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Review of Halo Air Bolt Jump Starter and Tire Pump

Anyname

Active member
Last week I posted that Zagg (apparently the parent company of Halo) was having a sale of Lithium Ion jump starters. The Air Bolt seemed interesting in that it combined a jump starter, tire pump, flashlight/warning light and USB charger into a single unit. While I was a bit concerned that the integral tire pump might not prove adequate to filling a flat motorcycle tire without melting, the sale price of $69 (down from $129) was too good to pass up. When another member expressed the same concern over the tire pump, I said I'd let you know how it performed. It arrived this afternoon, so here it goes.

For the attention challenged members, the short answer is that it works well.

For the more detail oriented:

The unit is a fraction smaller than 9 1/2" long, 4 5/8" wide and 1 7/8" thick
The bare unit with only the short integral hose weighs 2lbs, 8ozs. With all of the accessories including the manual it weighs 3lbs, 7ozs.

The kit includes this stuff:

IMG_2633.jpeg

The main unit
AC charger
12volt cigarette lighter charger
Micro USB charging cable (for charging phones etc.)
A sack of odd little adapters for inflating air mattresses, basket balls etc.
The jumper cable attachments
An extension air hose said to be 24" (I didn't measure it)
The manual and the cloth bag. The bag is simple cloth and if I put the unit in bike luggage I'll want to work out more protection.

I did not test the unit's ability to start a car or motorcycle with a dead battery. I have a similar unit from another vendor and it started a neighbor's car with a dead battery surprisingly well.

I tried out the LED flashlight and it seems to have usefully bright and wide beam. The red beam was equally bright and also had a blinking red light option.

The unit has (2) 5V 2.4Amp USB A ports. That should charge most portable devices fairly fast.

With regards to the tire pump, the unit has an integral hose about 8" long with a thread-on Schrader adapter. The extension hose threads into this and has a toggle type connector to the vehicle tire. I should add that the connector fits tightly and disconnects cleanly with little loss of pressure. The combined length allowed me to place the unit on the seat of my R1200R and still reach the rear tire filler.

My first test was topping-off the tires on my wife's electric bicycle. You press the "units" button to activate the device and select the pressure units PSI, KPA, BAR or kg/cm2. The desired pressure is entered by pressing +/- buttons. The pump will shut off when it reaches the required pressure. Then connect the hose and press the "Air" button to start the pump. The device added about 10 PSI to two largish bicycle tires in about 20 seconds each and the charge meter still showed 100% after both.

The second test was on the R1200R's 180/55 X 17 rear tire. I deflated the tire until the hissing stopped and attached the hose. The unit agreed that the tire had zero PSI pressure. I set the pressure to 43PSI (BMW specs 42.1PSI). I pressed start and started my watch's stop watch function. It took almost exactly 5 minutes to reach 37PSI at which point the unit stopped. The instructions say that it will stop if it is too cold or hot. The case was only warm, so I waited about 3 minutes and restarted. It took another 50 seconds to reach 43 PSI. At that point the unit's case was slightly hot near the pump, but not too hot to comfortably hold. The instructions say that the unit will display a "Temp" message, but mine just shut off. I was handling the unit at the time so perhaps I triggered the shut off. Either way, a total of either 5 minutes 50 seconds or 9 minutes, including cool down, to fully fill a deflated tire seems reasonable to me.

The fitting disengaged with little loss of air and my digital gauge measured the pressure at 40.6PSI. I have no way of knowing which gauge is most correct, but agreement within 2PSI seems OK. The unit's battery charge meter was still showing 94% of the charge remaining.

The instructions claim you should get 4 accessory inflation adapters. As the photo shows, mine came with 10. My lucky day...

IMG_2634.jpeg

The bad news is that the sale is over and the price has gone back up to $129.
 
Nice review.
I also bought one and it arrived today. Came about 75% charged and took about an hour to hit 100%. The label says the capacity is 58,830 mWh.
I didn't test anything other than the USB ports and turned on the pump. It pushed out a lot of air; but it was at 0 pressure.
Seems the quality is top notch and a very nice piece of kit! I'm glad I purchased it.
 
If either of you should receive any notifications regarding this unit going on sale again, please post the information for us. Your review sounds like a product well worth taking on exended trips. Wish I had gotten in on the sale price, especially with my Canadian dollar presently being so low.
 
If either of you should receive any notifications regarding this unit going on sale again, please post the information for us. Your review sounds like a product well worth taking on exended trips. Wish I had gotten in on the sale price, especially with my Canadian dollar presently being so low.
Zagg did just send me a 25% off offer for anything on their website. They said it would show up in the shopping cart. It's unclear if that was only for folks who had received the email or anyone. You could try and not buy it if the discount doesn't show up.
 
