SuperNinja wrote:Electrocute?
From 12 volts?

Heh - yeah - seems that sparks & accompanying snapping sounds are often confused as being dangerous to the human body.... not thinking of things like how arc welders can do it all day long & live!

I for one like the electronic monitoring. It should prevent a dangerous voltage spike when both engines are running and still connected. You don't want to blow that expensive in-dash navigation system out now do you?

Rad1030 wrote:I electrocuted my friend the first time I ever tried to jump a car.

So sorry to hear your friend died.
How exactly did he die?

zephalis wrote:If the concept of polarity is beyond someone they should not be using jumper cables, let alone driving.

agreed.

I just ordered a set. Bought a brand new 2010 Ford Focus last week and was actually in the market for jumper cables. The Focus is a small car so i think these should be fine.


Does anyone know if these come with a case?

Way too small. I can't tell you how many times I was summoned from my office because the crappy 8 gauge jumper cables people would carry wouldn't jump start a car and everyone knew I had "real" cables (2 gauge).

If you shop carefully, $100 will buy a very suitable set of cables. Doesn't seem like much if you're stranded.

AaronFerg wrote:The mere fact that these exist annoy me to no end. Hey, tards, red goes to red and black goes to black. How hard is that to figure out?

I have an older BMW that uses a black cable for positive and a brown cable (easily confused for aged red) for negative ground.

You advice would result in a reversed connection.

KRomo wrote:I just ordered a set. Bought a brand new 2010 Ford Focus last week and was actually in the market for jumper cables. The Focus is a small car so i think these should be fine.


Does anyone know if these come with a case?

Bwahahaha - small car does NOT correlate with small need! Shoulda saved yer cash! (liklihood of actually NEEDING them on a new car is so far out it's also laughable....) Are our kids EVER taught to actually THINK these days?????

willnott wrote:Bwahahaha - small car does NOT correlate with small need! Shoulda saved yer cash! (liklihood of actually NEEDING them on a new car is so far out it's also laughable....) Are our kids EVER taught to actually THINK these days?????

Oh, BTW - you can buy a nice case with the Zip-Lok name on it in your favorite supermarket!

willnott wrote:Bwahahaha - small car does NOT correlate with small need! Shoulda saved yer cash! (liklihood of actually NEEDING them on a new car is so far out it's also laughable....) Are our kids EVER taught to actually THINK these days?????

its impossible to leave a light on in a new car? be making out with a chick too long with the radio on?

You sure batteries cant be drained on new cars?

willnott wrote:Oh, BTW - you can buy a nice case with the Zip-Lok name on it in your favorite supermarket!

why are you mean?

dogar wrote:I for one like the electronic monitoring. It should prevent a dangerous voltage spike when both engines are running and still connected. You don't want to blow that expensive in-dash navigation system out now do you?

Did you actually THINK before posting that? The only voltage spikes will be ones toward ground (lower voltage), and that will NOT
damage electronic eqpt... as a case in point, radios have survived such spikes for years now.... Sheesh

willnott wrote:Did you actually THINK before posting that? The only voltage spikes will be ones toward ground (lower voltage), and that will NOT
damage electronic eqpt... as a case in point, radios have survived such spikes for years now.... Sheesh

dude why are you so angry over this product? its 13 bux. I for one like that its a unique product. Its hard to make jumper cables interesting, but these are.

KRomo wrote:why are you mean?

Why are you so sensitive? Sensitivity can NOT replace thoughtfulness or learning...

willnott wrote:Why are you so sensitive? Sensitivity can NOT replace thoughtfulness or learning...

I'm still perplexed by your comment. You recommend that people with new cars not buy jumper cables?

Its truly impossible for a battery on a new car to run out?


Its impossible that I may encounter a stranded motorist without jumper cables?


I think its silly for any motorist not to have jumper cables...regardless of year of the car.

blautens wrote:Way too small. I can't tell you how many times I was summoned from my office because the crappy 8 gauge jumper cables people would carry wouldn't jump start a car and everyone knew I had "real" cables (2 gauge).

