The Jump Starter allows easy access to charging your car by providing everything you need to get a jump start. Since testing jumpstarters a year ago, I’ve heard dozens of stories from people about how a jump starter saved them from being stranded. Including one person who was in the middle of a lake, and their boat battery died.
Today we’ll be testing nine different brands. Some of these claiming to deliver up to four thousand cranking amps, which’s four times as much power as your car battery. So, let’s get the testing underway and see which brand is the best.
Testing Methods
We’ll hook up each jump starter to a tester in the first test, and we’ll see if they actually produce the advertised cranking amps. Then we’ll see if they can jump-start a small vehicle with a dead battery. We’ll also see if they can jump-start a diesel tractor. Finally, we’ll see which one has the best capacity when used as a power bank.
Gooloo GP2000 – it’s easier than you think.
The Gooloo GP2000 jump starter, 19,800-milliamp-hours or 73-watt hours. Peak current 2000 amps, starting current 500 amps. It comes with a pretty nice carrying bag, instruction manual, jumper cables, USB charger, USB-c, type-c, in and out, 5-volt/2.1-amp power bank, 5-volt/9-volt / 12volt power bank, flashlight-output,15 volts/10 amps. The Gooloo is made in China.
Let’s go ahead and bench test each of the jump starters using this carbon pile tester, which gives us both the volts and the amperage. Put the clamp meter hooked up so we can get a digital readout of the amps. We’ll be using a car battery to serve as our baseline.
This is an optimum 1000 cranking amp battery, so we’re going to give it a test to see what kind of volts, as well as amp production, we get. Additionally, we’ll be watching the clamp meter. Since the jump starters are designed to give a short, powerful boost, I won’t be running the standard 15-second battery test but instead testing for peak amps and volts.
We just placed a 1000-amp load on the battery, and a lot is going on all at once. So, let’s take a closer look at each of the meters. In the lower-left corner of the screen, you can see that the digital clamp meter reads 995 amps. In the top left corner, the needle is hovering right around a thousand. So, both the digital meter and the carbon pile tester are very close to the same. In the top right corner is the voltmeter, and you can see that the voltage dropped to 6.8.
Let’s test the Gooloo next. Connect the smart cable plug into the jump starter, connect the red clamp to the positive battery terminal, black clamp to the negative battery terminal. Once the jump indicator light turns green, you can start the vehicle. Once the current started flowing, the test lasted right at three seconds, before the device powered itself off for safety reasons. The Gooloo peaked at 7.2 volts, at 490 amps.
Imazing IM29 – The last line of defense when your battery’s dead
The Imazing IM29 jump starter and power bank. 2500-amp, 74-watt hours, start amps 1000, peak amps 2000 to 2500. the Imazing jump starter is made in China. A very nice-looking carrying bag, instruction manual, jumper cables, USB to USB c adapter. Output 1, output 2, flashlight, DC adapter.
The Imazing is fully charged; connect the starter cable with the battery clamps to the jump starter with the blue connector. The led display on the cable begins to show red dots that circulate the display. The starter station is ready. Connect the red clamp to the positive pole and the black clamp to the battery’s negative terminal.
Even though the Imazing is rated for 2500 peak amps/ 500 more than the Gooloo, it didn’t do quite as well. It peaked at 486 amps and also was slightly lower at 5.6 volts. After about three seconds, it powered itself off just like the Gooloo. So Gooloo holds on to the lead.
Viking Compact Power Pack – You’ll never be left to wait
The Viking Compact Power Pack jump starter is the third least expensive product we’ll be testing, and it’s sold at Harbor Freight. The jump starter I bought at Harbor Freight a year ago didn’t perform so well, so I bought another one to give it another chance. 12 000 milliamp hours, starting current 221 amps, peak current 450 amps. Lithium iron phosphate batteries hold 70 percent charge after two years, five times more cycle life, and four times more cranks than lead-acid battery jumpers.
The Viking is made in China, charger, jumper cables, several different adapters, jump starter, flashlight 12 volts/ 6 amps out, 5 volts/ 2 amps out, 12 to 15 volts in. It’s really nice that the Harbor Freight Viking includes instructions on the side of the unit. The Viking is fully charged. Connect the red positive clamp to the positive battery terminal, then connect the black negative clamp to the chassis. Press and hold the starter button until the green light comes on, indicating the unit is ready to jump-start the vehicle. The warrior only lasted about two seconds and very briefly made it to 410 amps and about 5.8 volts. But that’s not nearly as good as the Gooloo and the Imazing jump starters. After testing, the Viking won’t even power up, so I have to let this cool down and see if we can get it going again.
