Many of us keep handy an external battery that can be used to recharge an iPhone. However, occasionally you need to charge another mobile device: a car. If you ever find yourself with a dead car battery, sometimes it is possible to find a friend with another car and jumping cables, but that is a huge aggravation and may not even be possible depending upon where your car is located. The simple solution is to keep a portable jump starter in your trunk. The Weego Jump Starter 22 is an amazing device that makes it incredibly simple to jump start your car, and as an added bonus you can use it to charge an iPhone or iPad. This device recently saved my bacon, and I enthusiastically recommend that you get this device now so that you have it when you need it.
My story
Virtually all of us have had to deal with a dead car battery at some point. Here is my recent story. I own a relatively new car — a 2017 Honda Accord. (Last year I wrote about how much I love the CarPlay in my new car.) About two weeks ago, I drove my car to a store, but then when I left the store a few minutes later, my car battery was dead. Fortunately, my wife was not too far away so she could drive to me so we could jump my car, but I knew that I wouldn't always be so lucky. It seemed strange that this would happen to a relatively new car. Did I maybe leave on a light overnight without realizing it? For a while I had been thinking of buying a portable jump starter, and after this occurrence I decided to play it safe and buy the Weego Jump Starter 22 on Amazon that same day.
A week later I had to fly to Florida for business for a few days. When I returned to the New Orleans airport and went to start my car, once again it was dead. This time, getting a friend to drive to me to jump my car would have been a huge nightmare. They would have had to drive all the way to the airport, go into a pay parking lot, and even then I'm not sure how it would have worked because there were cars in all of the spots around me so I wouldn't have been able to get another car close enough to the battery in my car. And to make matters worse, I could see that it was about to start raining in 15 minutes.
But I didn't have to worry about any of this. I took the Weego Jump Starter 22 out of my trunk, hooked it up, started my car, and then I was on my way. The whole experience took me less than two minutes and could not have been easier. What normally would have been a disaster was instead incredibly quick and easy.
A few days later, I brought my car to the dealer, which confirmed that my battery had to be replaced, fortunately at no charge to me because it was under warranty. Hopefully that is the end of this story, but if for some reason there is some other electrical issue in my car and I encounter a dead battery again, I'm not worried because I have the the Weego Jump Starter 22 with me.
How it works
Before I explain how it works, let me emphasize again how simple this thing is to use. I am about as far as one can be from a car mechanic, and even for me, using this device was a breeze.
For example, the clamps on this thing are better than any other clamps I have ever seen. Traditional clamps can be hard to fully open, and they open like a crocodile's mouth and can be difficult to attach to a terminal and sometimes slip off. Weego has a patented innovation the company calls Smarty Clamps. They open ultra-wide so it is simple to attach them to a terminal, and you don't have to squeeze very hard to get them to open fully. Last year, Wirecutter rated the Weego Jump Starter 22s the best portable jump starter, in part because the "strong, easy-to-use clamps make a good connection on a variety of battery posts." (The Weego Jump Starter 22 that I purchased has the same clamps; it is slightly more expensive than the 22s because it adds the ability to charge a cellphone, adds a 250 lumen flashlight, and it is rated IP65 so it is water, dust and dirt resistant.)
The Weego Jump Starter 22 comes in a metal box which looks like a lunch box and holds all of the parts. It is nice to have something sturdy to hold it all together, and I just put the lunch box in my trunk. It also comes with a holding bag if you want something even more compact to hold it all together.
The Jump Starter 22 delivers 1700 peak amps and 300 true cranking amps, which Weego says is sufficient for motorcycles, boats and 95% of cars and trucks on the road today — anything with up to a 5L gas or a 2.5L diesel engine. (Weego also sells a Jump Starter 44 and a Jump Starter 66 which will work with muscle cars and big trucks — the types of cars which might laugh at my Honda Accord.)
The top of the Jump Starter 22 has a protective cover, to keep out water or dust. To jump start a car, flip open that lid to expose a connector where you pug in the clamps.
Next, turn the Jump Starter 22 on, using the power button located on the bottom right side.
