How does one "rent" a burner?

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Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
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On 9/26/2013 1:33 PM, wrote:
Subject: Battery booster pack
Date: Thursday, July 24, 2008 8:17 AM

A useful device, is a battery booster pack. You can find them at Walmart,
or any auto parts store. Just a 12 volt gel cell battery and a couple
cables
and clamps. The one I have, I paid about eight bucks at BJ's Wholesale
Club.
I got one about five years ago, and it was totally useful. The battery is
strong enough to jump start a vehicle, when the auto battery is dead. The
inverter on the back provides up to 300 watts of AC 110 volt power for
up to
45 minutes, if the internal battery is fully charged. The booster pack has
an internal charger, just flip open the little door, and stick on the
end of
an extension cord. The booster pack will run a floor or table lamp for
several hours of light. More hours, if you use a power saver compact
fluorescent bulb or fluorescent desk lamp. Much brighter than candles or
camping lantern. And far, far safer.

Has a light on the front. On mine, I pulled the lens off, and pull the bulb
out. It's too easy to bump the light switch and the battery goes dead. At
least, that's what I thought was the problem. Turns out the battery wasn't
holding a charge. This was winter time, so I figured I'd killed the battery
by letting it freeze. Here is an identical unit, with a different brand
name.

http://store.chromeauto.com/keas104.html

Now, the price has gone up a bit. I paid eighty bucks for mine, and now
they are getting one
seventy five. Ouch!

http://www.aumauto.com/albowiin.html

Says retail $250 but they only get $150. Things going up in price, I see.

When mine went dead, I took the cables, clamps, and so on. And the
inverter.
Wired it all to a garden tractor battery from Walmart. Found out later
on my
own van, that the garden tractor battery isn't strong enough to boost a
vehicle engine. However, it does provide some 12 volt power, and also the
300 watts of AC for a few minutes is useful.

About the time I bought a second one of these. Another eighty bucks. And
the battery went dead. I called the factory and found out they had bought a
load of old batteries. The rep there offered me a replacement battery,
which
was much cheaper than replacing the unit. Being a repair man, it wasn't all
that hard to pull the box apart, and swap out another battery.

Harbor Freight has booster packs aroud fifty bucks, with a battery and
lighter socket and some cables and clamps. The inverter is only about
thirty
bucks at Walmart, so you can get the jump pack and a separte inverter. For
about the same money I paid five years ago. The Walmart $30 inverter plugs
into a lighter socket, so you can move it from car to car, or run it off
the
battery booster pack.

Of course, you have to charge the unit after each use. Most of these come
with their own wall charger. Take it home and plug it into the 110 volt
power. I rigged a cord with a 12 volt lighter plug on each end. So I can
plug the cord into the vehicle and into the jump pack. Charge while I'm
driving.
They must be nuts. It doesn't take long to recover the cost
of switching to gas. And with the $1500 fed tax credit that was
available just a few years ago, possible state rebates, utility
rebates, etc, lower maintenance costs, higher efficiency, I
can't imagine why they wouldn't have switched instead of using
$4 a gal oil.

When I did it, the gas company paid for all of the work (inside and
out) except the burner (which I rented) and a cleanout cut in the
chimney $50 (which should have been there, by code).