I Used This $60 Jump Starter In A Real Emergency, And It Brought My Car Back To Life

Hulkman Alpha jump starter

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• The Hulkman Alpha is connected waste now for $66.
• It's a compact jump starter that tin spell from starting your car's motor to charging your phone, and has performed amended than immoderate acold much costly jump starters.
• The larboard covers are very difficult to remove.

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I've ever said thing thumps real-world testing to pass a product's review. Every erstwhile successful a while a instrumentality that I'm reviewing gets put to nan trial pinch nan cleanable scenario. 

Such is nan lawsuit pinch nan Hulkman Alpha 1,000A/37Wh jump starter. I had conscionable started nan accustomed tests that I transportation retired connected a powerfulness bank, and utilizing it to jumpstart my conveyance a mates of times, and hadn't moreover afloat vanished nan reappraisal earlier heading disconnected connected a trip.

Also: They told maine moreover a canine can't chew done this USB-C cablegram - truthful I tested it pinch thing sharper

It was to beryllium a near-thousand-mile information travel pinch immoderate friends to nan municipality of St. Ives, connected nan southwest seashore of England. We were walking down successful aggregate vehicles, and I threw nan Hulkman into my friend's car arsenic 1 of those "just successful case" things. 

Well, arsenic it turns out, I was gladsome I did -- because it saved nan day. 

The Alpha is for illustration a big, lb and a half powerfulness slope that packs immoderate superior artillery power, humble dual 18W USB-A and USB-C outputs. It has nan circuitry needed to amplify nan powerfulness done nan 12V cables to commencement 6.5L state aliases 3.0L diesel engines astir 25 times (a declare I didn't deliberation I'd beryllium capable to test, but turned retired I did). There's besides a ray connected nan front, a large display, a mates of buttons, and a mates of outputs. 

The ports are covered pinch rubber flaps that springiness nan portion IP65-compatible h2o and particulate resistance, but they are connected tight and incredibly difficult to remove. 

The larboard covers are highly effective but difficult to remove!

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET

It has a super-fast 65W recharge characteristic that tin return nan Alpha from zero to 100% successful 45 minutes. 

Also, nan batteries are designed to run astatine a wide somesthesia range: -4℉ to 113℉ -- and tin clasp complaint for a mates of years. The Hulkman is excessively large to fresh into a pouch aliases bag, but perfect to gaffe into your vehicle's mitt box. 

There's besides a built-in emergency light.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET

So, backmost to nan journey. After a week of not utilizing nan car, it was clip to caput backmost home, but my friend's Volvo decided that it didn't want to do nan 500 miles and refused to start. 

It was wholly dead. Kaput. Just a fewer random clicks and whirrs. 

Also: I tested a solid-state portable artillery for a week - now lithium-ion feels aged school

I've been astir aged cars capable to make an knowledgeable conjecture that it was a level battery, and nan truth that nan Alpha had nary problem starting nan Volvo confirmed this. I presume that nan lights had been near connected aliases thing (the Volvo is simply a spot of a relic), and that it would beryllium good aft a bully run. 

The Volve's dormant artillery was nary lucifer for nan Hulkman Alpha!

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET

I took nan rear of nan convoy back, again 1 of those "just successful case" things, and I was gladsome that I had because astatine nan adjacent planned substance stop, nan car didn't want to commencement again. The artillery wasn't flat, it was a bad battery, and it took a fewer attempts to get it going.

But nan Alpha did its job. And during these aggregate starts it made maine recognize that this jumpstarter is 1 of nan easiest to usage — link nan leads, hold for nan show to opportunity "Ready," and you're bully to go.

It's besides nan cleanable bedside powerfulness slope erstwhile you hide a charger!

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET

This was a shape that was repeated for nan fistful of planned stops that we had. The Alpha must person handled a bully fewer starts pinch nary problems whatsoever, and it was moreover utilized nan adjacent time aft coming location to spell find a artillery and bring it to maine for fitting.

And it did each this connected a azygous charge! 

ZDNET's buying advice

To opportunity that I'm impressed pinch nan Hulkman Alpha would beryllium an understatement. A fewer years agone I killed a large marque jump starter doing thing akin (lots of continuous jump starts) because that seems for illustration thing a jumpstarted not only should beryllium capable to do, but will beryllium asked to do. Not nan lawsuit here. 

Additionally, nan Hulkman Alpha's value tag of $80 astatine nan clip of penning makes it very competitive, and I can't urge it enough.

If you thrust a lot, aliases manus astir a batch of different vehicles -- from trucks to jetskis -- past a jump starter is yet going to travel successful useful, and this is nan cleanable instrumentality to person for those "just successful case" moments.