The Halo HALO Bolt 58830 mWh Portable Phone Laptop Charger Car Jump Starter with AC Outlet and Car Charger
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My family and I just returned from a 49-day trip to the Northeast to see family and have some fun. Detailed trip reports for each flight and most hotels we stayed at can be found below.
When we arrived back to our house from LAX around 8:30pm, I decided to make a quick trip to the grocery store for obvious reasons. I grabbed my wallet, face mask and car keys and headed to the garage.
I knew something wasn’t right when my 2019 Lincoln Nautilus didn’t light up like it usually does when I approach the car. When I got in and no lights went on, I realized the battery was dead. I tried the other key fob just to make sure.
I’m not very handy when it comes to cars, unlike my brother who spent a good portion of his childhood tearing apart and putting engines back together. The most I can do is jumpstart a car and change a flat tire.
Before I called Lincoln’s Road Side Assistance number, I texted a couple of neighbors to see if they had any ideas since my car was facing forward in the garage and there was no room for another car to do a jumpstart.
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Both neighbors wrote back and said they have portable overnight chargers they could put on the battery and it should be good to go in the morning. I took one of them up on the offer.
When my neighbor popped the hood, it was the first time I’d seen the engine in almost three years. The SUV never gave me any problems before and I always took it to the dealership for oil changes.
The next morning I was up early and was eager to see if the portable charger had worked. The status light on the charger was green so I was hopeful but unfortunately, there was no life in the car. I couldn’t even pop the glove box since it requires battery power.
My neighbor said he could jump it. “How?” I asked, since there’s no room to bring another car into the garage. He said, “You’ll see!” and ran home to get what I thought were his jumper cables. I figured they were going to be extra long but instead it was the opposite.
He had a little pouch and inside was a device about the size of a mini cable box with two short leashed jumper clamps. “This should do it,” he said, as he popped the red clamp on the positive terminal and put the black clamp on the negative. He then pressed a button on the device and voila! The car lit up and I pressed start and I was good to go.
I was so impressed with the device that of course I asked where he got it. He enthusiastically told me that it was from Amazon, that it wasn’t expensive and that it has USB ports to charge any device you might have while on the road. Brilliant. Not only do I need to get one but everyone should have this in their car for road trips. He agreed, which is why I’m sharing this with you.
Fortunately, my neighbor insisted I keep the booster with me for a day in case I needed to use it again. I’m glad he did because I did. I drove around for 20 minutes then picked up my wife and kids to come for the ride so they could keep the car running while I got the groceries.
I was in the store for about eight minutes when my wife called and said that the car had just turned off by itself. If I hadn’t had the booster, I would have had to ask someone to jump it, which would not have been easy since the parking lot was fairly crowded and I parked facing in again or I would have had to call Lincoln’s service department. Instead, I just popped the trunk, put the cables on, pressed the button and boom. We were on our way to Trader Joe’s.
This time, I suggested my wife shop while I drive around the parking lot to avoid the car from stopping. It worked until it was time to load the groceries. In the 30 seconds the car was in park, it conked out again. The booster saved us and all the frozen food from spoiling as we were off 30 seconds later.
BTW: I later brought the car into service and they confirmed my battery was indeed dead. Lincoln replaced it for free since it’s still under warranty. Now I just need to decide if I should buy the lease out or lease another car, especially in today’s financial environment. One thing is for sure … I’m buying a booster in the event of an emergency. It was a real life saver.
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The same thing has happened to me, Johnny. I learned the hard way that modern cars are so highly computerized that there is a constant drain on the battery even when they’re off. My mechanic told me that basically any car will be dead if it has not been driven in a week. Also, simply driving the car around should normally be enough to recharge it. However, if it has been drained down to empty, as it surely would have after 49 days, there is a good chance that it has been permanently damaged, which sounds like what happened to your car. (Again, same thing happened to me.) Therefore, the thing to do when you’re going to be away for any length of time is to disconnect the battery. This can be a pain because it means things like radio presets will be lost, but it beats coming back to a dead battery.
Since you were gone for 49 days, I’m guessing your vehicle was never started in that time period. No wonder the battery was dead. Next time you’re going to be gone that long, have a very good, trusted friend or relative to start the car every few days to keep the battery fresh. Been there, done that.
Why not spend $129 with Amazon and purchase a “Halo Bolt Air 58830 mWh Portable Emergency Power Kit with Tire Pump, 4 Interchangeable Air Nozzles, Extra Accessory Kit, Car Jump Starter, and Car Charger.” As you can see, this also includes an air compressor for the tires, basketballs, beach balls, etc. This has been used more often in our home than the battery charger.
Even better! I will add it to the post. Thanks
We had our 2017 Malibu battery die in our driveway. Talk about the newer cars. We learned the hard way , not to keep the booster cables in the trunk. The car was dead. Normally we could just open the trunk with the key in our pocket and just push the button above the license plate. Our key in our pocket didn’t work. We learned if the car is completely dead, opening the trunk doesn’t work either. We needed a new battery too, at the end.
Just disconnect your battery next time. We have an EV and ICE car that with WFH and the pandemic doesn’t get much use. There’s car alarm which always on. Had to jump start my car few times but even my portable usb jumper couldn’t start. Battery was down to 4V or something. I was disconnecting the battery after that for few months but got tired of it and found disconnect switch for $5 on amazon. And it’s easy enough for the wife to turn it on/off. We unusually are gone for 2 months over the summer and I even put the EV in shipping mode, which disconnects the computer, so no drain. Also you have the traction battery that constantly checks on the car battery and top it off few times a day. So can at some point run out of juice based on SOH. Anyway if your car battery dies, the computer can’t start even an EV. Same with ICE…
Thank you, Johnny! You are a friend, indeed. Always providing excellent advice on travel and helping us settle when we return home.
Get this instead… Autowit SuperCap 2 Portable Car Jump Starter, 12V Super Capacitor Jump Starter. You never have to charge this it will just work to start your car. You can get this on Amazon. This will start your car when these other chargers won’t.
Here’s a good YouTube video on this…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c5EvrZ-Cko
I have jump-started my forward facing car with my other car by connecting two sets of jumper cables together.
Thank you all for sharing your stories! One would be crazy not to read them, as they all offer good information when having to deal with a dead battery! Being a single female who eventually will find myself in an uncomfortable situation like this one day. I will now know how to better prepare myself in advance.
My brother bought one and it wouldn’t stay charged! Waste of money! Just get 2 jumper cables and attach them together like someone said before in the comments!
I travel a lot, and when I’m on a long trip I use a battery maintainer which safely keeps the battery fully charged. My car is ready to use no matter how long I’m gone.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07W46BX31/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Kill switch .. mounted inside the cab of your vehicle. The wiring in my van is out of whack and will drain my battery overnite. I turn my kill switch off every evening at a certain time, and turn it back on next day when leaving. Best thing I’ve ever done for my van.
I bought one of these jumper chargers from Amazon but it wouldn’t jumpstart my van.