I'm in for two. I have a heavy gauge set I keep in the garage for when headlights are left on over the weekend or a cold snap has killed the battery to the point of replacement time or something, but they are way too bulky to keep in the car full time. These look small enough to pop into the spare tire well and forget about until you need them.

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

So you'd be okay with cables made from calcium. It's a metal...

ionman wrote:These are a fantastic price. Cheap insurance to have in every car you own. Nothing sucks like shutting your seatbelt in your car door on your way in to work, only to find that the interior light has been on all day and you now don't have enough juice to get your car started. You can usually get a jump from the next person that happens by, but do your trust that THEY will have decent jumper cables.

With the auto-switch hookup of these, they should be pretty much goof proof. If I didn't already have jumpers in each of my cars, I'd be in for 3.

Yeah, if there is another car around, Good if your car is in town. Bad if you are home (in the boonies) and one car family. But probably will get one so I don't have to wait 3 hours for road service.

mirylad985 wrote:I always hear people around me complaining about how they never want to jump-start anyone who has a dead battery, because they're "afraid it would damage my car". Which just means they don't know how to properly use them. Between the surge protector and the foolproof polarity, maybe I'll pick up a couple pairs and toss them their way so that they really have no excuse to not be good samaritans.

Maybe they are just afraid you are going to duct tape them up in your trunk and use your smart cables on their milk spots???

Just as an aside - All the really smart guys in the electical industries know that copper is a better conductor than aluminum, as are silver (even better than copper), and gold.

The primary reason they make wires out of aluminum - overhead power lines, underground power lines, household wiring and general use in things like jumper cables) is to save money - period - dot. Copper costs about $3 a pound while Aluminum costs about 90 cents a pound. (While silver costs about $285 a pound and gold costs about $19,000 a pound).

So you guys can brag about your 2 or 4 gauge copper jumper cables, I'm still looking for that 8 gauge solid silver jumper cable so I can jump start my SUV!!

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).

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

Same here, the little cables will work fine on a barely drained battery but much past that and you wind up waiting a long time for it to charge and still failing a lot of the time. I spent a few extra bucks on heavy duty cables, had them 10 years so far and haven't had to sit out in the cold waiting.

doc606 wrote:any discussion about the wire gauge is not relevant.. this is ALUMINUM wire.

As an electrical engineer, I must chime in.

Wire gauge is completely relevant. Although the fact that it's aluminum is pretty important too. Really, these cables are not a super choice in either respect even if they will likely work often enough.

Here are some quick assumptions:
1) Starting an average car can take up to 200 CCA (cold cranking amps) - some vehicles even more.
2) Assuming a battery is only low on charge and not completely dead, however, we'll give the benefit of the doubt and say that we need maybe 100 CCA.
3) A car battery of a running (the charging) vehicle is around 13.5-14.5 V from the alternator.
4)So we call up our handy friend the Voltage Drop Calculator (thanks to Gerard Newton) on this page: http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

5) Enter these values:
Aluminum
8 AWG
12 VDC (this implies the approx, not the actual voltage, so it's relevant)
12 (ft)
100 (load in Amps)

That gives you about a 25% drop.
If we start with 13.5V, that's going to give us about 10.5V at the end of the cables.

In general 10.6ish is considered the minimum voltage required to start a car, but it is true that (a) the voltage of a running car is often a bit above 13.5 and also (b) often 10V will do the job...for most vehicles. Some require more(up to 11ish...or more if you have certain hybrids).

So...these cables are good enough to do the job most of the time, even if just barely.

Although, had they been made out of copper, the drop would only be about half that (13%) or had they been the next size bigger wire (6AWG is bigger than 8AWG) it's be about 16% for AL or 8% for copper.

BUT, this neglects the fact that these cables with their smart circuit very likely drop the voltage further. I would imagine at the very least there is probably a diode-like drop of around 0.7V just to keep the current from going the wrong way if you hook it up backward.

In general, jumper cables are sold from 10 AWG to 1 AWG ("light duty" vs. "i want to jump a monster truck from my tank, thank you"), and are more often copper, particularly if they are of good quality. Aluminum is okay though...it just has a higher voltage drop as I said and can also be more brittle (easier to break)...something to think about if you live in a cold area especially where the insulation will be brittle as well and where the voltage drop will be more important (cold batteries do not source current/jump start as well). Also, if you DO put too much current through it, Aluminum has a higher chance of burning up based on its melting point and higher resistance (which makes more heat when you run current through it). Aluminum is also lighter and cheaper than Copper, which is probably why these cables use it.

