BLACK+DECKER 700A Jump Starter with USB - Power Your Car & Devices

This thing's a gem.I have a relative that needs CPAP, but lives where power can go out overnight fairly often. The battery in this runs her CPAP all night long without issue. If the power goes out she just gets it from her car and the CPAP can run all night.The compressor is cheap and slow, but would work in an emergency.The car starter works as advertised.UPDATE - I bought this item quite some time ago and have used every feature it has and then some! What do I mean by this?Well, it has that handy little cigarette lighter power out port on it, right? Did you know that if you buy a cigarette lighter cord (male to male with the plug on each end) you can plug it in to your car and keep it charged at all times? When your car runs and the cig outlet is on, your backup charges. They didn't advertise this feature, but it worked! Why is this useful? Well, I don't tend to have power cords handy when I am in my car, and this thing is useless if it's not been charged up/maintained properly.What have I used it with? The USB charger works for smartphones but is slow. I prefer to use the inverter and plug an AC 5V 4.2 amp charger in and charge two smartphones at once. The compressor fully inflated a completely airless tire to 44 psi in under 7 min. The starter worked x4 (once on one of my cars, 3x for rescues) without a single burp. The LED light isn't that bright, but it gets you noticed at night on the side of the road. Oh, and there's enough power to run two CPAP machines overnight (ResMed 10's at 7 &14 mmH20 setting) without humidification, of course. (That burns a lot of juice.)Limitations? The darned thing is heavy, it's got a lead acid battery inside (17Ah capacity 12V). Once my battery dies I fully intend to replace it with a lighter Li-ion or polymer battery and keep on rocking! At that point I'll likely remove the compressor and use the added space to insert an emergency solar panel into the chassis. (Power being more of a consideration for me than air inflation which can be had much more cheaply.)But the inverter is pretty quiet and very effective. She keeps the power at full by using a male to male cigarette lighter extension cord. That way she has an emergency roadside assistance kit (which she can use to power the CPAP if she sleeps in the car while her husband drives.)If you don't know what CPAP is, it's a device to help people breathe at night. It treats sleep apnea - a disease that can kill you. A recent study of over 670000 people showed sleep apnea patients are more likely to die in 5 years than the general public. 25% more likely to die. If you wake up tired, snore a lot, or have been seen to stop breathing as you sleep - get it checked!I hit upon using this device for backup power after I saw that the medical supply companies wanted over $450 for a battery pack for her CPAP. They wanted $89 just for a DC converter that plugs into your car's cigarette lighter. I accomplished $539 of medical device power capacity with this one little $89 black and decker power solution. Only one problem: Not sure you can carry THIS on an airplane. Update eight months and going strong no issues whatsoever have used it to start vehicles five times now using a 12 V male to male cord keeps it topped up at all times I never have to plug it into an AC outlet . The airlines told me I cannot carry it on an airplane though so I created an alternative that is allowed out of 18 650 batteries I purchased here on Amazon . I wish the inverter in this unit could be taken out and used with my in-flight solution I've gone through two inverters already and I'm going to have to pony up for a pure sine wave inverter. Even though I have plenty of volts and amps nothing seems to power her CPAP as flawlessly as this little Black & Decker does. ( Since all CPAP devices are not created equally I will give you her model it is a Resmed eight which could be powered without an inverter on 12 V DC but Rez med switch the polarity on their unit so that is opposite of what you would expect if you choose to use straight DC to power your CPAP be aware that these companies want to sell you their proprietary DC power cord and they're not afraid to let you burn your machine up if you don't)I bought this unit in April 2014 so have had it for five months. I've used all of its functions BUT jump-starting and I'm happy with it. It does everything I expected it to do. To repeat what others have said, it did not come with an instruction book, and it doesn't come with any AC power cord--you plug the female end of an extension cord onto a sort of male plug flush with the panel. User reviews alerted me to these issues. I don't have a problem with its not having its own cord. I have a BIG problem with its not having an instruction book and that's why I only gave it four stars. I couldn't even find a way to download it from the Black & Decker site; when I contacted customer service