3 hours ago
6
Hulkman Alpha jump starter
ZDNET's key takeaways
- The Hulkman Alpha is on sale now for $66.
- It's a compact jump starter that can go from starting your car's engine to charging your phone, and has performed better than some far more expensive jump starters.
- The port covers are very difficult to remove.
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I've always said nothing beats real-world testing to inform a product's review. Every once in a while a device that I'm reviewing gets put to the test with the perfect scenario.
Such is the case with the Hulkman Alpha 1,000A/37Wh jump starter. I had just started the usual tests that I carry out on a power bank, and using it to jumpstart my vehicle a couple of times, and hadn't even fully finished the review before heading off on a trip.
Also: They told me even a dog can't chew through this USB-C cable - so I tested it with something sharper
It was to be a near-thousand-mile round trip with some friends to the town of St. Ives, on the southwest coast of England. We were traveling down in multiple vehicles, and I threw the Hulkman into my friend's car as one of those "just in case" things.
Well, as it turns out, I was glad I did -- because it saved the day.
The Alpha is like a big, pound and a half power bank that packs some serious battery power, modest dual 18W USB-A and USB-C outputs. It has the circuitry needed to amplify the power through the 12V cables to start 6.5L gas or 3.0L diesel engines about 25 times (a claim I didn't think I'd be able to test, but turned out I did). There's also a light on the front, a big display, a couple of buttons, and a couple of outputs.
The ports are covered with rubber flaps that give the unit IP65-compatible water and dust resistance, but they are on tight and incredibly hard to remove.
The port covers are highly effective but hard to remove!
It has a super-fast 65W recharge feature that can take the Alpha from zero to 100% in 45 minutes.
Also, the batteries are designed to operate at a wide temperature range: -4℉ to 113℉ -- and can hold charge for a couple of years. The Hulkman is too big to fit into a pocket or bag, but ideal to slip into your vehicle's glove box.
There's also a built-in emergency light.
So, back to the journey. After a week of not using the car, it was time to head back home, but my friend's Volvo decided that it didn't want to do the 500 miles and refused to start.
It was completely dead. Kaput. Just a few random clicks and whirrs.
Also: I tested a solid-state portable battery for a week - now lithium-ion feels old school
I've been around old cars enough to make an educated guess that it was a flat battery, and the fact that the Alpha had no problem starting the Volvo confirmed this. I assume that the lights had been left on or something (the Volvo is a bit of a relic), and that it would be fine after a good run.
The Volve's dead battery was no match for the Hulkman Alpha!
I took the rear of the convoy back, again one of those "just in case" things, and I was glad that I had because at the next planned fuel stop, the car didn't want to start again. The battery wasn't flat, it was a bad battery, and it took a few attempts to get it going.
But the Alpha did its job. And during these multiple starts it made me realize that this jumpstarter is one of the easiest to use — connect the leads, wait for the display to say "Ready," and you're good to go.
It's also the perfect bedside power bank when you forget a charger!
This was a pattern that was repeated for the handful of planned stops that we had. The Alpha must have handled a good few starts with no problems whatsoever, and it was even used the next day after coming home to go find a battery and bring it to me for fitting.
And it did all this on a single charge!
ZDNET's buying advice
To say that I'm impressed with the Hulkman Alpha would be an understatement. A few years ago I killed a big brand jump starter doing something similar (lots of continuous jump starts) because that seems like something a jumpstarted not only should be able to do, but will be asked to do. Not the case here.
Additionally, the Hulkman Alpha's price tag of $80 at the time of writing makes it very competitive, and I can't recommend it enough.
If you drive a lot, or hand around a lot of different vehicles -- from trucks to jetskis -- then a jump starter is eventually going to come in useful, and this is the perfect device to have for those "just in case" moments.
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