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Zagg did just send me a 25% off offer for anything on their website. They said it would show up in the shopping cart. It's unclear if that was only for folks who had received the email or anyone. You could try and not buy it if they discount doesn't show up.

Out of curiosity, a quick look shows that 25% off seems to apply to "selected items", which includes the Bolt Air.

129.99 - 32.50 = 97.49, plus tax, shipping free.

So the Checkout page shows the discounted total, but never loads completely to let me fill out minor details like name, address, payment method.

This might be my fault, since I run an ad-blocker (uBlock Origin) which limits the info I share with unrelated sites. On the Checkout page, 14 domains were blocked.
 
Interesting device, and thanks for the review. I wonder how many times it can be recharged, and how many of us carry one. Wouldn't a pair of jumper cables for a bike work just as well? Everything we pack is based on probability of use, weight, size, cost, etc. When I'm on a trip, I don't have a lot of unused space.

I guess what I'm asking is how many of us carry the device, jumper cables, or none of the above?

E.
 
Interesting device, and thanks for the review. I wonder how many times it can be recharged, and how many of us carry one. Wouldn't a pair of jumper cables for a bike work just as well? Everything we pack is based on probability of use, weight, size, cost, etc. When I'm on a trip, I don't have a lot of unused space.

I guess what I'm asking is how many of us carry the device, jumper cables, or none of the above?

E.

I have a Lithium Iron Antigravity brand battery pack I carry. I have wired the mating harnesses to the batteries of each of our G310s. Using the battery pack on the 310s just involves plugging the harness into the device. I also have the clamp setup I can use with other vehicles but usually don't carry the clamps and leads if riding the 310s traveling. The device itself is much smaller than jumper cables - about the size of a pack of cigarettes or two cell phones. And, recently when the battery in my 310 shot craps with a broken internal connector the bike would start with a jump but die as soon as the the jumper was disconnected. So I left it connected and rode home. That cannot be done with conventional jumper cables unless there are two riders a lot more precise than I am. And the battery pack does not require a second vehicle to provide the electrons either.
 
Interesting device, and thanks for the review. I wonder how many times it can be recharged, and how many of us carry one. Wouldn't a pair of jumper cables for a bike work just as well? Everything we pack is based on probability of use, weight, size, cost, etc. When I'm on a trip, I don't have a lot of unused space.

I guess what I'm asking is how many of us carry the device, jumper cables, or none of the above?

E.

Most Lithium batteries that quote a charging lifespan say "over 500 times". I didn't see any claim on the Halo device.
 
Everything we pack is based on probability of use, weight, size, cost, etc. When I'm on a trip, I don't have a lot of unused space. E.

What interests me in this unit is that currently I carry an air pump and a similar battery in my small trailer. This unit would combine the above two items, freeing up space.
 
Most Lithium batteries that quote a charging lifespan say "over 500 times". I didn't see any claim on the Halo device.

I should have also mentioned that lithium batteries hold a charge in storage better than most other rechargeable batteries. The Zero Gravity jump start unit that I put in my car trunk last fall only took about 45 minutes to reach full charge last week. Based on the time it took to reach full charge when I first got the unit, I'd guess that would equate to it only losing maybe 10% in storage over 6+ months.

On the subject of saved space, along with the Halo unit I have a Best Rest Cycle Pump. I'd say that the small Zero Gravity jump start battery and a Best Rest pump together take up about the same space as the Halo unit. The Halo unit doesn't require the use of the bikes battery, which may be a plus, and it does have a built in tire gauge and auto shutoff at the desired pressure. The Halo unit is also less expensive than the combine cost of a Best Rest pump and a starter battery. On the other hand, the Best Rest pump is probably the most proven pump and the Halo is still a new product. As usual, you pay your money and you take your choice.
 
On the subject of saved space, along with the Halo unit I have a Best Rest Cycle Pump. I'd say that the small Zero Gravity jump start battery and a Best Rest pump together take up about the same space as the Halo unit. The Halo unit doesn't require the use of the bikes battery, which may be a plus, and it does have a built in tire gauge and auto shutoff at the desired pressure. The Halo unit is also less expensive than the combine cost of a Best Rest pump and a starter battery. On the other hand, the Best Rest pump is probably the most proven pump and the Halo is still a new product. As usual, you pay your money and you take your choice.

Thank you as I currently carry the Best Rest Cycle Pump as well as my battery pack. It would appear that the Halo would not save much, if any space.
 
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