Question about portable car battery jumpers
5I have one like the ones they sell here on meh, that you plug into the wall to charge and then hook up to your car battery to jump. In the little info booklet it says not to store in extreme cold or hot heat and in Michigan your car outside can kinda get to both. So my question is do you store the potable battery jumper in your car year round?
My car was completely dead twice yesterday and I didn’t have it with me (bc it’s summer in MI and inside a car can get really hot) both times was a pain in the ass to get jumped. So really what’s the point of the battery jumper if you can’t carry it in your car for cases of emergency?
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I live in Texas and have carried one of the tacklife jumper boxes in my car since they were first sold here. I stash it in a spot inside that is not directly in the sun and is as low as possible, to keep it out of the worst of the heat. About every 3 or 4 months, I take it in the house and charge it again. It seems to have worked just fine. Freezing temperatures are harder on these than moderate heat in my experience.
@werehatrack I also have a battery one I bought ages ago on meh too. I am currently charging it (took about 2 years to get down to half). I store it in the car and live in the deep south. I have it under the seat so it is out of the direct sun but it can be hotter than hot in there. It, so far, has seemed to survive. I did use it once, but that was on someone else’s car as there was no way to pull up next to them to jump them. It worked fine.
@werehatrack I just looked at my orders history. Mine’s the Energizer brand I bought October 15th 2017. Battery charged to full overnight. Now it goes back in the car.
I second what hatrack said and will also emphasize you need to take it out at least once a year to empty and recharge.
i’m actually curious what will start happening with all the lithium battery gadgets that were sold like 10-15 years ago now and still stashed around peoples attics, garages and closets and such.
those spicy pillows are not to be stored forever are they?
@username If the pillow has gone to full inflation without destroying the device via physical demolition, it’s safe from a storage hazard standpoint beause it’s also fully discharged, but you’ll probably want to disenpillow the device anyway. If the inflation has killed it, oh well, that’s what the e-waste depository is for. In any event, you could drive screws through a fully discharged lithium pack without doing anything but make a hole. There are some vids on YouTube if you’re curious, but be aware that you have to pick a trustworthy information source. “5 Minute Crafts” videos and all of the channels from the same channel owner are emphatically never trustworthy.
I had an iJoy one that I attempted to use on a totally dead battery. It tried its best and didn’t work, which was understandable. However, having it bulge out never to be useful again after that one attempt was not what I was hoping for.
I keep a Tacklife unit (from here) in the spare well in the back of my RAV4. So far never had any problems with it. I agree that it’s a good idea to top the thing off once or twice a year. Lithium batteries however do not really benefit from cycling down and should almost never be run down to fully depleted.
@chienfou There’s engineering data which suggests that they are best charged to 80% for long-term storage, but I have not had a problem with durability at full charge with mine. Perhaps that just means that I am underestimating how long they could actually last.
@chienfou @werehatrack hence why unless i change the setting my samsung phone charges to 80%
when i lived in monterey and power was going out regularly, i would reset it to 100 and use a pack to keep it full until power was restored, then back to 80. it takes getting used to, but it really seems to work
@Cerridwyn Is that “charge to 80%” option Samsung-specific? I’ve long thought it should be an option, but never seen it on my phones.
@xobzoo I honestly don’t know if it is Samsung specific but I believe that it is
@Cerridwyn @xobzoo My Motorola phone has a similar feature. I think the setting is called “Optimized Charging”
@Cerridwyn @macromeh I’ve got a Motorola (G7 Play), and I’m not seeing any setting that sounds like that. I even found a page which claims to describe how to turn it on or off, and it agrees that it’s called “Optimized Charging” — but I don’t have anything like that in my Battery settings.
I have an “Adaptive Battery” setting, but it has nothing to do with charging.
Grr.
But thanks for your help! I now have a starting point.
@Cerridwyn @xobzoo On my phone (Moto G Stylus) “Optimized Charging” is immediately after
Settings->Battery->Adaptive Battery
I keep a gooloo in the center console. I don’t worry about the heat because it’s usually shaded in the driveway. Never had a problem although the jumps were over the pandemic and/or winter.
Michigan is outside the heatwave. I would not be concerned personally.
But if your care was dead twice in one day. You need to replace your battery and check your alternator
I went to a camping festival a couple weeks ago and I had my Tacklife model that I bought here stored in my wheelwell.
