Source: KROQ.com
My buddy Shawn stops by the house one night and says, “you gotta check this out,” and hands me what looks like zippered notebook about the same weight as if it had a binder of papers inside. But this was no ordinary notebook. Inside was a myriad of connectors, adapters, alligator clips and the center piece; a rechargeable battery, called the Micro-Start XP-1, about the size and weight of a Nintendo DS.
I thanked him and zipped it back up. I didn’t really understand why he was so enthusiastic about this little kit. Sure, it was cool with all the adapters whatnot, but it didn’t look like it could offer much more than a big cell phone back-up battery… Like a Mophie brick that I use. Shawn said, “you don’t understand, this little guy will jump start your car.” He pushed it back into my hands and told me to keep it.
I have to be honest, I didn’t believe him. How could a tiny battery like this start a car. There’s no way it could pack the cold-cranking amps.
I zipped up the back, slid it under my seat and forgot about it for a month or two ’til one day when I went to start my quad and the battery was deader than Bean’s heart. Just when I was reaching for the trickle charger, I remembered the Antigravity battery under the seat of my car. As I was unzipping it, I thought, “there’s no this will work. I never even charged it.” But you can guess where this is going. I plugged in the alligator clips, turned the key, hit the start button on the handlebars and the damn thing turned over as if it had been running all day and was still warm.
But starting a cold car? I still wasn’t convinced it had the juice. But as luck would have it, a few days later this guy (both thumbs pointing at my face) forgot to turn off the dome light in my X5. And, to make matters worse, it was 5:15 in the morning and every minute I sat around the traffic was getting heavier on the 405. The situation was about to suck. Once again I reached for the Antigravity battery (this time I had remembered to charge it) and plugged in the alligator clips. I lifted up the spare tire cover to reveal the stock battery and connected the Micro-Start in parallel. Black to ground, red to positive. I put the key in the ignition and gave it a twist. Booyah. The car started right up. OK, now I was sold.
As if these two trials weren’t enough to convince me of this little battery’s power, I got the opportunity to jump started my full-size diesel truck with it. By going to their website, I learned that the XP-1 is rated for 400 peak amps and weighs a mere 14 ounces.
THE ICING ON THIS LITTLE ELECTRONIC CAKE IS ITS AVAILABILITY TO CHARGE ANY MOBILE ELECTRONIC DEVICE.
I haven’t found a phone, iPad, Galaxy or laptop it won’t charge. We took a trip to the grand canyon two weeks ago and used it to power an entire family’s worth of mobile devices and didn’t have to recharge the XP-1 till we got home.
The complete kit is available through the company’s website. Best of all, the company is based in Gardena!