they were able to locate and email me a PDF.Nothing in the instruction book gives a rated watt-hour capacity, but some guidelines on the outside of the box suggest it is roughly 240 watt-hours, and some informal tests I made--plugging a lamp into the AC outlets--confirm this. I didn't hover over it with a stopwatch, but it powered a 60-watt floor lamp ABOUT 4 hours, and a 7-watt incandescent nightlight for over 20 hours at which point I got tired of running the test.The big thing I want to add to what others have said is that, as with many rechargeable battery devices, the state-of-charge indications are not very accurate and can lead to an impression that the battery is not holding a charge well when, in fact, it is.There are two red lights and a green light. The manual says, a little vaguely, "Two red and one green battery status indicator lights indicate a full battery. Only one red battery status indicator lights indicates that the unit needs to be recharged."a) During charging, I am almost certain that when the green light first comes on, the battery is NOT yet fully charged. It would take a lot of long experiments to prove this. Since the manual says that the battery cannot be damaged by overcharging from AC, to be sure of a full charge I believe it is wise to charge for as long as convenient--for several hours after the green light comes on, anyway.b) IMMEDIATELY after charging, the green light DOES go on when the test button is pressed. But sitting idle, unused, just a few hours later, it will not. I only get the two red lights. As nearly as I can tell, as long as there are two red lights, the battery is still fully charged or very close to it. The fact that you don't see the green light does not mean the battery is losing charge, or not much anyway.c) When you use it to power a device, it drops QUICKLY to one right light. At a rough estimate, using 10% or 15% of its full capacity can drop it to one red light. For example, charging an electronic device through a USB port overnight (2.5 watts, 25 watt-hours) drops the indication to one red light. One red light does NOT mean "almost discharged." It should be read as meaning merely "no longer 100% charged."This is all frustrating and means you don't really know where you stand when you are using it--you almost always see one red light. One red light can mean almost discharged, one red light can mean >80% charged. My experience, though, is that this sort of behavior is typical of charge indicators for lead-acid gel cells.The instruction book notes that the USB ports supply "5 volts/500mA DC power to an external USB-powered device." This is low-power and similar to what the ports on a computer supplies. It means that, just as with a computer USB port, electronic devices like our iPad and Kindle do charge--but very slowly, and maybe not to a full 100%. If your gadget comes with an AC-powered "fast charger" you should experiment to see whether you are better off using the fast charger plugged into the inverter port.The main reason I bought the unit was to have a backup for my CPAP machine. I have a rechargeable battery unit specially designed for my CPAP machine that I bought from the manufacturer for $350. I never needed to use the Black & Decker unit "for real" as backup, but I eventually did a test run and it powered my CPAP machine overnight with no problems.Oh, and I did use it to inflate my car tires, because I just wanted to add a couple of pounds and I thought it would be a good opportunity to test the device and it worked. The pressure gauge works but is no substitute for an accurate gauge. It took about 1-2 minutes per pound of pressure added on my small car's tires.In short, the unit works as expected, seems well-designed and well-thought out. I won't know for a few years how durable it really is (though all previous experience with lead-acid gel-cells has been pretty good).Has gotten me out of tight spots like leaving a light on in the car on overnight, or having a battery go bad during a cold start. Functions well in the cold and can crank instantly without charging the car battery first under most circumstances.My biggest complaint is that it doesn't come with a power cord for charging. I ordered a 2 foot one to go with it and it fits in the small included storage compartment well. Something like this should be included by default, because without a cord you literally cannot charge the unit.Compressor is cheap and slow, however since it's digital and will cut off at the PSI you set this makes it easy to use. I would much rather wait a little longer for the air knowing it will get to the perfect pressure then have to monitor a pump for a shorter time. Since it's (hopefully) only going to be used in a pinch, having it at all is the selling point so you really can't complain, not at this price point at least.AC power will not work with high draw applications. Drills and vacuums for example will refuse to function and a warning symbol pops up. This is not surprising considering this is a DC battery that needs to be inverted but still a little disappointing when you don't have a crazy long extension cord to do car work. lower draw applications work well, but the DC to AC conversion is inefficient and don't expect the battery to last long.Easy to use and lightweight plus portableBought this as a gift for my parents. I have a similar Motomaster model, and I knew that the first charge had to be a long one or that's the max charge you'll ever get, so we were very careful in following the instructions on the first charge. