{"id":1264,"date":"2015-01-28T15:37:58","date_gmt":"2015-01-28T23:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=1264"},"modified":"2018-09-09T15:41:34","modified_gmt":"2018-09-09T23:41:34","slug":"xp-10-jump-starter-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=1264","title":{"rendered":"XP-10 Jump Starter Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m planning on doing some solo adventures in the not so distant future and\u00a0while I believe I have the being sufficient aspects of mountain biking out on the trail figured out, I assessed that I needed to\u00a0shore up my solo base-camping and exploring with my truck self sufficiency a bit.\u00a0 I always carry a set of jumper cables in my truck which are great if there is another vehicle around but what do you do if you are out in the middle of nowhere and your battery goes dead?\u00a0\u00a0Luckily it has not happened to me\u00a0yet but I have had a couple of scares.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Rainbow Rim Trail<\/a> on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon for examples qualifies as\u00a0an out in the middle of nowhere ride.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0You lose\u00a0cell coverage at least 20 miles before you get to the trailhead and\u00a0you could be waiting a day plus for someone else to come along if you are out there in the middle of the at certain times of the year.\u00a0\u00a0I wanted a way to jump start my truck should the\u00a0battery go dead without having to resort to install a second battery and isolator system in the truck.\u00a0\u00a0I also did not want something that was bulky or weighed\u00a0a ton.\u00a0Additionally, I wanted a method to recharge my various gadgets I would have around the truck base-camp (laptop for futzing with photos, DSLR and GoPro Batteries, etc\u2026)<\/p>\n

\"20150126_182953\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So after a bunch of research\u00a0and gawking with various\u00a0offering I bought the\u00a0Micro-Start XP-10 Jump Starter\/Personal Power Supply<\/a> from Antigravity Batteries. I have had it now for a few months and the XP-10 fits the bill for my\u00a0needs and then some.\u00a0\u00a0 The Lithium-Ion\u00a0Jump Starter\/Battery Pack\u00a0is quite small for the power it provides.\u00a0\u00a0Its 9\u2033 by 3.2\u2033\u00a0by 1.2\u2033 and weighs just 1 lb. 2 oz.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It comes in a simulated leather carrying case with an assortment\u00a0of\u00a0plug in and out cables.\u00a0 It regards to its primary purpose of jumpstarting my truck, it has that covered in spades.<\/p>\n

\"20150114_202422\"<\/a>
\nThe Smart Clamp Jumper Cables<\/p>\n

\"20150126_184012\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It comes with a diminutive set of battery clamp cables (14.5\u2033 Long) that plug into a specific port on the end of the battery.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Antigravity\u00a0calls them \u201cSmart Clamps\u201d since they check for things like reverse polarity and how\u00a0bad off the battery is discharged.\u00a0\u00a0 To use just\u00a0hook up the\u00a0clamps to your car battery,\u00a0plug the clamps into the\u00a0XP-10 battery and turn it on, if you get a green light on the clamp, hop in your vehicle and start it up.\u00a0 The XP-10 provides 300 starting amps with a peak current of up to 600amps!\u00a0\u00a0The directions tell you to disconnect the battery clamps within 30 seconds of starting your vehicle.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I have disconnected my truck battery completely and this thing was able to start my truck.\u00a0 I did this several\u00a0times\u00a0and the battery still showed a full\u00a0charge.\u00a0 There are videos of folks starting\u00a0six and eight cylinder trucks dozens of times on a single\u00a0charge.<\/p>\n

\"20150114_202319\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now for the personal power supply features. The unit has two USB Outputs that can provide 2A and 1A of charging current for whatever USB devices you may have.\u00a0\u00a0At the same end of the battery as the USB ports is the connection for the battery clamps (normally behind a rubber cover) and a LED flashlight that has High, Low, Strobe and SOS modes. The company\u2019s website list the battery as 18,000mA capacity and the back of the case\u00a0list it as\u00a066.6WH which I\u2019m not sure how many smart phone recharges that will get you but\u00a0a lot seems be in the right ballpark.\u00a0More importantly the amperage it can provide is impressive.\u00a0 The literature does not give a lumens value for the\u00a0\u201cHi-Power\u201d LED flashlight.\u00a0\u00a0 The beam on the light is more a flood than spot.\u00a0\u00a0 Comparing to some of my other flashlights I would guess this is around a 100-130 lumen light.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0While the light can be handy it is was not one of my needs when looking for a jumper starter.<\/p>\n

