The best thing I bought this year: a portable jumper box
TL;DR
The author recommends the Noco Boost GB40, a portable jumper box, as their best purchase of the year. It easily jumpstarts cars without another vehicle, includes a flashlight and USB-C charging, and is a practical safety gift.
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Hey! We’re kicking off an end-of-the-year series where we’re highlighting some of the best gadgets that Verge staff purchased this year, just in case you need some gift ideas. And it starts with my pick: a battery pack and portable jumper box for your car called the $100 Noco Boost GB40. Sounds boring, right? Hear me out.
The gist is this: It’s a small battery pack with jumper cables, which means you can use its power to jumpstart your car instead of having to connect a jumper cable from another car’s battery to yours, then start the other car, wait for a few minutes, and hope your car starts.
I’d heard about gadgets like the Noco Boost GB40 for years, and I’ve seen my share of them on gift guides, but I’d never purchased one. Then the battery in one of our cars died while my in-laws had my kids at the playground. I was out of town, and the AAA said it wouldn’t come to jump it unless I was with the car. Bad.
Long story short: the kids and in-laws got home through a mix of Uber and another car, and I planned to jump the dead battery with my other car the next morning. I explained the situation to a friend, and he asked why I didn’t have “one of those battery jumpstarter thingies.” He sent me a link to the Noco Boost GB40, and I ordered it for delivery first thing the next morning.
It’s super easy to use and, thankfully, comes with a partial charge. My wife and I drove another car over to the playground, I attached the Noco Boost GB40’s red clamp to the positive terminal on the dead battery and the black cable to the negative terminal, and waited about a minute. Voila! The car started right up. I drove it to a mechanic, dropped it off, and had a new battery a few hours later.
Since that car has a new battery, I now keep the Noco Boost in a different vehicle in case that battery ever dies. The device has a flashlight, too, in case you ever need to jump a car at night, and it can charge a phone over USB-C. I didn’t test that, so I’m not sure how fast it charges a phone — but it should work if I’m in a bind.
Anyway, it’s a nice safety gift for loved ones this Christmas. This will be the most boring gift under the tree, and I don’t think anyone will be excited by it, but it’ll be a favorite as soon as they need it.