So...based on that, I'd say these cables are probably okay for most things, but could leave you in a lurch if your vehicle needs more amps (really dead battery, cold weather, really power hungry vehicle, etc).

Oh...and to respond to Captain Wes. I am a woman driver, and I do know how to jump start my car, thank you! (And I knew how to even before getting 2 degrees and a professional certification. So ha.)

Spiky wrote:I'm from Minnesota. If you don't have minimum 6AWG all copper jumper cables in your vehicle, and know how to use them, you should just move south. C'mon, red to red, black to black, what kind of spoon do you have to be not to get it?

This product is for QVC shoppers. 'Nuff said.

This is the best post ever considering most would say red to red, black to BLOCK (engine block/metal ground).

Maybe it's time to move South...


This product looks perfect. This isn't 1953 with car batteries dying all the time. I would anticipate using this once or twice in its lifetime. Even if I went out of my way to stop and assist every car I could find I'd still only use it one or twice a year. So why not have a small set of cables that take a little longer but take up less space in the trunk, are foolproof, and have a built in surge protector. The extra 10-20 minutes that it takes to jump a car are insignificant for something that is used this infrequently.

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

You mean people that should not be allowed on the road?



Anyways...these seem like a gimmick to me. They also look plastic. No thanks, I'll stick with my quality-made "complicated" jumper cables that have two confusing colors on the ends!

The smaller gauge and short length are also a few cons.



The mere existence of a product like this proves that the driving exams are far too east and there are far too many people being allowed to drive a car that have no business being behind the wheel of a killing machine on wheels.

yeladot wrote:Yeah, if there is another car around, Good if your car is in town. Bad if you are home (in the boonies) and one car family. But probably will get one so I don't have to wait 3 hours for road service.

You can keep the cables in your car, and get one of these for your home.

Also, view this post.

Chicagojon wrote:This is the best post ever considering most would say red to red, black to BLOCK (engine block/metal ground).

Maybe it's time to move South...


This product looks perfect. This isn't 1953 with car batteries dying all the time. I would anticipate using this once or twice in its lifetime. Even if I went out of my way to stop and assist every car I could find I'd still only use it one or twice a year. So why not have a small set of cables that take a little longer but take up less space in the trunk, are foolproof, and have a built in surge protector. The extra 10-20 minutes that it takes to jump a car are insignificant for something that is used this infrequently.

Teenage. drivers. leave. lights. on. in. YOUR. car. (/vent)

NightGhost wrote:You can keep the cables in your car, and get one of these for your home.

Also, view this post.

Those are useless if you don't consistently check the charge on the jumper. They need to be charged in your home with in your outlet. If you're not regularly checking the level and recharging the unit, most likely you'll find it dead when you need it.

I have one, but it's not practical. Jumper cables and a real battery charger (slow trickle charges are more effective) are far better.

When I bought it, I wasn't aware it lost its charge on a regular basis if left in your trunk for use in an emergency.

Whoops, double post!

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

rfsmit wrote:
So you'd be okay with cables made from calcium. It's a metal...

Learn to read.

The poster you replied to said nothing about the qualities of various metals that would make them good for use as wire... he merely pointed out that a thicker gauge wire is always better, regardless of what metal type is used.

All you can infer from the previous poster is that a thick wire of calcium would conduct electricity better than a thin wire of calcium.

Thanks for playing.

NightGhost wrote:Teenage. drivers. leave. lights. on. in. YOUR. car. (/vent)

True...but I don't have to worry about that for at least 16 years + 9 months.

With a teenage driver I'd have an 'emergency kit' in the car with a direct charger (sealed battery type) and would do a training session before the keys were ever given.

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

Dude! Don't be sexist.
Beotches hate that.

Well said.

mjc613 wrote:I beg to differ with your categorization of who knows what about a car's inner workings. If a woman offers to help start your car, she will know how to do it. On the other hand, I have seen men offer to help, because they wanted to be a knight in shining armor, and almost electrocute themselves.

What you meant to say is "These are great for" PEOPLE "who have no knowledge whatsoever of a car's inner workings during an emergency."

I accept your apology.

I'm sorry but I don't understand all the fuzz about the gauge being small, or the cables being short. Just buy 2 and make double connections between two cars, or daisy-chain the 2 cables to double the length. Even a caveman can figure this out...

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

tzippalini wrote:Most women are afraid of things with wires that attach to cars.

Seriously, you guys? This female engineer would like to tell you what you can do with your jumper cables.

