Jump Start Box Battery Replacement

[@GarageMisadventures]

If this video helped you out, we really appreciate it if you'd give us a thumbs up or leave us a comment. It just lets us know we accomplished our goal of helping you with your DIY!

[@pashiki5480]

Enjoyed your video. Thanks Quick question if I may. Do you think that connecting that "faulty" battery to a battery charger in "Repair" mode would fix it ?

[@ourtinyacres5173]

Love that you repair and not just throw away.

[@GarageMisadventures]

Indeed that is important to us to try to be as responsible as we can and not throw things away that have life left in them.

[@imn8]

Good video. It helped me finally replace the battery in my long-dead PSX3 (after putting off the project for a long time). I will say that I had much more trouble re-assembling the unit than you appeared to have. I think this mostly stems from the +/- terminals being approximately 1/2" set closer to the center of these replacement batteries than in the original, where they were nearly at the outside edge. At least that's the way my battery from Amazon was, and your Duracell appeared to be the same way. I ended up having to feed more negative cable inside the unit in order to wrap around the AC adapter, and I put extra washers on the gold colored screw to the positive terminal in order to shift that connection point closer to the outside edge. But I'm very happy to have finished the project without wasting a good unit, and hoping these minor mods that I did won't cause issues down the road.

[@h8GW]

Just make sure those were clean washers and you had them screwed on TIGHT. There's a lot of current going through them.

[@sweetmemories4448]

Update: Approx 2 weeks ago I replaced battery in my Power Station PSX3 and tested the Air Compressor, which filled air into my car tires very satisfactorily. All along I was thinking to lubricate the Air Compressor components because I had noticed during battery replacement that the gears, connecting rod and other moving parts of the compressor were bone dry. But after reassembly following battery replacement, I realized that I forgotten to lubricate the gears and moving components. Last night I applied grease to my Power Station PSX3 Air Compressor. Since my unit is already 5.5 yrs old, I just tried to do a bare minimum job of applying grease, meaning not a professional job. That is why I am not describing my grease application method here. Thanks a lot for your excellent video!!!

[@GarageMisadventures]

Thanks for letting us know it helped you out.

[@stevenbuoni3071]

I found this model inflator at the dump tossed out, this’ll be helpful if the battery is no good. Thanks bud!

[@danatcanyonlake583]

Nice video. Thank you for speeding up the tedious parts and not adding goofy music. I bought this same unit from Costco ~14 years ago and obviously the original battery is quite dead. It served me well helping jumpstart many folks including boaters who overused their trolling motors. One of my favorite features is the air pump puts out a reasonable VOLUME of air to air up a car tire or whatever. 260 psi does not impress me if it takes 2 hours to air up a 35 psi SUV tire in an hour. Obviously they want you to buy a new one rather than repair the old one. My question is - Can a Lithium ion battery be substituted?? Those babies are expensive but man are they lighter than lead/acid batteries. I have heard lithium batteries need a different charging system than lead/acid. Any comments?

[@GarageMisadventures]

Hi Dan, thanks for watching, and thanks for letting us know you got some value from it. We really appreciate it. So I am a mechanic, but batteries are certainly not my specialty. Bearing that in mind, my input on substituting a Lithium Ion battery. I think you may be onto something with your comment about the charger. Different types of batteries have different "Needs" when it comes to charge rate, and how much feedback the charger can respond to charge the battery at the appropriate rate to get the best battery life, and using the wrong type of charger can certainly degrade the life of the battery. That would be unfortunate if you bought an expensive Li-Ion battery. I have seen some very small lightweight jumper boxes with lithium ion for pretty good prices lately. The downside would be you would lose the compressor with one of those. I think personally I would stick with the lead acid sealed battery, or buy one of the compact Li-Ion jump boxes if I wanted to go that route. I bought my battery at a battery specialty store, so if you did want to substitute, I think I would take your old lead acid into one of those stores and just ask them. Maybe they can provide more insight on if a Li-Ion battery would work with the charger in the jump box? Sorry that's not more helpful, but hope that you are able to get you jump box back in business soon! Thanks again for watching.

[@cesarlanda2658]

Thank you for posting this, it was really helpful!

[@richcornwell9547]

Great video thanks! It would be nice if the cases were designed to make battery changing easier. It is a similar concept with desktop computer UPS systems, good manufacturers make the batteries easy to replace, saves $50 - $100 vs buying a new one.

[@GarageMisadventures]

Yes that’s true but the companies that sell these jump start boxes sell jump start boxes, not batteries. So it’s not really in their best interest to make them easily changeable. It’s unfortunate but that’s the reality of our consumer driven disposable product world. 🤷‍♂️

[@Biokemist-o3k]

I was given a very similar jump pack. It was brand new like ten years ago and sat in a closet for almost that long. It doesn't hold a charge and I definitely ned to do this same thing.. I hope your Christmas was great!!

