NOCO Auto Battery Charger/Jump Starters: 1-Amp 6V/12V Smart Battery Charger Expired

Here's a writeup I did and posted on another site comparing the two. I'm not sure why the pictures won't show up here, but the links take you to them and compare the two.

At the time of the purchase the price was $64.21 for the Audew and $125.96 for the NOCO GB70 that I purchased. So the Audew wins there.

Upon opening them, they were both packaged well enough, although the NOCO was packaged better. It had an outer box, and inner NOCO box, and then lots of styrofoam. The Audew was just in a thin cardboard box, then the Audew was inside their included case in the box. The packaging doesn't really matter to me, and they were both more than sufficient.

After getting the boxes open, I will say that the case the Audew comes in is much nicer than the thin bag the NOCO comes with. I definitely feel like NOCO cheaped out here. I bet including a real case wouldn't cost them more than a few dollars, and it would have made the whole package much nicer. The Audew definitely wins here.

Here is a picture of the case the Audew comes in vs the bag of the NOCO:
Audew:
https://i.imgur.com/RDOBny6.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Ckqt6uF.jpg

NOCO:
https://i.imgur.com/c7kGO4i.jpg


As for the country of origin, my Audew was made in China as indicated in the pictures below. My NOCO was "Designed in the USA", while being made in Malaysia. I won't comment on this any further, I just wanted to include it since people have been asking about the country of origin.

Audew:
https://i.imgur.com/7Dhkt4y.jpg

NOCO:
https://i.imgur.com/lKVxYga.jpg

Now, onto the included accessories. The NOCO includes a couple of USB cables, an adapter to connect an accessory that would use a cigarette lighter plug to it, and a car charger. As well as a pretty detailed owners manual. It doesn't include a house charger. The charger uses a round style plug that is also compatible with many laptop chargers as pointed out in the manual.

The Audew includes a couple of USB cables, a similar adapter to connect devices that use a cigarette lighter, and it comes with a wall charger for the house. However, it doesn't include a car charger. It uses a USB C cord to charge it, so it may be compatible with other car chargers, but one isn't included. There weren't any instructions in the box.

Now, I know this comes down to personal preference, and I think the ideal situation would be to include both a house and car charger. However, if I'm just getting one or the other, I'd much rather have the car charger. This allows me to leave this in the car at all times. I can just charge it up on my way to work, or on a trip occasionally, etc. I don't ever have to take it out of the car. If I have to take it inside to charge, there is a much larger chance that I'll forget to grab it to put back in the car, etc. Thus leaving me with the possibility of it it still being in the house when I need it. So for me, the car charger is a much better option. I wish Audew had included it.

Next we'll get into features.

The Aukey does show a battery percentage on it, while the NOCO just has several lights to estimate the battery left for you. I feel like the Aukey wins here as it's nice to know an exact percentage. However, the NOCO wins in every other feature. The flashlight is significantly brighter on the NOCO than the Audew. It also has several different modes. The Audew only has the flashlight on, off, or strobe. It wasn't all that bright at all, and was honestly a disappointment. Trying it in the house, it was a dim beam shining across my living room which only lit up the spot it was directly pointed at. The NOCO on the other hand has multiple modes including bright, dim, a couple of levels of strobe, etc. On the bright setting instead of a dim beam, it lit up my whole living room, and lit it up well. I'd be able to see to do anything I needed to in that area. At first I was thinking, I really don't care as I didn't buy it for the flashlight. However, the more thought I put into it, the more I do think this is a big improvement on the NOCO. I don't always have a flashlight with me, nor do most people carry one 24/7. If I'm ever broken down at night and have to rely on this thing to try to get my car going again, the NOCO is going to have a huge advantage. Working under the hood trying to use the Audew here would really suck. The size makes it too big to hold like a flashlight while working, so you'd need to sit it somewhere and rely on the output. The Audew just won't work well for that, but the NOCO will. So ultimately the NOCO wins here, and it's a fairly big win in my opinion.


Onto the initial feel of it. The Audew is similar in length and width. It's slightly longer, but close. However, it's about half of the thickness of the NOCO, along with being a bit lighter. So it is better in size. However, it also feels like if I dropped it on concrete or asphalt it would probably break into pieces. It's just cheap feeling, and mostly made up of cheap plastic. This thing doesn't feel durable at all. I don't suspect it would fare well if it had a rough life. However, it may be fine to live its life in the case in someone's trunk. The NOCO on the other hand, is also mostly plastic. However, it feels significantly better built and stronger. While I didn't do a drop test on either, I'd be pretty surprised if the NOCO broke with a slight fall. I wouldn't be surprised if the Audew broke into pieces on the same test. You can just feel that the case is significantly stronger on the NOCO. Again, the importance of this depends on what you're doing with it. If you're using it in a professional setting where it's constantly used, dropped, etc. I strongly suspect the NOCO will hold up significantly longer than the Audew.

