Can portable jump starter supply mobile power?

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- pixsnap
  
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posted
15 years ago

Wed, May 28, 2008 3:25 PM

Left over from my boating days is a 300amp portable jump starter (www.

4earlybirds.com/jump charger.jpg) Both a laptop and small hp inkjet printer are carried in my car along with two 75w DC/AC inverters that plug into the cigarette lighter. The laptop is powered via the car battery. Would it be practical to power the pinter simultaneously from the female DC plug on the jump starter? Upwards of 100 prints may be made in a single 5-6 hour day, over varying intervals. (Am trying to avoid carrying a deep cycle battery and dedicated inverter.)

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- Rich Grise
  
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posted
15 years ago

Wed, May 28, 2008 6:37 PM

You could, but it wouldn't last very long. They're designed to start a car; they can put out 600 amps or more, but only for a few minutes. Go ahead and spring for the deep-cycle (marine, golf cart, RV) battery.

Good Luck! Rich

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- terryc
  
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posted
15 years ago

Thu, May 29, 2008 3:00 AM

Yes, but I don't know if it last that long, aka , do the number of prints you want.

I would seriously suggest getting a second battery installed. Make it a deep discharge lead acid and run the laptop and printer off the second battery. it would be a lot less fiddly then what you are going toend up doing with the jump starter. Also, AFAIK, you would get better life and value out of a decent capacity deep discharge lead acid battery than you will out of the SLA in the jump starter.