[@kimchee94112]

Old battery terminals located on the outside edge while the new ones located about 1" from the edge which required some modification on the positive terminal. Old battery is PL 18-12, new battery is ML 18-12.

[@amorphuc]

I got a non working powerstation psx which is similar to yours at a resale shop for five bucks thinking I could replace the battery like you. Mine has the same battery as yours and is pretty much dead at 4 volts. It turns out that the replacement battery is $40 on Amazon so I'm wondering how well something like this works jumping a 4.2L V8 in the cold of winter? I guess the tire pump and 12v socket is kind of handy. 🙂

[@michaels2814]

Any idea how to repair a bad compressor in this unit? Not even sure where to get parts.

[@sweetmemories4448]

Today I opened my Costco Power Station PSX3 and concluded that the battery needs replacement - was not holding charge. I was searching for the replacement battery brand name. APEX, Duracell came up in the search. I was not sure whether the dimensions of those will fit in my PSX3. From your video, it gives me comfort that the Duracell will work. The dimension of APEX Deliberate 6M-18 12V-18Ah/20Hr sealed AGM lead acid battery is almost similar to Duracell. APEX has the same model number (mentioned above) as that of my PSX3. Inside there are too many wire connections with heat sinks as well as the hose connections to the air compressor. If I replace the battery, I have to be careful at those connections, especially the air compressor hose connections (which I may have tough time in connecting back maintaining a perfect seal). Also I found that the gears and the piston connecting rod of the air compressor are dry. Do you by chance recommend any brand name of grease that won't flow out and at the same time won't dry out easily to use. Thanks a lot for uploading your video.

[@GarageMisadventures]

Thanks for watching. Glad you found this useful. I put the part number that we removed and the Duracell part number we installed in the description if you want to compare them to what you have. The last couple letters of the Duracell part number are important because they determine what kind of connections the battery has. As far as grease, for what you described I think I might be looking into using some white lithium grease. It has a good temperature range and is very good at reducing friction between parts like that. It comes in a tube or a spray can depending how it is easier to apply. Not guaranteeing that’s the right thing for the application but it sounds like what I would reach for if I was doing it. Hope perhaps that is helpful.

[@sweetmemories4448]

@@GarageMisadventures Thanks for taking time to answer my question on the type of grease to use to lubricate the gears and the piston connecting rod of the air pump inside the Jump starter/tire inflator. Your response is a great help.

[@GarageMisadventures]

Hey anytime! Thanks for watching. Hope you get it back going so you can get some more use out of it!

[@netsendjoe]

Can't find this make / model still for sale online. I want to get a jump starter with an air compressor, but I want to replace the Seal Lead Acid battery with a LiFePo4 battery. The battery upgrade makes the unit lighter, but also holds a charge longer, and is able to perform better.

[@djovis]

Thank you.

[@patrickthenomad]

Would of liked to see a lithium phosphate conversion.

[@amorphuc]

You'd need to change the charging system. Not impossible at all but different circuits. Also, bear in mind that LiFePO4 batterys don't like getting too cold without thermal protection in the charge and discharge circuit.

[@sweetmemories4448]

Update-3: In Update-2 I had reported that I applied grease to the air compressor components (including the interior of the cylinder to reduce friction) of my 5.5 Yrs old Power Station PSX3 Jump Starter cum Tire Inflator. But did not describe the method of applying grease thinking that it was not professional. It worked pretty well - filled air upto 60 PSI in 3 to 5 min. After that also it worked when I filled air in 4 tires. Last week I tried to inflate another 4 tires with 5 min gap between each tire. Unfortunately on the 4th tire, while filling, the sound of the compressor changed signalling something went wrong. Also after filling to 29 PSI in the 4th tire, the pressure gauge reading did not increase any further. Today I concluded that the piston has failed. I opened the PSX3 and found that the rubber washer at the piston head had torn down. Perhaps the grease softened it and it lost its strength - it was already 5.5 yrs old to start with. Therefore, it is a bad idea to apply grease inside the cylinder. I just wanted to let the viewers know about it. Now it will be hard to find a piston with a good washer/ring so that it can compress the air to attain sufficient pressure needed for a car tire. Thanks for reading. If you know any place I can buy brand new parts to replace the piston or the compressor/pump component only (motor is working fine), please post as a reply. Thanks.

[@GarageMisadventures]

That's too bad. I'm not certain what that seal looks like as I didn't look too closely at it while I had mine apart. But perhaps it's something you can source from a hardware store? If not, unfortunately I don't have any great ideas on where to get parts. Sorry to hear it went out on you. Thanks for the update.

[@amorphuc]

These little compressors do not hold up well for any kind of continious use, overheating and failing. I think on Project Farm, he did a review of some of the various ones and somewhere it was mentioned not running them longer than 10 (?) minutes before letting them cool completely down. The compressor in my PSX is maybe only a little beefier than others I've had and basically melted. I'm sure your gears and cylinder lubrication were fine but the little cylinders are steel and have zero cooling fins or what have you.

