It’s -31 C.
One of the things I love about the jumper I have is that it has a few USB ports. I imagine I should be able to charge my phone a fair number of times if I lose power. That’s always a nice “bonus”.
I never got the point of that — didn’t want to chance not having it juiced up enough for a boost.
Yeah, wirecutter’s opinion (which I generally agree with) when I bought was “Emergency road supplies are for an emergency, buy another battery if you want something to keep your phone topped up rather than having that compromise your ability to jump your car.”
I can envision many situations in which the ability to keep your phone charged would be more important in an emergency than having the ability to jump your car.
I have this booster, which I recently bought when my car battery was dying and I had to get a jump three times in two weeks. (I replaced the car battery before I got a chance to use the booster.) I used it this weekend to charge my phone after I spent a spontaneous night at a friend’s house rather than Uber home after drinking and then had to do a bunch of errands and events the next day before making it back home. It was a godsend to have the ability to charge my phone up. Also gave me the chance to verify that the booster can hold a charge. (Still at 100% after 3 weeks.)
In both cases, it’s usage in an emergency. If your car isn’t in good shape and you anticipate you may need a jump more than say…1% of the time on a random day, you may want to reserve your jumper battery for your car. My jumper holds 20K mah. My phone holds ~ 2.5K mah. So 1-2 charges should not deplete my jumper in case of emergency.
My current car hasn’t needed a jump in it’s entire 5 year existence. So the chances that I’ll need a jump AND I’ll have a long enough blackout that I needed to charge my cell phone multiple times is pretty low. If nothing else, if my blackout went more than 24 hours and I needed extra charges, I’d probably be looking for a place to recharge my jumper.
With today’s outlandishly slim phones I suspect most people have more than one battery pack that can be used for phone and gadget charging without cannibalizing a booster pack.
I carry one in my purse all the time, but my friends do not which means mine gets more than average use. They’re so cheap though I don’t know why everyone doesn’t have one… except not everyone carries a purse. I tried one of those thin credit card ones once… it was crap.
In related automotive tech: I had to describe the idea of a broken ice scraper on the end of a snow brush today in -30C cold to an Aussie friend. Are there any geographically unique motoring implements or gadgets anyone else can think of?
Snow chains. Putting them on in your driveway? Annoying.
Putting them on, on the road, fucking nearly impossible. Unless you like frostbite.
Pretty sure we just call those shivs. ;-)
Also tire studs, used for ice is a regional thing and even a state one since so many don’t allow it. The music of a studded car is quite uniqu.
Are there digery doos for cars or something? Your tires need snowchains in Florida?
I am not sure what a diggery doo is but the internet says an instrument. Heh, they’re metal studs put in car tires so when they drive around you can absolutely hear it. There is no doubt when a car pulls up with studs on it.
Sorry, misspelled it. A “didgeridoo” is a unique sounding musical instrument from down under. I was wondering if they had any unique auto gear invented out of necessity of all the wildlife trying to kill them down there.
Until I saw a picture of one, I just thought they bent and shimmied sheet metal around to make those sounds.
Oh I’ve heard that before, usually in movies or TV shows based there. I feel like people in Australia should be packing small pointy objects like knives, or just knives, at all times just in case some small cat sized spider goes after them.
Probably a shotgun to ward off the local carnivorous wildlife and have a uniquely aussie name like “bungablasta” or something for it. @krayzkrok how about it?
We need more survival games taking place in the down under. No monsters needed. Most of us would die the first time we try to get fresh water.
Nope. Just one of the reasons I moved here. :)
One of the differences between FL and CA. In FL, there is nowhere in the state that requires snow chains ever. In CA, we have landscape. I took this photo last year inside the borders of San Diego County:
Hey it snowed in Florida once about 20 years ago I think!
I don’t know actually, we just say that anytime someone (almost always a kid) asks if we’ll ever see snow.
I think the panhandle might get a dusting every few years.