Tacklife KP200 – It’s better to be safe
Tacklife model KP200 jump starter is the fourth-least expensive brand we’ll be testing. The Tacklife comes with a pretty nice-looking carrying case. Instruction manual, quick charger, several different adapters, jumper cables, 12-volt adapter, 3 out of 4 bars, led light, 2 USB outs, 15-volt/10 amp out, made in China. 16 800 milliamp hours or 62.2 watt-hours. Starting current 500 amps, peak current 2000 amps.
Plug the blue end of the jumper cable into the corresponding interface on the unit and make sure the safety indicator is off. The Tacklife did the best yet at 511 amps at five volts and lasted almost four seconds before it powered itself off.
Micro-start XP1 –
Micro-start XP1. 450 peak amps, 12.000 milliamps, jump starts up to v8 motors and diesel motors, up to four-liter, the Micro-start XP1 is made by anti-gravity batteries, nice looking carrying case, charger, 12-volt adapter, jump starter cables, led flashlight. Input 15 volts/1 amp, output 12 volts/ 10 amps, output 19 volts/3 amps, output 5 volts/ 2 amps, output 5 volts and 9 volts. There’s no information on where this product is made. Connect the smart clamps to the battery of the vehicle, red clamp to the positive terminal, and black clamp to the negative terminal.
The compact XP1 wasn’t up to competing with the far less expensive larger units, and it only produced 379 amps at 4.4 volts before powering itself off after three seconds.
Autowit
Unlike the other brands, Autowit uses supercapacitor technology. We tested the Autowit last year, but this year we’re using their new and improved version. Peak capacity 800 amps, the supercapacitor charges itself by using a nearly drained battery.
If the car battery voltage is approximately 12 volts, it’ll take less than three minutes. If the input voltage from the battery is six volts, it’ll take less than 20. If the input voltage is less than five volts, it’ll take less than 30. The Autowit comes with a pretty nice-looking carrying bag. Jumper cables, adapter, user manual. The Autowit is definitely the biggest and the heaviest yet. The Autowit is made in China.
Attach boost clamps to your vehicle’s corresponding battery terminals, when the buzzer sounds for half a second, the charging automatically begins and then sounds again when fully charged. Press the power jump start button. The jump starter will begin discharging countdown for 10 seconds. Get into the vehicle in 10 seconds and get ready to jump-start. When the countdown hits zero, the buzzer sounds continuous, start the engine.
The Autowit discharge very quickly, only lasting about 2 seconds and only producing 372 amps, at about 3 volts.
Gooloo GP4000 – The Best Portable Jump Starter
We’ll also be testing a second Gooloo jump starter. This one has 4 000 cranking amps. Starting current 800 amps for three seconds, peak current 4000 amps, made in China. The jumper cables are definitely a lot heavier duty. Charger, a couple of adapters. This thing is definitely a lot heavier than the other brands. Make sure the jump starter is at least 60% charged. The Gooloo GP 4000 packed a powerful punch at 619 amps at 7.6 volts, which is by far the best yet. The Gooloo lasted about three seconds before powering itself off.
Noco GB70 – start your car with a push of a button.
We tested the Noco GB40, and it was a bit undersized compared to the competition. So, we’ll be testing the Noco GB70. The Noco GB70 is a lot more expensive than a Noco GB40.
12 volt 2 000 amps, safely jumpstart dead batteries on most gasoline vehicles: up to 8 liters or 6-liter diesel. It seems like the storage bag would be a little higher quality instruction manual. The gb70 is made in Malaysia.
Clamp output 12 volts or approximately 2 000 amps, 56-watt hour lithium-ion. The GB70 definitely has a very bright light. The GB70 doesn’t include a battery charger. So, you’ll have to use another USB charger that you have or the 12-volt battery from your car. The GB70 is fully charged. Unlike the other brands that only provided two to three seconds of boost. The Noco GB 70 provided 13 seconds of boost before it gave up. At 588 amps, it didn’t hit quite as hard as the Gooloo GP 4000, but it definitely outlasted it.