[@leeroypana7920]

I would show the details of the new battery because some viewers happen to have the same starter

[@GarageMisadventures]

They are in the description

[@DanielNorton]

The key thing I was looking for, which screws to unscrew, was missing. You only removed four in the video. There were several times that many. On my PSX3, anyway.

[@starquestca]

Thank you I have one exactly same that I bought it from my local Costco. Now I’m gonna look for the battery replacement. Do you happened to have the specs of the battery? Is a higher amps available? Model number? How about convert to a Lipo? Thanks bud

[@GarageMisadventures]

Information on the battery is in the video description. I didn’t find a higher Amp hour battery than what I installed, but I did use the Duracell battery. I did not look into any other retrofits either. The lead acid served me well for several years, and this battery I installed is still going fine.

[@starquestca]

Thanks buddy much Appreciated Great DIY video 👍🏽

[@starquestca]

BTW I found a higher 22 Amps at Home depot

[@firouz2727]

What is the Duracell model you bought to replace 6FM-18

[@GarageMisadventures]

Hey, the Duracell part number is SLAA12-18NB. The last two letters are important because they say what kind of terminals are on the battery. Other than that it's an 18 Amp-Hour 12 volt battery. Thanks for watching! Hope that this helped you out.

[@karenc1776]

It would help if you let us know what battery was purchased.

[@GarageMisadventures]

It’s in the description.

[@JBRC]

What’s the replacement battery part number?

[@GarageMisadventures]

Justin, for the model we have it was an 18 amp hour battery, depending on brand of the battery it is sold as a 6FM-18. Hope this helps you. Thanks for watching!

[@adamatt2001]

HI DOUG, PLEASE SHARE THE BATTERY PART NUMBER. Thank you

[@GarageMisadventures]

Adam, thanks for watching. For our jump box the part number was a 6FM-18. That may vary by brand.

[@adamatt2001]

Thanks so much.. I’ve have my Costco charger around 5 years too, but haven’t charged it in years. The chargers dead, but the green charge light it lit. So I’m assuming the battery won’t take a charge. I’m going to leave it charged for the day, if nothing changes looks like I’ll be watching your video a few more times. I appreciate your response and I’m also a new subscriber.

[@GarageMisadventures]

Awesome. Glad this helped you out and hope you enjoy our channel.

[@murrayl2125]

Have same unit No juice after 5 yrs aprox. Definitely worth replacing the battery.

[@airdaleva42]

I got one for free from a guy who was about to float check it. It'll be worth the cost to buy a new battery for it I hope.

[@GarageMisadventures]

Awesome. This one is a good unit and we have used it quite a bit. Even for airing up bicycle tires and things without firing up the main compressor it is nice to have around.

[@anthonymarino4260]

smart move

[@kay.Jay.03]

This product was so bad. It never worked as it purchsed from Costco. The worst purchase ever from Costco. Thanks for the video. I will try replacing its battery pack.

[@gwinamocat308]

Is the new battery rechargeable?

[@GarageMisadventures]

Yes the replacement functions just like the original. You charge it through the jump start box by plugging it in to a standard outlet, and the built in charger recharges it.

[@passtheparcel2024]

That "pretty basic rechargeable sealed battery" has cold cranking amps of 1250!

[@guerrerogamer7124]

in which store did you buy the battery ???

[@GarageMisadventures]

I bought the Duracell brand battery at a store called Batteries Plus locally. The battery part numbers are in the description, you can find other brands online cheaper

[@jasonquito9156]

What is the battery item number and how much you pay for it?thanks

[@GarageMisadventures]

For this particular jump box, the replacement battery part number is a 6FM-18. Bear in mind this may vary by jump start box of battery brand. We purchased a Duracell battery part number SLAA12-18NB. The last two letters are important because they say what kind of terminals are on the battery. The Duracell was more expensive, but I don't remember the exact cost. You can find the 6FM-18 batteries of other brands on Amazon cheaper, I believe last time I looked they were $35-40.

[@JRS-iq9pz]

How much did the battery cost?

[@jesusjimenez3766]

Don't know if you still need this, but batteries are the same one that are slap on motorcycles/atvs etc. You can go to an Autozone, O'reily, Napa and they have them from around $80-$100

[@javiersolis9141]

The need to know is are you getting a better battery life out this cause you did use a better battery not the cheap one it came with do you see better Performance

[@Kgi95]

Where do you buy the battery?

[@GarageMisadventures]

I bought it at a local battery specialty store but you can purchase off amazon. Check the description of the video I put the part numbers there to look up

[@monamaceo1369]

Omg his voice does not match his appearance lol

[@GarageMisadventures]

Uh... thanks I guess? Not sure what that means but okay. Thanks for watching.

[@monamaceo1369]

Garage Misadventures didn't mean it in a negative way. You look younger than your voice lol if that makes any sense

[@GarageMisadventures]

Ah. Yeah story of my life. People have always thought I looked younger than I am. Hope you enjoy our channel. Thanks again for watching.