GooLoo GT3000 Battery Jump Starter Test and Review

They’re everywhere today, but lithium-ion jump starters only first appeared in 2013. Now there are thousands of them (see our favorite portable jump starters), and what was once an expensive specialty product is affordable enough that most people should keep one in their car. They’re not only convenient, but safer than using jumper cables, as all the good ones detect reverse polarity. This prevents injuries from sparks and arcing; possible fires; and damage to a car’s battery and even electronics. In an emergency you don’t need another vehicle to get your car started, plus they almost all have flashlights and various USB ports to act as giant chargers and battery banks.

When GooLoo offered to send us one for testing, we chose the company’s GT3000, which is in the very competitive 3,000 amp (peak current) jump starter segment. There are well over 100 products like this on Amazon, including those from other industry leaders like NOCO, Schumacher, and Hulkman. You can find these 3,000 amp battery jump starters priced anywhere from about $70 to $300, and the intense competition results in frequent sales and discounts, especially in those with list prices over $100.

We think most people should carry a jump starter in their car at most times. It’s easy to leave your headlights on, or something charging in your car, or just end up with an old or defective battery that can’t turn over the engine. Modern lithium-ion booster packs and jump starters also hold a charge for a long time, so you might only have to top yours off once a season, or even longer. We’re going to be testing more of the down the line, and we’ll update this review with those comparisons to this GooLoo jump starter when we have them.

Update: The model we tested in the spring and summer of 2022 has been discontinued. There is a new version that other than color appears to be identical.

GooLoo's jump starter arrives partially charged, which is healthy for lithium-ion batteries, but not ideal for emergencies. USB charging was frustrating at first, and we couldn't get it to work with a standard 5.0V USB charger. It does work with 9.0V adaptive quick chargers; and will fast charge with laptop-type quick chargers. Fastest charging is via a car's 12V port at 100W, which seems counterintuitive to us, unless you want to do a lot of extra jump starting. We also charged it successfully with a 300W solar panel at 15V.

We ran through three tests of increasing difficulty, both to get a sense of how much power the jump starter had, and how easy it was to use. You must connect it to the battery terminals first, then turn it with a two second press on the power button, then a short press on the Boost button. You'll hear a click from inside, and when it says "ready," it's ready. You have a 30 second window to start, then you need to start over. If you connect the clamps incorrectly, there's a big X to tell you so. Your next press on the power button turns on one of the flashlight modes, after which you have to hold down the power button for an inconvenient 12 seconds to turn the whole thing off.

A friend's sister had a 2005 Mercedes-Benz CLK320 Convertible that had been sitting in a barn over the winter. We did not bring our favorite battery tester, but it wouldn't turn over at all and someone had already tried with a different jump starter. We had it running in 30 seconds, and it took the GooLoo GT3000 from 73% charge to 69%. That's a lot of jumps.

When a local farmer had a dead 6.5-liter 1995 Chevrolet one-ton, we thought we'd give it a crack. This old beast had two dead (we took them back to the AG Garage for testing and charging later) 700CCA batteries, and a massive V-8 diesel. Even harder, there was no direct access to the side post batteries, so we clamped the GooLoo's clamps to an auxiliary cable, which in turn made uncertain contact...somewhere.

To the GooLoo's credit, we got the plugs to glow and the voltmeter on the dash to 12V, briefly, and it even cranked half a revolution, once. But that was it. If this is your use case, there are lots of options, up to 6,000 amps, that will crank over things like a 32-liter Cat C32.