I once saw a van being jump started with a copper iceline. (Iceline: small diameter copper tubing, used to connect a refrigerator icemaker to your water supply)

They touched the bumpers of the 2 vans together, and then touched the 2 ends of the iceline to the positive terminals of each battery, and they were able to start the van that way.
I'm sure the contact area of the iceline ends was nowhere near as much as the average set of jumper cables.

OK this conversation about the product is all well and good, but I'm the first one to mention the They Might Be Giants reference? Shame on all you Wooters...

mac daddy1 wrote:If it's not 2 gauge and 18 feet, you might be wasting your time, unless you're jumping a small motorcycle.

actually i've jumped a car with CAT5 before.. i can't remember how many strands we put together but it was quite a few... thats what i get for carrying 1kft roll of cat5 and no jumper cables

i understand your point but at the same time 2 things to keep in mind
1) most people who need a jump their battery is weak and you need only a couple extra amps to get the motor to roll over
2) even if amp load is heavy and too much for that gauge - it isn't doing it for long only a few seconds - so you end up with a warm/hot cable not a melted one.

So do these work with six-volt positive-earth electrical systems, or should I just continue to push the car, get in and pop the clutch?

I have these, and I have not been impressed.

Part of the "smart" in these cables is that the green light will only illuminate if the dead battery has greater than 8 volts of juice left. So if you're like me and leave your headlights on while you are at work (the dinger is broken in one of my cars), these clamps will not even allow you to attempt to jump the battery.

I'll risk it with my "stupid" jumper cables, which got my car started that day.

I'll take the woman comments and I'm very smart and handy in most other cases. I will not even jump my car even worse ill make other people do it and I'll stand about 15 feet away. I don't know WHY but it scares the **** out of me. I'm always afraid it's going to explode. These seem like they may ease my mind a bit...or give me a false sense of security.

ionman wrote:Just a tad sexist...

Ditto...

Living on the Minnesota/Wisconsin border, I know a LOT about jumpers. First, ALWAYS have a set. Second, don't depend on "toy" jumpers, go to an auto parts store and spend some serious cash on a real set. Finally, figure out polarity: first put the positive to the positive, then the negative to the negative. Don't put both on one battery and then both on the other. This is common sense, folks.

quantamm wrote:These could have come in handy the other day.

A guy flags me down and asks for a jump. I say okay and pull over in front of his car. I hook up the positive lead to my battery and he looks competent enough, so I hand him the other end of the cables. He connects them to his battery. Then I connect the negative lead to my alternator (*see why below).

And then oddly enough, I notice smoke coming out of my battery. I go to pull the negative lead off and it is super hot, even through the insulation. He had not bothered to check the polarity when he had a connected the cables. I'm lucky he didn't blow out my electrical system.

*And you should always connect the negative terminal last and connect it to something solid, unpainted metal, away from your battery. Why? Because the last connection will always make a spark and your battery is filled with explosive gases. It's unlikely to explode, but if it does, you'll be deaf from the sound of the explosion and blind from the battery acid. Just Google for some horror stories if you don't believe me.

Never heard of this technique in 40 years. Next time, take 30 seconds and check the other end of the cable as opposed to assuming a stranger knows what he is doing.

I am not sure where the "confusion" comes in. Red positive, black negative. How could someone screw that up?

CaptainWes wrote:These are great for women drivers and others who have no knowledge whatsoever of a car's inner workings during an emergency.

I don't like the "women driver statement" a lot of woman know how to use jumper cables including me.

djbecker wrote:I have an older BMW that uses a black cable for positive and a brown cable (easily confused for aged red) for negative ground.

You advice would result in a reversed connection.

It doesn't matter which color you use, as long as the color goes to the same polarity on both batteries. They are just guidelines.

In for 2.....wife and daughter. No flames please.