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 don't have an engine compartment light, you insensitive clod! Also, there are people known as "color blind", which can make this a challenge in severe cases, compounded by darkness.

rinkrat19 wrote:Seriously, you guys? This female engineer would like to tell you what you can do with your jumper cables.

Sadly, my friend, you bring the total of female engineers I know to 12.

bustermac wrote:Those are useless if you don't consistently check the charge on the jumper. They need to be charged in your home with in your outlet. If you're not regularly checking the level and recharging the unit, most likely you'll find it dead when you need it.

I have one, but it's not practical. Jumper cables and a real battery charger (slow trickle charges are more effective) are far better.

When I bought it, I wasn't aware it lost its charge on a regular basis if left in your trunk for use in an emergency.

I ass-ume you're talking about the Woot offering the other poster mentioned. I don't have one f those, but I do have the kind of charger I linked to at Amazon - I just plug it into an outdoor extension cord, and it works fine anytime.

BTW, you have the get the polarity correct with these too, or you'll probably fry the charger.

RobTheBold wrote:Sadly, my friend, you bring the total of female engineers I know to 12.

Now, that's just sad. I had more than that in any one of my engineering classes at a medium-sized university. My major was almost 50/50.

Vanstorm wrote:Learn to read.

The poster you replied to said nothing about the qualities of various metals that would make them good for use as wire... he merely pointed out that a thicker gauge wire is always better, regardless of what metal type is used.

All you can infer from the previous poster is that a thick wire of calcium would conduct electricity better than a thin wire of calcium.

Thanks for playing.

Not only that, but Calcium is a bad metal to belittle somebody with in these discussions anyway as it is the 6th most conductive metal...way better than Zinc, Nickel, Platinum, Tin or Lead...

Battery technology has improved over the years, but cars demand more electrical power than ever. Many cars on the market can't start with less than 10.5 volts. The computers won't communicate to allow it to start.
Dead batteries are seemingly more common lately as cars get more complex and more low end Chinese batteries are on the market. People are too cheap to buy high end batteries and the off-brand stuff is flying off the shelves.
If you don't have jumper cables, then why not consider not having a spare tire? Don't be helpless.

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 disagree. I've been working on my cars doing brakes, oil changes and other maintenance for 25 years. A few months ago I had to jump a car from my step-dad's Wrangler. His battery had NO markings at all for pos or neg. Both cables looked equally sized, and the negative wasn't obvious like it is on some vehicles (where you can see it connect to the frame). These cables would have made what took 15 mins of figuring things out into 1 minute!

Spiky wrote:I'm from Minnesota. If you don't have minimum 6AWG all copper jumper cables in your vehicle, and know how to use them, you should just move south. C'mon, red to red, black to black, what kind of spoon do you have to be not to get it?

This product is for QVC shoppers. 'Nuff said.

Not all cars have colored cables, and some batteries are mounted and connected in such a way that you can't see the plus and minus symbols, like the Wrangler in my previous post.

bustermac wrote:You mean people that should not be allowed on the road?

The mere existence of a product like this proves that the driving exams are far too east and there are far too many people being allowed to drive a car that have no business being behind the wheel of a killing machine on wheels.

Whoa.... hyperbole much?

I don't know how to screen-lithograph an integrated circuit, nor how to rewire the voltage converter in my power supply... should I not be allowed to type behind the keyboard of my silicon-based potentially-sentient-and-don't-you-know-here-comes-the-robot-holocaust computational device, too?


Wait... don't answer that....

doc606 wrote:any discussion about the wire gauge is not relevant.. this is ALUMINUM wire.

Hopefully others have pointed this out, but in case not - yes, discussion about the wire gauge is TOTALLY relevant. A larger gauge of aluminum is needed to be equivalent to copper, but the gauge is THE primary specification related to current-carrying capacity, whether we're talking about copper or aluminum.

Please don't make such ignorant statements which only confuse people.

yeladot wrote:Yeah, if there is another car around, Good if your car is in town. Bad if you are home (in the boonies) and one car family.

I think the solution there is to drive a manual and park at the top of a hill. (Yeah, I know, you can do a rolling jump on an automatic, but it's easier on a manual.)

I am laughing at all these comments of people being "electrocuted" from their 12 volt DC car battery.... Try again when you've had 110VAC or coursing through your body and disrupting the electrical signals to your hand making you had useless for about an hour! Better yet try 277VAC... I've never done it but my brother in law did once, he said it hurt, I'll take his word for it!

yduras wrote:I think the solution there is to drive a manual and park at the top of a hill. (Yeah, I know, you can do a rolling jump on an automatic, but it's easier on a manual.)

