Have you ever had a piece of equipment that you bought “just in case” an discovered how incredibly useful it is after the fact? It’s like a 6th man on the bench that suddenly steps up. That’s what the Energizer All-in-One is like. It’s the Jeremy Lin of home accessories.
At its most basic, the Energizer All-in-One is a single body luggable battery with 3 uses. It can:
- Jumpstart your car when the battery goes dead with its jumper cables
- Inflate tires & other items with its air compressor
- Provides 12V AC power for either a conventional US power socket or dual car accessories
- Provide directional light using a bendable LED white flashlight at its top
I bought this on a lark during a Black Friday thinking that it’d be convenient. It’s usually $120 but it was going for 60% off so I said, what the heck. Boy, am I glad I did. This thing is so convenient it’s crazy. Here’s why:
I’ve left my lights on or drained my battery 5-6 times accidentally by having items plugged into the car adapter or leaving my lights on. This has jumpstarted the car in under 5 minutes every time.
- I’ve had to inflate my tires or my son’s basketball/soccer ball numerous times and simply pulling this out was dirt simple. No need to find a power source for the compressor: The unit IS A POWER SOURCE.
- I’ve had to jump my car in the pitch black. The arcable/bendable LED flashlight at the top is exactly what you need to illuminate the area around your car battery to hook the jumper cables to it late at night.
- The AC adapter port provides power to charge my laptop an addition 10hrs plus. I have no idea how much juice is in this thing because it’s never run out of power on me.
There’s two catches:
- The instructions say that you must recharge the unit after every use or you’ll diminish the life of the battery. I bring my unit indoors and plug it into the wall immediately after using it. I’ve read some negative reviews about the unit on Amazon – the primary complaints revolved around the unit not being able to retain a charge, and I highly suspect these folks used it, then left it for a while with a diminished charge & that goes against the instructions which clearly states that the unit needs to be fully recharged after every use.
- To recharge the unit you need to plug it into a wall socket… and there’s no cable to do that. ANY lightweight TWO-pronged AC extension power cable will work & I didn’t need heavy duty cabling. I used a thin power extension cable I typically use for Christmas tree lighting. It would be nice to be able to charge the unit via the car adapter while the car is running but I guess I understand that there may be safety hazards associated with that.
Ultimately, this has saved me a ton of money on AutoClub calls. Maybe I’m absent-minded and a little abnormal but I used to have to call AAA to jumpstart my car at home all the time (6-7 times a year) because I’d drain the battery due to my forgetfulness around plugged in peripherals on the AC adapter or leaving my lights on or simply not using the car and letting the alarm system drain the car battery.
…but now I don’t need to. The Energizer All-in-One has saved my bacon more times than I can imagine and did it QUICKLY if I was scrambling to work. If I could write a Yelp review for this little unit I would. But I can’t so this is my review. Most useful piece of equipment I’ve owned in years. 5-stars!
AMAZON: Energizer 84020 12V All-In-One Jump-Start System with Built-In Air Compressor and Power Inverter ($125)
http://www.amazon.com/Energizer-84020-All-In-One-Jump-Start-Compressor/dp/B0030B2N10/- AMAZON: C2G/Cables to Go 03115 18 AWG Outlet Saver Power Extension Cord (NEMA 5-15R to NEMA 5-15P), Black (6 feet/1.82 Meters) ($5)
http://www.amazon.com/C2G-Cables-Outlet-Extension-Meters/dp/B0002J1KS0/
(Photos taken from M. Johnson/webrat55 on Amazon)
kurtsh
Kurt's Thoughts 