This bad boy arrived this morning

[GraceKellysLeftArm]

Never again will I be at the mercy of a flat battery or stood with a tiny foot-controlled air pump.

Last week I had a flat battery, car rescue wanted £40 to upgrade the policy +£? to come and give me a jump start. I live in the middle of bloody nowhere and my nearest hydraulic air is nearly 30 miles away.

£34 from eBay.

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

Wow. That looks impressive. Does it make dinner too

[ABetaDad1]

Have you tried it to see if it works yet?

Have you got a plug near to where you need to use it or an extension lead?

You wouldn't want to find it doesn't work or the lead isn't long enough in a real emergency.

Coz that would be really really annoying.

[GraceKellysLeftArm]

betadad - that's the beauty of it - it requires no extension lead, it's completely mobile. You charge it up and fling it in the boot. I had to borrow a friend's black & decker one last week and that does maybe 3 cold jumpstarts before needing recharging - he also uses it on the 7.5 tonne horsebox.

I haven't used it to start my car yet - I'll let you know tomorrow morning, my battery is dying and it does not like this cold. Figured this was a better buy long-term than replacing a battery in a car on its last legs.

I'm going to try the air compressor in an hour or so - will report back.

[GraceKellysLeftArm]

thickandthin - yes, I think it would make dinner... - it has an adaptor to a cigarette lighter plug which I think you can use on a variety of "in car" food heaters.

[GraceKellysLeftArm]

And it does tyres - not as fast as machines at petrol pump, but you just clip it on and hit the button. Mine were pretty flat and it took about 2 mins per tyre - usually 1000 steps on foot pump!

[ABetaDad1]

Oooh its rechargeable. How long will it stay charged?

I mean I don't drive myself but just vicariously interested in other people's prepping.

[cozietoesie]

I'm impressed.

[GraceKellysLeftArm]

I've got a 4WD so tyres are pretty big, when I parked up the valve was at the top of the tyre and the cable not quite long enough, but nonetheless I balanced it on its corner against the wheel and it did the job.

Not sure how long it will stay charged... but friend's one will actually hold a charge for a couple of months! Again, not sure about in this cold weather though.

[winchester1]

I'm intrigued how much was it? How is the battery in the cold and what kind of weather and temps are you counting as cold?

[cozietoesie]

Probably not as cold as you would get but I have a feeling that the UK's dampness would compensate for that. (Forgive if I don't remember the science of it.)