Thanks, but I live in Southeastern Virginia and the nearest hilly road to my house is about 20 miles away. Parking there and then walking home might make me yearn for a set of jumper cables, no matter the metal type nor the gauge...

SuperNinja wrote:Electrocute?
From 12 volts?

Volts don't kill. Amps do. I took a high-voltage shock during a college physics experiment, but the amperage was fractions of a milliamp. Same with a Taser - high voltage for neurological disruption, but very low amperage to reduce the likelihood of defibrillation (probably most likely cause of death from electric shock). On the other hand, a 120V circuit in your house, carrying 12 or 15 Amps, can toast you.

Here's some other alternatives to these:

AutoZone - 20-foot 2AWG - $50; 12-foot 6AWG - $30
Amazon - 16-foot, 4-gauge - $34

You may pay a little more, but you will get a better quality product that will last a lot longer.

I almost bought these, then I realized how I'd use them.

They'd sit in my trunk for 5 or 10 years, sometimes getting wet, and then finally when I do need them, I'd probably find out that the electronics no longer work.

Instead I'll just buy myself a lightweight pair of 8 gauge cables and toss them in the trunk (after greasing up the cable clamps to prevent corrosion where the cables are joined). (my car is small enough that 8 gauge should be sufficient, no need to carry around the extra weight of 6 or 4 gauge cables)

My next car will likely be electric anyway or some weird 48V hybrid or something that I won't be able to jump start, so maybe I'll just skip the cables entirely -- I haven't needed to use jumper cables on my own car in over 10 years. (though I have jumped a few other cars in that timespan)

Spiky wrote:I'm from Minnesota. If you don't have minimum 6AWG all copper jumper cables in your vehicle, and know how to use them, you should just move south. C'mon, red to red, black to black, what kind of spoon do you have to be not to get it?

This product is for QVC shoppers. 'Nuff said.

Umm, don't you mean red to red, black to ground there Mr. "If you don't know how to use jumper cables move south"?

I mean sure, you can run negative to negative, if you don't mind risking an explosion.

arroyoko wrote:I'm sorry but I don't understand all the fuzz about the gauge being small, or the cables being short. Just buy 2 and make double connections between two cars, or daisy-chain the 2 cables to double the length. Even a caveman can figure this out...

Why on earth would you do that?

So you would spend $35 on these cables that may not work instead of spending under $15 for a NICE set 4 gauge, 16 foot jumper cables from a large auto parts chain?

I don't think it would be appropriate for me to post the link to the vendor that has them for the price I mention. It is your job to do a search and find them if you want.

mweir1981 wrote:I am laughing at all these comments of people being "electrocuted" from their 12 volt DC car battery.... Try again when you've had 110VAC or coursing through your body and disrupting the electrical signals to your hand making you had useless for about an hour! Better yet try 277VAC... I've never done it but my brother in law did once, he said it hurt, I'll take his word for it!

Really? Because I think it's your lack of understanding that's funny...voltage, while not totally irrelevant, is normally not what kills you or knocks you on your butt...it is the amperage, measured in milliamperes, that flow through your body. So, while a 12V flashlight battery might cause your skin to tingle, a 12V car battery with the capability to deliver 900 Amps for 15 seconds, can give you quite a jolt - 10,800 Watts vice the 2,400 Watts that you'd get from grabbing typical US 120V household wiring at 20 Amps.

Confession: I've also accidentaly sent ~9000 volts through a co-worker when I accidentally checked connectivity with a 9-volt battery through a tranformer he was working on...it only scared him because he thought someone had connected the transformer and it was live. When he forgave me, several weeks later, he admitted it didn't hurt at all...no amperage

I've been "bitten" by both a car battery and household current...neither are pleasant, but the car battery did melt my college ring...

Finally - Electrocution means death...not shocked the crap out of...

How do we keep getting into these discussions on electricity????

animefanboy123 wrote:When I tried to use them they did not work on my car because the battery was too low, but a normal set of jumper cables worked just fine.

Other wise good idea for people who dont know much about cars.

That is terrible! Why get only half working jumper cables?

I see there is a lot of Minnesota/Siberia/4th-layer-of-Hell frosty e-peen measuring going on but, assuming you live someplace that humans are actually adapted to living in, aren't these good enough for their intended use of occasionally jumping a battery because you left the lights on?

Basically if I buy these for my mom in Florida that would probably be good, yes?