I’ve been shopping around for an emergency jump starter to carry around in the car. I’ve found jump packs that are roughly a little larger than a cell phone, and produce 1000 amps or more. What is keeping them from being a main car battery?
In: Engineering
Supposed to be eli5.
Those new age mini jump starters are lithium chemistry, of the good ol fashion lithium ion style, not to be confused with the more deep cycle variant : lithium iron phosphate.
These little things exploit the power to weight ratio of lithium ion but do so such that you dont destroy it from regular mass high current events.
Theyre able to start a battery but not capable of safety doing it over and over again, due to the 1 main danger of lithium,; thermal runaway!
Thermal runaway is when current starts to flow, is then restricted by something, then starts to flow even more to counter for the lack of voltage, to output the same watts of power and that heat creates even more resistance so the cycle continues until it heats up to the point it melts and explodes.
Lithium iron phosphate is much safer, and similar to a carb battery, but doesnt have the cranking power delivery required. Li-ion does but is dangerous, hence we continue with ol faithful lead a id
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