\"20150114_202223\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The kit includes a short\u00a04 way USB cable that has iPhone lighting and 30-pin plugs along with USB mini and micro plugs.<\/p>\n

\"20150114_202307\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On the side of the unit are 5 LEDs that give an indication of the unit\u2019s charge level.\u00a0 The power of the battery is\u00a0such that I can use the battery for other things\u00a0and\u00a0still be confident that it could start my\u00a0truck as long as I have 3 LEDS left. \u00a0The single button that operates the unit is located on this side as well.\u00a0 Once turned on, the unit can detect if the devices are not drawing any power and will automatically shut itself off.\u00a0\u00a0 One of the outputs its provides is a 12V 10A circuit that can be used for a wide array items.\u00a0 The kit does not include a female cigarette socket to the 5.1mm DC plug cable<\/a> which would be quite handy.\u00a0 This was not a deal breaker for me as you can get it for about $11 on the companies website.\u00a0 But\u00a0in my\u00a0case\u00a0I had one already from another piece of gear.<\/p>\n

\"20150114_202232\"<\/a><\/p>\n

An additionally output is a 19V circuit that can handle up to 3.5A.\u00a0\u00a0 The majority of\u00a0laptop makers in the world seem to have\u00a0settled on 19 volts as the charging voltage for their devices.\u00a0\u00a0 The kit includes a small DC plug jumper (5.1 mm that fits both the 12V and 19V ports) and 8 adaptors that fit the majority of the laptop manufacturer\u2019s offerings.\u00a0\u00a0 Note\u00a0for you Apple folks, the MacBook Pro and Air laptops use\u00a0different\u00a0voltages (16.5V or 14.5 based on\u00a0various models and years)\u00a0so making a custom adaptor is not a simple task for your equipment.<\/p>\n

\"20150114_202246\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Charging the XP-10 is as simple as using the provided AC-DC charging adaptor or the 12V cigarette plug adaptor. The XP-10 also\u00a0has built in overcharge as well as over-discharge protection circuitry.\u00a0 Amongst the other devices of this genre, the overcharge protection\u00a0and the ability to be charged from a vehicle (12-14V)\u00a0were\u00a0huge selling points for me.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Some of the other units could not be charged from a cigarette lighter port\u00a0or did not have overcharge protection.\u00a0\u00a0The ability to charge the unit\u00a0in this manner allows me to\u00a0use this battery around camp and I can recharge it from the truck while driving to the next location.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Additionally I have a portable\/backpacking solar panel (which I\u2019m going to review later) that can output the correct voltage to charge this battery as well.\u00a0\u00a0 This means I can let the sun charge up the battery over the course of the day while I\u2019m out playing on the trails and not worry about it being overcharged (which can damage batteries).\u00a0\u00a0I can then\u00a0use this battery to recharge my toys\u00a0back at camp without having to be concerned about draining down the batteries in my truck.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have fancy official testing stuff like graphs of voltage\/amperage over time stuff.\u00a0\u00a0 Here are some practical things I have done with battery pack.\u00a0 All of the following was done on single charge.\u00a0\u00a0 I disconnected my Toyota Tacoma\u2019s (4.0L V6 Engine) battery from the truck and started the truck three times.\u00a0 Yes, this battery pack\u00a0 jump started my truck three times with no battery in the truck whatsoever.\u00a0\u00a0 The following day I recharged a coworkers Blackberry from 5% to 70%.\u00a0 Later that day I recharged another Blackberry from 8% back to 100%.\u00a0\u00a0 During this\u00a0time the charge level on the XP-10 battery went from 5 lights (which I assume to be mean 80 to 100% full) down to four.\u00a0 The following day I recharged my ASUS Zenbook Laptop (quad-core i7 Intel processor) from 11% back up to 96% (while I continued to use it) before the XP-10 shutdown as it was discharged.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m pretty freaking impressed with this gadget.\u00a0 The MSRP\u00a0is\u00a0$209.99 and I paid around\u00a0$150 for my unit.\u00a0 I consider it well worth the investment for the versatility and piece of mind it provides.<\/p>\n

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