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to matter. The thing randomly turns on and off, lights, the compressor, whatever, and the batter died after the first week. I tried to return it to Amazon, they said they don't let you return things that have Lithium ion batteries and to contact the manufacturer. I contacted the manufacturer, they said this model was commonly shipped with old batteries and they were aware of the problem, I just had to return it to the place of purchase. So now I have this broken thing, the manufacturer doesn't want it, Amazon won't take it, and I just want my money back so I can get them something else!How bad is this booster? Let me see, where do I start? This is the second booster that I had to exchange as the first unit would not hold a charge. After plugin in the the booster for the initial charge (yes, I did read the instructions carefully prior to using it), the three LED lights came on strong in front of the unit. Indicating a full charge. As things would have it, I needed it a week after the initial charge to boost my old tractor on a cold winter evening. It worked (barely started) after just one trial boost. After that boost, only the red LED would come on indicating that the booster needed recharging. I plugged it in with the extension cord, and after a good 12 hours, the three LED lights where all light up. Indicating that it was fully charged again. Three weeks later, without even using it, it needed recharging as only the red LED would come on when pressing battery condition button. Indicating that it would not hold a charge.I called the service center in the US and had to pay for shipping it there so they had to check my story. Sure enough, it was defective so they sent me a replacement. Well, the new one is worst than the first one. It will not even take a charge. On plunging it in for the initial charge, it took half an hour before the red LED to come on. They recommend to leave the booster plugged in for 24 to 48 hours on the initial charge. I still get just the red LED on after 48 hours of charging. After unplugging the extension cord and pressing the battery check button, I get a red and a yellow LED. The green never light up. Indicating half charged. This booster will not take a charge. Also, the orange cover for the 12V and USB charging ports will not stay in place but keeps popping out.I bought this booster because I always liked Black and Decker products and knew in the past that I could count on them. Never again.I not only purchased this item out of need which regardless I would have felt fine but this item does not keep a charge! What is the point if less than a week in my car it was of no use…. So if you’re looking for an item that does not satisfy its claims- that was actually $50 less at several other store’ regular price- and requires almost daily charging and cost as much as items with more features add to the fact that if this item is defective IT IS NON RETURNABLE (btw) I could not be more disappointed. Perhaps this is a 1 in a thousand defective product but one that can NOT be returned!! Their reason being shipping a toxic or whatever item- even though they clearly found a way to ship it TO you- EVEN when you pay for a Prime membership!!! I recommend shopping around to most likely find a better and more reliable product.so, needed it, in the middle of the road during a recent storm. Guess what? didnt work. didnt even turn on, refuses to turn on, charged it again, no lights turning on.Was the first use. When i got it, i charged it a good 10 hours. Left it in the car for 4 days, secured, so it doesnt roll around the trunk.What the heck guys?Bought this to use on our camping trips as a portable power supply and air mattress inflator. It is good for campsites and overnight trips that do not have access to electricity. We use this to charge our phones, and power our low wattage heater during the colder months. It’s not the lightest piece of equipment and will not work for back packing trips, but on site camping with a car will definitely work. One thing to note is that this item is non refundable because Amazon will not accept refunds due to the battery as it is a hazardous material. This portable power station is also good to have in the car for emergencies as it has a jump started and tire inflator, but we have a different use for it.