Which Portable Jump Starters Brand Wins?
2019 test8 productsJump Starters & Car Power

Which Portable Jump Starters Brand Wins?

In our test we compared 8 portable jump starters options head to head. Audew came out on top. See the measured results, the runner-up, the budget pick, and a link to the full test video.

The verdict
Audew
Winner

Audew

Price shown in test: $70.99

Check price on Amazon

Affiliate link. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

Runner-up

Topvision

Price shown in test: $89.99

Check price on Amazon

Affiliate link. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

The quick take

The short version of why each pick lands where it does, built straight from the measured results.

WinnerAudew$70.99

when you consider the price and the performance, in my opinion, the I Due won the showdown

Runner-upTopvision$89.99

The measured results

Every number below is read straight from the test. Products are listed in the order they finished.

Room temperature (75F) carbon pile bench test

  • 1Audew

    peaked at 304 amps around 10 volts, dropping to 200 amps after 4 seconds before the tester shut off; battery dropped from 100% to 84% after the test

  • 2Topvision

    started at 16.76 volts, delivered 338 amps at 10 volts, described as more than enough to start an engine

  • 3Sanrock

    started at 16.83 volts, topped out around 344 amps at 10 volts, the highest raw amp reading of the room temperature test though the narrator judged Audew, Topvision, Audew and DB Power all very close with Audew edging it on voltage under load

  • 4DB Power

    started at 16.53 volts, produced 291 amps around 10 volts for about 6 seconds; described as not quite as good as Audew or Sanrock but much better than the Harbor Freight Viking

  • 5Duracell

    started at 13.72 volts, produced 255 amps at 7.4 volts, better than the Noco GB40 and Harbor Freight Viking but not nearly as good as some of the other products

  • 6Autowit

    started around 15.5 volts, produced 261 amps at around 8 volts, then quickly dropped; the transcript literally reads dropped to under 200 volts and 7 amps, which appears to be a caption swap of amps and volts given every other reading in this video pairs hundreds of amps with single digit voltage, kept verbatim rather than silently corrected

  • 7Noco Genius Boost Plus GB40 GB40

    started at 11.93 volts, produced 243 amps at 7 volts

  • 8Harbor Freight Viking

    started at 13.22 volts, produced only 216 amps at 7.7 volts, then stopped powering up entirely shortly after the test

0F freezer cold cranking bench test

  • 1Audew

    first attempt 197 amps at 7 volts for about 2 seconds; improved to 238 amps at 7.3 volts on the second attempt and 284 amps at over 8 volts on the third, coming out on top of the cold bench test overall

  • 2Topvision

    third attempt produced 254 amps at 8 volts, just behind the Audew

  • 3Sanrock

    needed three attempts to warm up, third attempt produced 205 amps at 7 volts

  • 4DB Power

    needed three attempts, third attempt produced 188 amps at 7 volts

  • 5Duracell

    started at 13.32 volts, produced 190 amps at 5.34 volts on the first attempt and did not fade the way the lithium ion units did, narrator ended the test after about 10 seconds

  • 6Autowit

    not tested in this round of the video, apparently omitted

  • 7Noco Genius Boost Plus GB40 GB40

    only 145 amps at 4 volts, slightly better than the Harbor Freight Viking but not nearly as good as the rest of the competition

  • 8Harbor Freight Viking

    only 113 amps at 3.6 volts, then would not power up at all after one attempt

Repeat 0F cold tractor jump start

  • 1Audew

    did pretty good considering the cold, improved further after a couple more attempts as it warmed up

  • 2Topvision

    pretty good job

  • 3Sanrock

    took five attempts but eventually spun the engine over fast enough to start it

  • 4DB Power

    took several attempts but succeeded in spinning the engine over enough to get it started

  • 5Duracell

    not mentioned again in this section of the transcript, appears to have been dropped from the final cold retest round

  • 6Autowit

    not tested in this round of the video, apparently omitted

  • 7Noco Genius Boost Plus GB40 GB40

    still not able to get the job done after several attempts

  • 8Harbor Freight Viking

    triggered an alarm in the cold and was not going to do the job

Real world drained Ford Ranger pickup jump start

  • 2Topvision

    seemed to be the best performer so far in this test, held on for a long time before giving up, battery down to about 88 percent

