It’s something that has happened to all of us no matter how careful we are.  Simply leaving the lights on when you park your car is enough to make the charge drain completely from the battery, and leave it unable to start when you come back to it.  Whether you have left your car on the driveway or in the supermarket car park, a dead battery means the same – you’re going nowhere.  Thankfully, most people are sensible enough to have a set jumper cables or a jump starter in their car at all times, and this means that under circumstances where your battery is flat you can always get a charge to get the motor running from another motorist.

In the most simple of applications, a jump starter works by attaching a back up battery  onto the electric starter of your car, and using the charge from the jump starter to get the initial spark into your engine to allow it to start when your battery is completely discharged.

In the past, many people relied on a simpler method of using a pair of wires with a crocodile clip at either end and attaching them to the battery of another car, but in the modern world, when you cannot rely on being able to find someone to help you, and even then, cannot guarantee that the power supply on their engine is compatible with yours, you really need a dedicated jump starter on hand to guarantee that you can get your motor running in an emergency.  As a result, you typically need to spend a little more than previously on jump starters, but at least the latest models add some functionality, and are robust enough to last for years.