All well and good when the circuitry is working but when they go bad (which circuits do) this can happen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC7yVGf4-KI

Maybe best to just learn to connect red to red or if you're really human DNA impaired just connect black to the body of the car first that way you can't go wrong which ever post you put the red on. If you can't figure that out, well you're probably already a runner up for a Darwin Award.

Wait, so... the colors and/or the +/- aren't enough?

I wasn't aware it was difficult to jump a car with normal cables...red is positive, black is negative, it's not rocket science people!

This could have saved me a battery and a lot of time. My (ex) housemate needed his car jumped. I went to help him and let him connect one end of jumpers himself to his own battery since he was an engineer. Turned out an engineering degree doesn't count for much and he ended up destroying both batteries when he connected it backwards. Needless to say, when I jump someone's car now, they don't do anything but start the car when I tell them.

zephalis wrote:
Um...try to know what you're talking about before paraphrasing e-how. "black", or negative in a car IS ground. The negative terminal is connected to the car's chassis directly and so they are the same. The only difference is the off chance that the "dead" battery is giving off hydrogen which is very rare. The only reason this chassis connection exists is for liability on the part of the cable manufacturers.

Um...You should try to know what you are talking about before correcting others. The car's chassis is tied to the negative potential of the battery - which is not tied to an actual ground. To be ground, the negative would have to be tied off to something conductive driven to a proper depth in the ground. That would be impractical in a moving vehicle. The car is actually insulated from ground by the tires (and road). So, instead of saying put the second black cable to ground, it would be more proper to say put the second black cable to the negative potential of the car chassis (not ground).

If you own a manual and always park on a hill you can always bumpstart your vehicle.

djcanfield wrote:Of course it matters, its just that the amperage capacity of copper is better than aluminum for the same gage. An 8 gage Al wire could be used for a 40 amp circuit in residential wiring, while an 8 gage Cu wire can carry a 50 amp circuit.

I prefer my 2 gage cables without the protection, but these would be plenty adequate for any situation where the dead battery could hold enough of a charge to turn the starter quickly enough.

Where'd you find 2 gauge cables? I'm interested in those.

spacemart wrote:these look pretty worthless. I've had trouble starting a car with bigger copper cables. Twice I've doubled up jumper cables and gotten it to start. If your battery won't hold a charge thin cables like these won't do it. As someone said earlier, do not skimp on jumper cables.

They reason you have to double up is that the smaller cables don't allow enough amps through. Larger gauge wire on a good pair of jumpers or (doubling up thin ones) opens enough to allow the amps to actually get through

erick99 wrote:Electrons see a conductor and a thicker gauge metal, regardless of the type of metal, makes a huge difference in carrying capacity.

FAIL...
Aluminum has only about 60 percent of the conductivity of copper (Specific resistance (Ohm/mil ft) Al 10.6 v Copper 17). It is more ductile (can be drawn out). Copper has relatively high tensile strength (the greatest stress a substance can bear along its length without tearing apart). However, copper is more expensive and heavier than aluminum.

Gauge for gauge, solid copper wire has about 25% greater current capacity than aluminum. 8 gauge copper is good for 40 amps and aluminum is good for about 30. These are listed as "copper clad" aluminum. Not clear that makes a useful difference in current capacity. For jumper cables, this means you'll need to let the weak battery be "charged" for awhile longer before trying to start the engine. Heavier cable will permit a direct start from the donor's alternator. That said, this is a good price for a safe (spoon resistant) set of cables that are much more flexible than the heavier gauge sets, such as 2's and 4's. That's worth something in freezing weather.

Run away, run away!!!!

If you are not smart enough to know that red goes to positive, and black goes to negative, don't lift the hood.

PLEASE spend your money on a AAA membership instead.

ionman wrote:Just a tad sexist...

VERY, I couldn't agree more. Come on MAN, this is 2010, plenty of women know how to fix their cars. You should have left out the "women" part of your post and just said something about the cables being good for PEOPLE who don't know
a lot about cars. There are plenty of men who don't know how to pop the hood.