Powerstation PSX3 Jumpstarter - Air Compressor, DC Outlet

After several years mine will not take a charge either and now from these reviews and the fact that they are no longer available, no replacement battery or anything else to make it useful again.!!!! This is a waste of good money!! Bought mine at Costco.

I bought my Powerstation at Costco and used only the air compressor to top off my truck and travel trailer tires. Since my tires are in good shape they frequently didn't need any air. I had this unit for 4 years of very light use and used it maybe 50 times total and always followed the instructions after using for 6 minutes then letting the air compressor cool off for ten minutes before using it again. I used it recently getting ready for an RV trip and after topping off 2 tires the air compressor quit compressing and would not pump up a tire. I figure a seal or gasket bit the dust. I attempted to communicate with powerstationusa.com but no one answers the phone you get rerouted through the same phone menu. Under their Contact us link there is a form to fill out but when you hit the submit button nothing happens. Apparently they do not care about customer service one bit. So in the end I would say find a company that stands behind their product and don't buy a Powerstatiion.

In my review dated 11/12/2020 I mentioned that I applied grease to the gears and other components of the Air Compressor of my PSX3. Also I had mentioned that the air compressor worked very well after replacing the battery and applying grease. I made one blunder - applied grease even inside the cylinder of the Air Compressor thinking that it will provide lubrication to the piston. Actually it did and I could inflate my spare tire to 60 PSI as reported in my 11/12/2020 post. However, last week after inflating 4 tires of my car, on the 4th tire, the sound of the air compressor changed signaling some kind of failure. It followed by no increase in the pressure gauge reading even when the Air Compressor is running. Two days ago I concluded that the Air Compressor failed to compress the air, which was confirmed after opening PSX3 last night. The grease inside the cylinder had reacted with the plastic or any material at the head of the piston which was providing a good seal during compression. The grease crumpled the washer/ring of the piston head that was proving air seal. It came out in pieces as noticed by bringing the piston to the bottom dead center. Therefore, please do not apply grease in the inside of the cylinder. I am writing this to let the readers know my blunder - please do not apply grease or any other lubricant that will destroy the washer/ring that is present at the head of the piston inside the cylinder to provide seal to generate compressed air.

Error Correction to my Post dated 11/12/2020: In my earlier post I had mentioned that my PSX3 is 7 Yrs old. It is actually 5.5 Yrs old which I just found from the Manufactured date of my unit which is April 2015. It gave pretty good service until DEC 2019. It failed in DEC 2019. The failure I am attributing to my failure of not recharging once a month which was there on a tag tied to its handle. Also may be due to Arizona's dry weather (not sure). I replaced its battery in October 2020 as explained in my Post dated 11/12/2020 and is working as good as new or even better.

Reply to King Leung’s submitted post dated 08/19/2020. Hi King, jumping a car battery depends on the Cranking Ampere required by the vehicle as per the vehicle’s manual. The Peak output of this PSX3 is 1000 AMP and the Cranking Amp is 400 which I saw in the Product’s website when the battery is fully charged. Please note that PSX3’s battery needs to be in good condition, i.e., its battery holds charge of at least 12 V or more when fully charged. If some of the cells of the battery of PSX3 are dead, even if PSX3 indicates fully charged (the green LED ON), it will not be able to jump start any car battery. My PSX3 (5.5 yrs old; I mentioned 7 yrs old in my previous post in error which I discovered just few minutes ago by reading the manufactured date on the unit) was showing green LED ON, indicating fully charged, however, when I tried to inflate my tires, the compressor did not come on. As mentioned in my previous post, the battery of my PSX3 was not holding charge. I replaced the battery, which I have described in my previous post dated 11/12/2020, and not it works as good as new or even better.

