Cobra Portable Battery Jump Pack

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With the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, my wife and I suddenly found ourselves working from home and not driving much to abide by the “shelter in place” orders.

So with three cars and no where to go, that meant our cars would probably starting to get dead batteries if not used frequently…and sure enough, they did.

My wife’s 2014 Ford Focus was the first to have troubles, as it still had the original battery.

Car batteries are typically estimated to last 3-4 years if you’re lucky, so a 6 year old battery was certainly on borrowed time.

Within a few days of being parked, the car would be totally dead.

To get it running again we’d have to jump start it, but that was tricky as the spot she pulls into makes it nearly impossible to get another car close enough.

A few times I manually pushed the car out of the spot so I could get my car close enough, but that is not something you want to do more than once.

Obviously the best long term solution would be to replace the battery, but in the short-term this didn’t seem like an essential activity.

Around this same time I partnered with Cobra Electronics to review their newest radar detector, and they agreed to send me their new JumPack line to try out, too!

Cobra shipped me their latest & greatest Cobra JumPack CPP15000 Portable Jump Starter, which is their higher end option for folks with a V8 (as the Cayenne does) or doing other heavier duty applications (RVs, boats, etc.).

I’ve had car buddies recommend picking these up for a long time, but I delayed the purchase until I actually needed one, then regretted not having one on hand – c’est la vie…but I’m glad I have one now!

Getting this was a game changer; jumping the car is SO much easier, and it’s so small I can leave it in the car if I ever need it in the future (e.g. we leave the lights on, or something else drains the battery).

You can actually jump start the car through the 12V port (cigarette lighter) and not even pop the hood if you want, which I didn’t even know was a thing. How cool is that?

Call me old fashioned though, I still prefer to jump through the terminals on the battery, and I would imagine that probably is better for the car’s electrical system too.

The JumPack comes in a nice leatherette case for easy storage, so you can put it in your trunk and pretty much forget about it (until you need it again, anyway).

However, it has some handy features if you keep it in your cockpit, most notably two USB charging ports if you want to use it to recharge any of your electronic devices like phones, portable DVD players, etc.

Because it’s a heavy duty battery, it’s especially good for camping, boating, or anything where you’ll be away for a power source for an extended period of time and a more traditional battery pack simply wouldn’t cut it.

The tech is pretty cool too – it has a feature called Pentagon Protection that will make sure that you don’t overcharge your battery.

It’s also waterproof and has a little flashlight built in if you are the unluckiest person in the world and have to jump start your car in the middle of a dark rain storm.

There are a lot of jump boxes on the market, but this one seems to be right around the same price point as many of the other options on Amazon, and it comes from a reputable brand versus some unknown or knock-off brand that might screw up your electronics.

Obviously the best long-term solution is to replace your battery when it starts to go bad, but having one (or even a few) of these handy comes in clutch when you need it.

They have two strengths, the 8500 and the 15000, depending on if you’re jumping a smaller motor or want something that can handy V8s, boats, and other heavy duty applications.