Carku 64B versus D28A Portable Car Jump Starters

I have a couple of cars, one of which has a battery in doubtful state afet being flattened a few weeks ago. It works perfectly but knowing car batteries and their ability to recover from being flattened (or not) I at first figured I’d buy a battery charger – and then I decided I’d like of one of the many Lithium-powered starters available on the web.

As I could not decide which model to go for, I narrowed it down to two models and here they both are sitting in front of me. The and courtesy of Banggood.

I’ll simply tell you about these jump-starters do and let you decide which is better.

The Carku model is pretty, has a simple torch light, LCD display, two USB outputs, 15v and 5v (USB) inputs, 12v out at 10A as well as the jump start output (though I could not tell you what the Chinese to the right of the “Carku” title means – maybe 64B??).

The TM-D28A (no obvious brand name) has four USB outputs, progrmmable output inc 15v, 16v and 19v (I’m guessing handy for laptops) as well as 12v in and engine start out. It has a handy charge indicator (simple LEDS, not LCD), THREE torch outputs and a silly compass which looks jammed to me, Both starters come with some English instructions.

Both units also come with leads for charging the starters themselves – the Carku comes with a lead to charge it from the car cigarette lighter, the D28A unit comes with one of those AND with a small mains power supply. Both come with decent, short jump-start leads and also output leads for Apple, micro-USB and USB-C. The D28 in addition has a whole raft of adaptors for that variable voltage output.

D28 outputs – at any one time you can output 15,16 , 19v and the three torch LEDs which are simply ON or OFF. As for the Carku – whenever you press a button, the backlight on the LCD lights up for a few seconds. The single torch handles continuous, flashing and SOS modes.

Now all I need is a flat car battery to give the chargers a proper test, one at a time. A 100A dummy load would be nice.

And here, from the Carku underside are the instructions which originally appear in Chinese.

Please read this instruction carefully before using:

• 1. Do not press the “BOOST button” before connecting the battery.
• 2. Under any circumstances, do not connect two battery clips.
• 3. To start the 12V engine only, the red clip is connected to the battery “+” pole, and the black clip is connected to the battery “-” pole.
• 4. The green light is on: it can be started.
• 5. The red light is on and the buzzer beeps: the battery clamp is connected incorrectly, please reconnect it correctly according to step 3.
• 6. The green light flashes and the buzzer beeps: please press the “BOOST button” to start it within 30 seconds.
• 7. No light on and no buzzer: Make sure the connection is correct, and then press the “BOOST button” to start it within 30 seconds.