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I bought one of those LG DVD writers. It lasted two months before refusing to ever work again. I tossed it and bought a Sony. They may be evil, but at least it works.
I bought one of those LG DVD writers. It lasted two months before refusing to ever work again. I tossed it and bought a Sony. They may be evil, but at least it works.
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@: Actually, this will work OK if you are patient. You plug the two cars together and the healthy one slowly charges the sick one. Depending on how sick, it can take many many minutes.
They are a waste of money if you are in a big hurry. They are good for people who are scared of opening the hood of a car. If you're in a hurry, get the big fat copper cables and follow the directions!
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Oh, and when jumping a car, the directions state, \"DO NOT connect the batteries positive to positive AND negative to negative.\" The resultant spark can ignite battery fumes and explode the battery, the proper is positive to positive, THEN negative on the good battery, and ENGINE MOUNTING BOLT or other fixed metal grounded point on the bad batteried car.
At least, that's what all the directions I've ever read have stated.
@ColoradoShark
Car and Driver did a review of one of these systems a couple of years back... Their conclusion was that it was not safe for the cars electrical system or you and not at all efficient
The phone on Woot is refurbished, not new. This is pretty common for Woot stuff, but it's probably worth adding that detail to the description here on Consumerist. If you're new to Woot, it's easy to miss that fact on their page.
There may be minor safety reasons for hooking up jumper cables in a very specific order, but what matters most is just that the last connection be a negative made to a ground point somewhere as far from the battery as you can manage and still get a good, solid clamp-on. The last connection point often causes a spark, and that spark can potentially ignite the hydrogen that lead-acid batteries emit as part of their normal operation. It's unlikely, but it can happen, and if it does, you have an explosion involving flying bits of plastic, lead, and lots of acid. So, unlikely or not, there's never a good reason to take that chance.
Um... not for nothing, but considering the amperage cranked out by a car battery, I cannot imagine that connecting up the cigarette lighters of two cars in an effort to jump start one of them could end in anything other than a flaming disaster.