Batteries

[Floorman]

Interstate used to make a battery that had an internal jumpstart battery activated by a switch atop the battery. Is there such a battery available today?

[shorod]

Interesting, they must not have marketed that well. I've never heard of a car battery with that feature. Although to fit a reserve battery in the same size package as a standard battery, it would seem the capacity of the everyday use battery would suffer. Especially if this was several years ago, before Lithium Polymer batteries became advanced/safe enough to be used for jump starting.

A separate portable jump start pack still seems like a much more cost effective option than buying a car battery with such a gimmick, err, feature, built in. The portable jump starter should last longer than the standard car battery will last, and the standard battery would likely not be available with as good of a CA and CCA rating if it also is making space for a jump starter, unless the marketing folks add the two together in the literature. I also suspect the total cost for such a battery would be higher than the cost to purchase the two separate batteries for their respective dedicated uses.

-Rod

[soobiedoobie]

I gotta agree with the gimmick thing. I have a charger/ Jumpstarter on order.

[ctesla]

Floorman,
welcome to the Automotive Forums..
that would have been a nice feature; but i am sure the switch either got
broken off, corroded, or worse; left on by the car owner, causing battery to
internally smoke itself..
i own a '06 GMC Hybrid, and it allows me to 'jumpstart' the truck from the onboard generator; but that is from the additional batterypak, and on the truck side; not the battery..