 hours to fully charge. It charges via a 2.1 amp USB port.
Unlike traditional lead-acid or AGM battery jumper packs. that lose their charge after about a month of just sitting there, these Lithium Ion pack will hold their charge anywhere from 6-12 months before need recharging. I plan on making sure it stays fully charged, probably charging it up every 3 months or so, or immediately after I use it.
When really cold, like at zero degrees F, Lithium-Ion battery packs will almost certainly not start the vehicle. If they are room temperature, they will start a zero degree battery with no problem, but the battery pack is virtually useless if it is, itself, zero degrees or colder (above 10 degrees or so should be fine, tho). A traditional lead-acid battery jumper box will have a much better chance at starting a vehicle if the jumper box is also really cold. I don't foresee that to be a problem in the Sprinter, what with the Espar heater and all. But that could be a problem for someone who charges up the L-ion pack and just throws it in the glove box or the trunk and needs to start their car on a cold day with a dead battery. Need to bring the jumper pack indoors for a few hours to warm it up.
Same is true for storing it really hot, like in a trunk. The recommended storage temperature is -20 to 50 C (-4F to 122F). If the power pack is too hot, there will be a blinking red LED light that tells you that, and you should let it cool off before using it. As you may or may not know, exploding lithium-ion batteries happen usually when you're trying to charge or discharge it when it's too hot.
