Fanttik T8 APEX Jump Starter Overview & Initial Thoughts

Battery pack-style jump starters have been around for several years now. When they first launched, their main use case was to jump-start small displacement engines without the need to rely on another vehicle with jumper cables (insert memory of asking a stranger if they have jumper cables, in the middle of a parking lot). As the years have gone by, various manufacturers have continued to improve on the jumping capability of larger engines and added additional charging functionality for your everyday devices.

Why You Should Have One

There are several very common scenarios where you may need to jump-start either your car or someone else’s:

1. You accidentally left your dome or map light on overnight, and now your battery is dead with no one around to help.
2. You leave on vacation, and when you return, your battery is dead.
3. You need to help someone else jump-start their car.

In the first two examples, having a battery jumper is invaluable since, without a second vehicle, you’re out of luck regardless of whether you have a set of jumper cables in the trunk. I’ve personally been in the second scenario with vehicles past. This would happen if the battery had a low charge before leaving and, without being started for a couple of weeks, the alternator charges it, the battery drains itself.

In the third scenario (please use caution – stranger danger can be real), having a battery jumper allows you to avoid playing car shuffle to get your vehicle close enough to connect jumper cables. This is especially useful when the vehicle in need is either on the roadside or in a crowded area.

Determining How Many Amps You Need

You’ll notice that battery jumpers market their engine jumping capability in terms of amps (A). This amperage rating correlates to the maximum engine displacement (in liters) that can be jump-started. When you try to use one on an engine that is too large, the dash lights may come on, but the engine itself won’t be able to turn over. I’ve personally tried this with one of my older battery jumpers, and this is exactly what happened (plus it can damage the jumper). Fortunately, it doesn’t matter if you use a jumper that has a much higher rated capacity than the engine you are trying to jump – so I would recommend getting one that is rated for at least 2x what your engine size is.

Enter Fanttik T8 Apex Jump Starter

With my previous battery jumpers, they were rated at 400A (4.0L gas engine) and 600A (6.5L gas engine), respectively. Even though these were both rated for the vehicles I was driving at the time, it always helps to know I have extra capacity – “less is more” doesn’t apply here.

The Fanttik T8 has a whopping 2000A (8.5L gas engine) and a total capacity of 20,000mAh. Is this capacity overkill for your Yota? Definitely, however, this huge capacity also means that you should be able to jump it 40 times before needing to recharge the pack, and this community is all about being over-prepared.

What I like about the Fanttik jumper is that it has reverse polarity and several other circuit protections to prevent those big sparks when you connect jumper cables to a battery, which is admittedly always what I dread the most when jumping a vehicle. This pack is also IP65 water and dust resistant, which is extremely useful in the rain or the campsite since it will likely sit at the front of your engine bay unprotected by your hood while in use.

Step 1. Connect jumper cables to the battery pack

Step 2. Review Instructions Printed On The Back

Step 3. Connect jumper cables to the car battery (red first)

Step 4. Hold the power button on the jumper back for 2 seconds until the display turns on

Step 5. Once the green “Start” illuminates on the jumper pack, start your ignition

Step 6. Disconnect the battery pack

Additional Functionality

Outside of jumping vehicles, I’ve also used this battery as an external battery pack to charge mobile devices, as it has a USB-A and USB-C ports added on the opposite side of the jumper port.

What I’m most excited about with the Fanttik is its charging capability. With the inclusion of USB-C, it provides up to 65watts charging in and out, which means that it can charge a laptop without needing its separate power brick, provided that it can charge over USB-C. This also means that the battery can quick charge from empty in about 1.5 hours with a USB-C quick charger (not included), which is super useful as I have other 20,000mAh dedicated battery packs that take over 5 hours via normal charging speeds.

In the event of nighttime use, this battery jumper also has a 400-lumen light that has SOS, strobe, and flashlight modes.

It also has a bright 3″ white on black display to show critical info such as remaining charge and voltage, which is MUCH easier to read than the dim, monochrome screens I’ve used in the past.

What’s Included

I was impressed with the overall packaging; everything was neatly packed, and the presentation was top-notch. In the box, you get everything needed for both jumping and an engine, and charging up your devices:

1. Fanttik T8 Jump Starter
2. Jumper Clamps
3. USB-C to USB-C Cable
4. USB-A to USB-C Cable
5. Travel Pouch

Final Thoughts

I’m excited to have this in my runner as an upgraded emergency jumper. There are a bunch of upgrades over my old battery jumpers that make it much more suitable for modern devices. The fit and finish of the materials appear to be top-notch and is my first jumper to have the IP65 rating. As an additional plus, the overall package size is much smaller than that of their counterparts at a similar capacity rating (you know how quickly space can run out in your rig).

What are your thoughts on this new battery jumper? Would you include it in your kit? Let me know!