I'm looking for a jump starter with a battery to carry around in my car. I would strongly prefer a starter that is small enough to fit in the tire well or the little bins behind the back seat. What model would you recommend? I want it to be strong enough to jump me in weather down to 0 degrees but not too big to be bulky and to have to leave it exposed.

 

If you have a serviceable battery installed in your car (most auto parts stores will load test it for free) with CLEAN connections, and a clean battery top, there should be absolutely no reason to ever need a jump start, even down to -30 degrees or lower. If you need to get a new battery, get a top of the line one with the highest cold crank rating you can get...you'll pay maybe $125.00 or so for the very best battery, and it should last many years trouble free with a once a year cleaning that might take 10 or 15 minutes. Sure beats dragging all that non-needed crap around in your car...and if your regular battery is bad, the jump may not start it either.

 

Have a look at this one. You can find it at a better price but the Schumacher website gives the most info on it.
SL1 - Schumacher Electric

 

Think about this for a minute ok? The CCA {Cold Cranking Amperage} rating on the battery in my HHR is 640 amps.

The battery under the floor in the back of my buggy is fairly small in my minds idea of what a battery with that kind of CCA should be {but I'm old} anyway, the thing is you want to carry around probably a much smaller SLA battery or maybe one of the newer gas mat battery with what?, maybe 50 {probably lots less} CCA to supplement your already dead 640 CCA battery?

What universe do you live in where such an underrated tool will work.

If the battery in your car does not have the umph to spin the engine well enough to get it started the chances are putting your pipsqueak battery in the mix will just kill it too.

Of course I have them in two of my cars. Its nice to have it along so I can plug the cell phone into it so I can call for real help.

 

Just an FYI. Your car doesn't use all those 640 amps when cranking.
I haven't looked at specs lately but I think it's somewhere around 80-100 I think.
Anyone remember the current draw for the HHR's starting system ?

 

In theory no part should wear out or fail. In the real world, things happen. My battery went dead earlier this week and I have no idea why. I want the jump starter so I can have peace of mind that I can start my car if the battery goes down again.

 

GM says 90-125 Amps of starter current draw at 70°F, but that draw does go up with a cold engine at temperatures near or below freezing.

On a 20° morning with a cold soaked engine, the current draw might be closer to 200-225 amps.

And the CCA rating of a battery is what it is rated to produce at 32°F with a full charge, so it's more than capable of spinning an HHR's engine over.

Last winter we had three mornings of -4°, -4°, and -2,° and my HHR's all caught on the first turn of the starter as usual.

But I also swap out batteries every five years, Carolina's climate is a battery killer, even though there are hotter and colder climates in the U.S. We seem to be the "Battery Bermuda Triangle".

 

What you should do is determine WHY your car didn't start earlier...Did you fully charge the battery, then load test it after that happened?
If your battery is good...there is really only two reasons it won't crank the engine...either poor connections at the battery terminals which is at most a 5 minute fix, or you left something on that drained the battery, like an interior light or some such thing...

 

A new battery won't last with dirty cruddy ground connections, and a jump box flying around the back is a PIA. Maybe your issue is the alternator or the starter connections. It could also be your fuse box halves loose , or the positive connection at the fuse box under the hood.

 

Both CorvetteMongo & Oldblue have valid points bugo, have you checked everything, and have you ascertained the health of the current battery?

Speaking as a fellow pilot, CorvetteMongo's butt and mine depend on electrical systems being 100% serviceable, and Oldblue speaks from years of experience in Canadian Winters...so please don't think we're picking on you.

But an HHR with a healthy battery and charging system needs a jumpstart box like the proverbial extra hole in your head.