The NOCO GBX155 finished first in every category — 7,156 watts on the bench,
78.34 Wh of capacity, 11.5 seconds of hard cranking, and three effortless
diesel starts — and it did all of that a year into ownership. At $370 it
costs more than twice anything else here, and it carries the same asterisk as
several top performers: it will not activate on a completely dead battery
without an outside 12-volt source to wake it up.
That asterisk is what makes the $100 GooLoo the value pick. It placed third
in bench power and capacity, started the diesel three times, and — unlike the
NOCO and AVAPOW — engages on a fully dead battery, which is the exact
situation a jump starter exists for. The $133 AVAPOW is the pure-performance
runner-up with the second-highest watts and capacity in the test, if the dead
battery in question still has a whisper of voltage.
None of the top three includes a tire inflator. For a single device that does
both, the $56 Nexpow is the standout: three easy diesel starts, 58 Wh of
capacity, fourth-highest bench power, and a 7-minute tire fill. Its
drawbacks are bulk and the same dead-battery activation limitation. The $77
BRPOM is the compromise pick that does activate on a dead battery, inflates a
tire in 6.5 minutes, and starts a diesel.
At the bottom, the $60 Gillaway and $56 E-Ant should be avoided outright:
neither could start the diesel, both quit the V6 in seconds, both hit thermal
cutoffs partway through inflating one tire, and the E-Ant's negative
connector melted its own solder and fell apart during testing. And the $143
Kalyoosen is the clearest example of why advertised cranking amps deserve no
trust — its 8,000-amp claim produced less bench power than a unit rated at
half that.