Next, you attach the black clamp to your negative terminal and the red clamp to your positive terminal. If for some reason you get that mixed up and attach to the wrong terminals, the device will not send power and instead it beeps and lights next to the word "reverse" will flash. So it is idiot-proof.
Next wait a second or two until you see a green ready light. That means everything is good to go. Start your car.
Finally, you disconnect the clamps from the Jump Starter 22. Once you do so, a charge is no longer flowing to the clamps, so you can disconnect the clamps from the terminals in whatever order you want.
All of the lights make it super easy to understand what is going on. Also, four lights on the body of the device tell you how much power you have left. I had all four lights before I jumped my car, and afterwards I still had all four lights. It takes about 2.5 hours to fully charge the Weego Jump Starter 22, and Weego says that the device will hold a charge for at least a year, and it has 1,000 charge cycles.
Unlike traditional jumping cables, you don't need to worry about the two clamps on the Jump Starter 22 touching each other. The Weego only sends power when it detects that it is connected to a battery. That, along with the reverse polarity detection, means that you don't need to worry about doing something wrong and creating sparks.
It was easy for me to find a place to put the device when I was charging my car, but if for some reason you don't have a good space, the device comes with a hook and lanyard that you could use to attach the device to the underside of your car hood. You can also use the hook and lanyard in connection with the built-in flashlight to create a work light that lasts up to 14 hours.
The Jump Starter 22 comes with a USB-to-Micro USB charging cord. It also comes with a USB car charger that goes into a car's power port / cigarette lighter, so you can charge this device while you are driving and when your battery is strong, and then it will be ready when necessary.
Charge your phone
Carrying a Weego Jump Starter in your car means that you never have to worry about a dead battery again. But hopefully you won't need to use the device very often to start a car, and since the core of the device is a powerful battery, Weego also lets you use this device to charge your phone. So if you drive somewhere only to realize that your phone is dead or low on power, just take the Weego Jump Starter 22 from your trunk, add a USB-to-Lightning cable, and you are ready to go. (Consider storing a USB-to-Lightning cable, such as an inexpensive Anker PowerLine cable, in the Weego lunch box so you have it if you need it.)
If the Weego is at full charge, you have 1700 Amps, which depending upon your iPhone model should give you somewhere from almost a full charge to multiple charges. Weego advertises "up to 3 full charges" but obviously that depends upon which device you are using. Weego also says that the Jump Starter 22 detects what kind of device you are using and "automatically provides [the] fastest charge to your phones, tablets & other USB devices," 5V or 9V at 2.4A output.
The Jump Starter 22 (without the clamps) has dimensions of 3.25" x 6.25" x .75" and weighs about 10 ounces. You can certainly buy smaller external batteries to charge your iPhone, but the Jump Starter 22 is not intended to be the portable charger that you carry around and use every day. It works great for the rare situation when you are away from the home or office and you need something to charge your iPhone or iPad right away — and then you are glad that the device is in your trunk so you can grab it and walk wherever you are going with something handy to charge your phone.
Conclusion
Having a portable jump starter in your car gives you peace of mind. Everyone has a car battery die at some point, and with this device in your trunk, you'll never have to worry about being stranded or dealing with inconveniences when it happens to you. And because of the excellent design of the Weego Jump Starter 22, it is fast and easy to jump start a car. As an added bonus, you have a battery in your car that you can always use to charge an iPhone or iPad — which gives you even more peace of mind.
If you decide that you don't need an iPhone charger, and if you don't care about the flashlight and the IP65 rating, then get the Weego Jump Starter 22s. It is cheaper, but the basic design is the same as the Jump Starter 22, including those fantastic clamps and useful status lights that walk you through using the device to jump a car battery.
Whichever model you get, this is a good product to get now, while you are thinking about it, so you have it later when you really need it. You might need it for yourself, but even if you are helping a friend jump a car, it is going to be much, much easier to use a portable device like this versus getting your own car in the right position so that you can jump your friend's car using your own car.
Click here to get the Weego Jump Starter 22 from Amazon ($94.71)
Click here to get the Weego Jump Starter 22s from Amazon ($62.99)