Review on 12-NOV-2020. I bought Power Station PSX3 - Jump Starter with Tire inflator about 7 years ago. Used it for 6 years with great success. Inflated tires of 2 cars once or twice every year and jump started 3 or 4 times - worked very well every time. After using I was recharging to full. I did not know that the unit says, recharge once in every month, which I noticed 2 days ago. Just before the pandemic, around December 2019 tried to inflate tires. How I brought the PSX3 into as good as a new unit, keep reading. In August 2020, as usual I recharged my PSX3 till the green LED came on. Then when tried to inflate the tires, it failed – compressor did not come on. Then tried to recharge. The red LED kept on blinking thereafter. Then we decided to throw the PSX3 away at our curb side, which is a normally practice, to be picked up by some people who wants it. I was hesitant to throw it away since it gave us very good service (6 Yrs of service). So I kept it in our garage without throwing it. After recharging to full, I tested the voltage and was about 9V. Then after about 30 min, reduced to 2.6V, which indicated that it is not holding charge. I thought that if I can put a new battery, everything should work. About August 2020, I started looking into YouTube videos and thought of recovering the battery by hydrating with distilled water only. After 3 days of dehydrating the battery, found that only one cell of the battery was generating Hydrogen gas (seen from constant release of bubbles; done outside the house in open air) and others were releasing only few bubbles. Then I could feel that the surface (side walls) of the battery was wavy, meaning the cells are already locked up due to drying in Arizona hot weather and not recharging the battery every month. I did not want to go for flushing the battery and adding sulfuric acid solution, since I had no way of disposing the flushed out contaminated fluid. I decided to buy a new battery to replace the existing one. Then I got the specification of the existing battery: 6FM-18 12V-18Ah/20HR Sealed Lead-Acid (SLA) battery. The 6FM-18 is important (related to the dimension and the location and type of terminal posts) and also the 18AH is important (a must, do not go for 17AH) when buying a replacement Sealed Lead-Acid (SLA) battery for replacement. I bought a new battery from APX and installed on 28-OCT-2020. It had a charge of 15.2V before charging it. Then recharged the new battery (the initial recharging) till the green LED lit indicating “Full charge” (measured 16.6V or a bit higher) and ran the compressor without connecting to a tire - just for a test. IMP: when testing the Air Compressor without connecting to a tire, leave the tip of the compressor Air hose in its plastic storage compartment present on the unit’s side wall, the way it should remain when we are not using the unit. Otherwise, when the compressor runs, it will bust the hose and may injure. The Compressor started right away. Tested all other features except for jumping a dead car battery. Then on 29-OCT-2020 inflated 4 tires very successfully raising tire pressure from 20 PSI to 30 PSI without recharging again since first recharge on the day of installation. When in August 2020 I had opened the unit to find out the Battery specifications and initial troubleshooting, I had noticed that the gears of the Air compressor components were very dry and thought of lubricating them since that time. However, forgot to lubricate them during battery replacement. Challenges: That happened because it was very difficult to overcome the challenges of accommodating the new battery in PSX3’s battery compartment, which was slightly (1/8th in) taller than the original battery and also the +ve and -ve pole locations were a bit further away from the side walls as compared to the original one. I made adjustments and succeeded in making the connections and placing the new battery securely in its battery compartment. Finally during reassembling, I faced another challenge that is its inter-locking features (which of course is a fantastic safeguard and structural integrity feature). It took two tries to make things right. On 31-OCT-2020, opened the unit again and applied grease to the gears and other components of the Air Compressor. Remember to choose grease, if applying grease, which should not melt and flow due to high temp and should not dry up due to various reasons. The following day inflated my Spare Tire (only) and raised the pressure from 35 PSI to 60 PSI just in 2-3 minutes. So far I have not jumped any dead battery because I replaced my car batteries when the unit went dead in DEC 2019. After battery replacement the unit is working like new, or even better. I am very happy now. One will need a Multi-meter to do all these DIY activities. One must be very careful and wear safety eye protection. Would not recommend recovering the dead battery because the cost of a new battery is $35 included shipping from APEX. Replacement battery is also available in Amazon, eBay, Battery Plus, Home Depot, etc. Recommend to pay attention to the dimension (length, width, height, location and type of terminal posts) to match with the existing one when ordering replacement battery. Must keep the Jumper in OFF position; disconnect the unit from the wall when not charging and while measuring voltage. Stay away from the gears because it is strong enough to shear off your fingers, if the compressor is activated!!! Recommend going through DIY videos and gain sufficient knowledge to safely do the project. Take photographs as you open the unit depicting the connections of wires. Wrong connections may result in series injury. Wrong lubrication on the Air compressor components may dry up and make the piston stuck in place rendering inoperable. After removing the screws (there are plenty of them), jar open the two halves of the unit since there are wires going from one half to the other. I would recommend the unit; however, it appears that it is not available. I have already filled air into 4 tires just yesterday (11-NOV-2020) in our second car raising the pressures from 22 PSI to 30 PSI giving 5 minutes gap (or as recommended by PSX3) between each tire air filling - worked very well and recharged to full in 3 hours at 3:40 PM on 11-NOV-2020 after filling air. Voltage measured at 5:47 PM: 16.93V DC at 73 deg F. Voltage measure 17.16V (DC) at 8AM on 12-NOV-2020; at 68 deg F (not connected to wall since last recharge. Please note that even if the battery full LED is lit, if most of the battery cells are dead, it will not be able to jump start a car battery when you need it. I learned it the hard way after using the unit for 6 years. Only after the unit failed, from my investigation of voltage drop using a Multi-meter indicated that when most of the cells of the battery are dead, just with only one cell active, there is not enough energy/juice to turn on the Air compressor of jump start a dead car battery. Note: It is important to test to see that the charging adapter in the unit is good and it was not the cause of the failure of the original battery.

power station psx3 can have a replacement battery installed look for one comparible to 6fm-18

I bought a brand new PSX3 about 5yrs ago and had not used it for once. In April,2020, I decided to start using it. Our voltage is 220/240V and I mistakenly plugged it to charge. When I realised it wasn't charging,I now used stepdown transformer to reduce the electricity voltage to 110/120V and the battery always indicate charged. When you unplug it,there won't be any power on it. I feel the battery has some issues. Can somebody advise me on what to do? Where can I get replacement battery?