Why You Can Trust CNET Give yourself 1,500 amps of jump-start peace of mind for $50
This combination jump-starter and power bank is beefy enough to start a car with an 8-liter engine and has dual outputs for charging your portable gadgets.
Have you ever had a dead car battery? Unless you have a road service membership, you might be in for an unpleasant and expensive afternoon. Jump-starting your car can be awkward and sometimes dangerous, and usually requires another vehicle. A better option? Carry a jump-start battery around in your own car. Good jump-starters start around $50 and rocket up through $200, but I've got a deal here on a well-reviewed battery that usually lists for $90. Right now, you can get the Meterk 1500A Jump Starter for $50 when you stack two discounts: click the coupon on the product page and apply discount code TECHB0888 at checkout.
Meterk says the battery can jump-start cars with up to 8-liter gas engines or 6-liter diesels. Using it is easy: Just plug the included jumper cables into a socket on the battery and then clip them to your car battery -- red to positive, black to negative -- and start the car. After it turns over, disconnect the battery and you're on your way. The battery should hold its charge in storage for as long as a year, and a fully charged battery should be able to jump your car about 40 times.
If you're wary of jump-starting your car, you'll probably appreciate the various built-in safety features, such as over-current, high-temp, over-heat and over-charge protection -- as well as what I consider the single most important feature, reverse polarity protection. That prevents things from going sideways if you connect the clamps to the wrong battery poles.
While most jump-starters are typically just failsafe batteries you leave in the trunk and never think much about, this one doubles as an 18,000-mAh power bank. You'll find a pair of USB ports for dual-device charging and an LED flashlight as well.
This article has been updated with the latest version of this deal.
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