It was well over 100 every day (and prob much hotter inside the car) fand pretty cold at night because it was in the desert.
I later used it to start my friend’s car that died whilst we were camping. He had to turn it over a couple times to get it to start, but I had no issues with the battery draining too much in storage.
We’ve got the Tacklife battery charger that my guy has been using regularly. He’s got an electrical problem and the inside and brake lights come on sporadically throughout the night. I can’t imagine having a battery charger and not keeping it in the car.
Like you said @Star2236 what’s the sense? Even though you have more extreme temperatures than we do I’m thinking it’s fine to leave it in your car. If you don’t get as much life out of the charger it’s still going to be cheaper than having a tow truck come out to jump you, or flag another car down and hope they’re willing to give you a jump, (owning many older cars with mechanical issues myself I can remember some people not willing to have jumper cables used on their vehicles 
) and definitely LESS STRESSFUL just knowing you can do it yourself and not having to wait!
Good luck finding a solution for the battery, hopefully it just needs to be replaced. Wouldn’t a inexpensive quick fix be wonderful! 
Bottom line… Put it in your car so it’s there when you need it.
@Lynnerizer If the vehicle is a Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep product from the years 2000-2017 (or thereabouts), I’d be looking really hard for corrosion or signs of water having gotten into what we would call “the fusebox” but Chrysler calls “the Totally Integrated Power Module”. I was working on a 2007 Caravan recently with similar symptoms (some of which were downright bizarre) and they all turned out to be due to multiple faults in that needlessly complex and fragile component. I picked up a used replacement on eBay for $45, and all the bizarre crap ceased, including the problem with the battery going flat in two to three days.
@Lynnerizer (When I say “bizarre”, I mean things like the right door power window switch would blow the horn, but the switch on the driver’s door would work the window just fine.)
@werehatrack OMG that is bizarre! So this is/was my dad’s vehicle, 2009 Hyundai Entourage, my guy got it after my dad passed last year. He lived near the water in Florida so I’m not surprised if it is something to do with corrosion.
At least he was able to get the emissions done first, before the battery died. I didn’t realize that the battery can’t be disconnected right before you go through emissions. I guess it needs time to reset itself. Jeez… do I miss my 69 Camaro, THAT’S when motors were motors! And you didn’t need a degree just to change the oil, or to find where it goes! Lol
I’m not sure if today’s mechanics would even know how to work on what I call a real motor, they’re all about relying on their computers to do it. It’s frustrating, they’re not about trouble shooting that’s for sure. 
There are 3 fuse boxes in his car and they replaced the OBD unit. I suggested for him to take individual fuses out and see if we can tell where the problem is. I was thinking that would be the easiest way especially since neither one of us are working on cars these days. The whole thing started when he needed to get through emissions, they said the OBD unit needed to be replaced first and of course nobody wants to do it except for the dealership who charges 50 million dollars just to lift the hood. They also replaced the battery. It needed a jump 4 days later.
I have the tacklife and some other brand. They both have worked well in each car. It gets pretty hot in the mid- Atlantic area but I have not yet noticed any degradation. Unfortunately, the convertible seems to be leaking again and the tacklife box was sitting on damp carpet. I’m a little afraid to open it.
It might shorten its life if stored in heat (everyone knows batteries love the cold) but it is completely useless if you don’t have it with you when you need it. I think it’s okay to keep in the car, but maybe in the trunk if you’ve got one, or some sort of under seat compartment. Anywhere that doesn’t get exposed to the sun should stay a little cooler.
Also, those windshield shades do work to keep the temps lower. Doesn’t mean I remember to use them, but I do notice the difference when I do.
@djslack Although they’re a bit fragile, the ones that open out like a demented and slightly inverted umbrella work well (for us), take up less space (usually) and are easier to stow (for some people). YMMV. Use what works for you.
@werehatrack Hi,
IDK what you mean by this- could you list an example, pretty please?
Thanks in advance,
PA
If it’s an older Ford, 90s, 2010s I think? they have GEMs(general electronics modules). They tend to leaked on as things age.
E.g. https://www.expeditionforum.com/threads/gem-module.44895/
Similar stuff in other cars though
Honestly having a good multimeter and some good googling for “year make model forum” and current draw/parasitic/dead battery will usually turn up good stuff on older cars.
Should still apply for newer ones, the rules are the same till you get to new/fancy stuff