Schumacher DSR Pro
The most expensive jump starter we’ll be testing is made by Schumacher. It’s the DSR pro series. Heavy-duty lithium jump starter plus USB ports. 2000 peak amps, 650 cranking amps, user instructions, a couple of adapters, battery charger, user instructions are in the back of the unit, USB capacity: 24 000 milliamp hours. The Schumacher jump starter contains dual lithium iron phosphate batteries. The Schumacher is made in China. The Schumacher performed nearly the same as the Noco, producing slightly less current at 559 amps but slightly higher than the Noco at seven.
Conclusion on the first test
So, the Gooloo GP 4000 delivered the most amps at 619, but the Noco came in a close second at 588, Schumacher 559, Tacklife 511, and Gooloo 490.
Light on Test
Imagine you actually left your lights on, you come back to your vehicle, and the battery is drained. Well, that’s exactly the scenario we’re about to test using each one of these jump starters. Beginning with the Gooloo. The voltage is so low, and the lights will not even come on. Now the vehicle is definitely not going to start. I disconnected the coil so that the engine will spin over, but we do not want it to start.
A very impressive job by the Gooloo, it really spun the engine over very fast. If the coil was connected, this engine would have definitely started. The Gooloo is still at 4 bars, so we can still jump-start several more vehicles.
Recharge the Imazing and it’s at 100 %. The Imazing seems to have done even better. It allowed the engine to continue to cycle for a lot more than about three seconds. In fact, I ran this engine for probably seven or eight seconds before it finally gave up. The Imazing is down to 86 percent.
Viking is fully charged. Unfortunately, I’m not having luck with the Viking this time. The Tacklife is fully charged, an awe-inspiring job by the Tacklife. The vehicle definitely would have started with the coil wire connected, down to three bars with the Tacklife.
All right, the Micro-start XP1 is a small jump starter and it doesn’t have a lot of cranking gas. But let’s see if it can get the engine to spin over quickly anyway. Obviously, the other brands caused the engine to spill over a lot faster, but it still did a very respectful job for such a compact unit. This battery is so close to death, it takes about an hour to charge the Autowit. So, I’m using another battery that is fully charged. Once it’s fully charged, I’ll go ahead and activate the Autowit and it’ll begin the countdown. Now once it says it’s discharging, I could then swap terminals over to our battery that’s dead, and we’ll see if the truck will start.
Very nice the Autowit actually did a lot better this year than last year. The Autowit has definitely seen some improvements. The Autowit is down to 45 %, so we’d have to fully charge this one more time to get it to work. This is the 4000 peak amp jump starter. So, it’s going to be very interesting to see how it performs. Very impressive, the engine was spinning at least 500 rpm. It definitely spun the engine over a lot faster than the other brands.
Unfortunately, the GB40 didn’t do very well last year trying to start this truck. This GB70 has a lot more amperage. So, let’s see how it performs. The Noco spun the engine over by far the longest of all the brands. Very impressive job by the Noco, the Noco is down to two bars, but then again, the Noco spun the engine over for a really long time.
Battery at 100 percent, right now it’s going through a cool-down phase, a very impressive job by the Schumacher, really spinning this engine over.
Diesel Engine Test
The fort ranger has a small 2.9-liter gasoline engine, but what about a diesel engine? This old ford 5000 tractor has a 4.2-liter diesel engine and has a compression of about 300 psi. So, it’s going to put each one of these jump starters to the test. I took the battery out of the ford ranger, and we’ll be using the same battery in this tractor.
All the jump starters are fully charged, we’ll start off with the Gooloo GP2000. Very impressive job by the Gooloo the Imazing is fully charged, very impressive job by the Imazing. Had no problem getting this engine to spin over.
Testing the Viking. Testing the Tacklife. Very impressive job by the Tacklife, and I had no problem spinning over this diesel engine.
Okay, this is a pretty big task for this small jump starter. But we’ll see what the Micro-starter can do. Okay, spun the diesel engine over, but definitely not nearly as fast as most other brands.
Okay the Autowit got this engine to spend over just a little bit, but definitely not enough to get it started.
Testing the Gooloo 4 000. I’m amazed at just how fast this spun the engine over. It seems to work just as well as a thousand-amp battery. Testing the Noco GB70, an awe-inspiring job by the Noco. It doesn’t spin the engine over as fast, but it just doesn’t give up. It just keeps going and going.