  • 3Sanrock

    did a lot better than the Harbor Freight Viking, spun the badly drained engine over fast, called amazing for such a small charger

  • 4DB Power

    very impressive, got the engine spinning over fast enough to start and held up for quite some time before giving out

  • 5Duracell

    did not produce enough cranking amps to spin the engine over fast enough, even after 5 minutes of charging time

  • 6Autowit

    charged itself off the truck's own nearly dead battery over roughly 1 to 10 minutes depending on starting voltage, then did a pretty good job getting the engine to turn over, though it did not last very long

  • 7Noco Genius Boost Plus GB40 GB40

    did not produce enough voltage to spin the engine over, cables got hot, unit showed an overheat indicator

  • 8Harbor Freight Viking

    was not going to get the job done

  • 1Audew
    not tested

Real world 1975 Ford 5000 diesel tractor jump start

  • 2Topvision

    close second to the Audew per the narrator

  • 3Sanrock

    did better than the Harbor Freight Viking; narrator says the Sanrock and DB Power seem pretty much the same

  • 4DB Power

    seemed pretty much the same as the Sanrock, took several attempts but got the job done

  • 5Duracell

    a little bit better than the Noco GB40 but definitely not enough to get the tractor started

  • 6Autowit

    not tested in this round of the video, apparently omitted

  • 7Noco Genius Boost Plus GB40 GB40

    did not have enough power to get the engine to spin over

  • 8Harbor Freight Viking

    not very good, was not going to get the job done

  • 1Audew
    not tested
All measurements (2 more)+

Real world drained Ford Ranger pickup jump start (2.9L V6)

  • 1Audew

    spun the engine over very fast, battery pack dropped to 83 percent after a short run

  • 2Topvision
    not tested
  • 3Sanrock
    not tested
  • 4DB Power
    not tested
  • 5Duracell
    not tested
  • 6Autowit
    not tested
  • 7Noco Genius Boost Plus GB40 GB40
    not tested
  • 8Harbor Freight Viking
    not tested

Real world 1975 Ford 5000 diesel tractor jump start (4.2L, using the tractor's own dead battery, no fuel system)

  • 1Audew

    had enough power to spin the engine over on the first attempt, called a pretty legit jumper by the narrator

  • 2Topvision
    not tested
  • 3Sanrock
    not tested
  • 4DB Power
    not tested
  • 5Duracell
    not tested
  • 6Autowit
    not tested
  • 7Noco Genius Boost Plus GB40 GB40
    not tested
  • 8Harbor Freight Viking
    not tested

How it was tested

  • room temperature (75F) cranking amps via carbon pile tester
  • 0F freezer cold cranking amps via carbon pile tester, multiple attempts allowed to warm up
  • real world jump start of a drained Ford Ranger pickup truck (2.9L V6)
  • real world jump start of a 1975 Ford 5000 diesel tractor (4.2L) using only the tractor's own dead battery
  • repeat real world tractor jump start with the units re-chilled to 0F

when you consider the price and the performance, in my opinion, the I Due won the showdown

From the test video verdict.
Data notes and caveats

Eight portable jump starters and jump start technologies compared: seven lithium ion or sealed lead acid units plus one super capacitor unit (Autowit) with a fundamentally different charging mechanism, which is why it is missing from the pure battery freezer test and both fully-drained-battery vehicle tests. The winning brand Audew is captioned as I Due through most of the transcript and once as Imazing near the end; resolved against the description's Products Tested list using its matching $70.99 price and specs. The narrator explicitly ranks Audew first, Topvision second, and Sanrock tied with DB Power for third; the relative order of the bottom four (Duracell, Autowit, Noco Genius GB40, Harbor Freight Viking) is not explicitly ranked by the narrator and was inferred here from the severity of his stated critiques (Harbor Freight Viking called way overpriced and failed nearly every test; Noco GB40 called underpowered for its price; Autowit explicitly not recommended despite interesting technology; Duracell received no explicit negative verdict). One reading for the Autowit's room temperature test appears to have amps and volts swapped in the caption (kept verbatim, flagged rather than corrected). No distinct budget pick is framed separately from the winner, since the winning Audew is also the cheapest of the eight products tested.

More Jump Starters & Car Power