This is definitely the right charge if you have a vehicle that takes a long time to get going. This tiny engine spin over just as fast as the Noco GB70 and it seemed to go just about as long.
Cold temperature test
When your car doesn’t want to start, it’s doubtful that it will be sunny at 75 degrees. It’s going to be more like zero degrees Fahrenheit outside. I’m going to set the freezer up for zero degrees Fahrenheit, and we’re going to keep the batteries inside the freezer overnight, and we’ll come back and test them tomorrow.
The Gooloo is very cold at about four degrees Fahrenheit so let’s go ahead and test it and see how it performs. Let’s give it another chance, okay the Gooloo did very well, but it had to warm up, so if you’re using one of these lithium jumps starters, it’s very important to warm these things up and then they’ll actually do their job.
Unfortunately, the Imazing doesn’t like the cold and it’s just not going to work. So, I’m going to let it warm up a little bit more and we’ll come back to it later. The Imazing is really warmed up so I’m going to give it one more try. It did get the engine spinning over fairly fast and it probably would have started.
Four bars with the Viking. Vikings had about 10 minutes to warm up. We’ll see if it could do any better.
When I hit the jump start button, nothing is happening. Something’s wrong with the Viking. Okay, we got a warning light. Unfortunately, the Viking is just not cooperating.
Testing Tacklife, the Tacklife needed a few minutes to warm up. Okay, the Tacklife did a really good job once I allowed it to warm up a little bit. We finally overheated the xp1, it actually did a decent job once it warmed up. I started to get the engine to spin over. Not very fast, it may have started the tractor, but probably not.
I’m going to use a fully charged battery, because as you can see, this one’s only at 5 volts and this will take at least 30 minutes. Okay unfortunately just doesn’t have enough power to get this engine spinning over. Definitely fast enough to start the tractor.
It took a second for the Noco to warm up, but once it did, it did a great job. The Schumacher’s had plenty of attempts and it’s just not going to get the job done.
Power Pack Test
Most of these products can be used as power packs and that’s exactly what we’re going to test next. Each one of them has an advertised milliamp error rating. So, what we’re going to do is apply a 6-amp load and we’ll watch this meter to see how many amp-hours and what hours are produced.
The Gooloo is rated for 73-watt hours or about 19 800 milliamp hours. In fairness to all the brands, I tested them all at six-amp hours, which is well within their design capability. However, they probably received their one-hour rating from the manufacturer, based upon a very small discharge rate of one amp or less.
The Gooloo’s advertised for 73.3-watt-hours, but only delivered 45.9. The Imazing is 100 % charged, 53.8 for the Imazing which is definitely a lot better than the Gooloo, but still very short of the 74-watt hours it’s supposed to deliver
The Viking is fully charged. Okay the Viking gave up at 27-watt hours, which is very far short of its 44.4-watt hour rating. Also, the two less expensive brands: the Imazing, as well as the Gooloo did quite a bit better at well over 40.
The Tacklife is fully charged and is rated for 16 800 milliamp hours, 48-watt hours for Tacklife, which is in second place, behind Gooloo. The Anti Gravity is fully charged. 27.2 watt-hours for the XP-1, just barely ahead of the Harbor Freight’s Viking. The Gooloo GP-4000 is fully charged and the Gooloo gave up a 67.1 which is by far the best of all the brands tested yet.
The Noco was fully charged. The Noco gave up at 43.4, definitely not as good as some of the other brands. The Schumacher is fully charged. 55.2-watt-hours for the Schumacher, which is second place just behind the Gooloo 4000.
So, if you need a jump starter, that’ll double as a portable power bank, the Gooloo GP 4000 came out on top at 67.1-watt hours. Schumacher 55.2, Imazing 53.6, Tacklife 48 and Gooloo GP2000 45.9.
Final Conclusion
If you’re looking for a jumpstart that has enough current to get that vehicle going when the battery’s dead, I’m very impressed with both the Imazing, as well as the GP2000 made by Gooloo. Both of those did a really good job, especially when you consider the price. I would definitely buy either of those depending on which one is less expensive. Regarding the Noco GB70, it did an Imazing job. The Gooloo GP 4000 is very impressive and packs a very powerful punch as well as a very impressive battery bank.