Here are a few pictures to show the size difference. The Audew is on top of the NOCO here:
https://i.imgur.com/AwONPPE.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/9ou22lR.jpg

Now, we'll get onto the cables and clamps. This is where the Audew disappointed me the most. The Audew clamps are mostly plastic including plastic hinges. I don't mean good plastic either. They are extremely cheap feeling and I can hear the plastic making noises when I open and close them since they are under so much tension. I am pretty certain that these clamps won't last all that long. Infact, they are so bad, that I'm a little afraid to stick it in the car to even rely on it. I don't want to need this thing in an emergency only to have it rendered useless due to broken clamps. I really can't stress enough about how horrible and cheap feeling they are. I was going to give this unit to my mother to keep in her car and one of her first comments after showing it to her was asking if we could order another set of clamps to keep in the car incase these broke during an emergency. I was hearing these noises of the plastic being stressed in the house where it's 70 degrees. I can only imagine the plastic on these when it has gone through a few hot/cold heat cycles in the car, and then you're trying to use them outside in 10 degree weather, which makes plastic brittle anyway. If they do work sitting in the car, it'll only be in cases of low use. If you're using this thing in a professional setting, these also would not work at all. There is no way they are going to last long term with much use at all. This unit would not be the one to get if you were using it on a regular basis. If I'd known how bad these were going to be, I honestly would never have ordered this thing. I wish I'd just kept my order for 2 NOCO's.

Now, we get to the NOCO cables and clamps. They are extremely solid. They are metal, the hinges are metal, and then they have a plastic overlay on them so that you're not touching the actual metal. This is a huge improvement over the Audew. You aren't going to worry about the overstressed plastic hinges breaking. I know they'll still be in one piece in an emergency situation. I really don't have to worry about if they are going to be broken when I need them or not. If you're using it often, these will also hold up significantly better and I wouldn't hesitate to use them on a regular basis. This is a huge win for the NOCO.

Here are some of the pictures of the Aukew clamps:
As you can see, there are metal teeth and a metal spring inside of the plastic hinges. What a lousy design.
https://i.imgur.com/Md78XAf.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/nhAQoC1.jpg

Here are a few pictures of the NOCO ones. A huge improvement including metal hinges, as you can see.
https://i.imgur.com/qV2S6dr.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/svZSb5j.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/iPfHELV.jpg


So in conclusion, I'm extremely disappointed in the cheapness factor of the Audew. I know it's a lot cheaper, but there were definitely a lot of corners cut to get it to that price point. It isn't just as good for less money. Not only does the whole unit really feel like cheap plastic, but the clamps top it off. They are a huge show stopper for me. It really doesn't matter how good the case is, how good the battery is, nor how close it performs to the stated specifications, if you can't hook it up to your battery because the clamps are broken when you need them most. They are so bad that I honestly don't even trust them to not be broken when I need them from just riding in the car. I am positive that they wouldn't hold up with any kind of regular use, and I doubt they'll hold up long term even with minimal use. The NOCO is significantly better in this aspect. I feel pretty certain that these won't be broken should I ever have an emergency and need this thing. I also feel pretty certain that they'll hold up well through frequent use if you are looking to use this in a professional environment. The flashlight, while not a show stopper, is also disappointing on the Audew. The NOCO will be significantly better here as well if you ever have an emergency in the dark. While I haven't used the NOCO to start a car with a dead battery yet, one of my best friends owns this exact unit and has used it multiple times with great success on their Hemi Jeep. So I feel fairly certain that regardless of how close it is to the stated specs, it's going to be good enough for most vehicles.

Just my 2 cents, but if I knew what I know now and how bad the Audew clamps are, I'd never have ordered it and I'd have kept my original order for 2 of the NOCO's. In fact, it's so bad that I'm really considering just returning it and ordering another NOCO the next time I see them on sale. I guess time will tell how long the batteries will last in each unit, but none of that really matters if you aren't going to be able to clamp it onto your battery. So take it for what it's worth, but I think the quality difference is significant enough to warrant the extra cost here, without even considering which one has a better battery.

If anyone has any specific questions about either of these, I'll try to answer them.

UPDATE: Well, I'm returning my Audew to Amazon. This has been the most disappointing purchase I've made in a long time. I charged it on Saturday, 10/17/2020 and left it sitting in the house. Today, 10/26/2020, I decided to put it in the car and hit the power button to make sure it was still fully charged. To my surprise it was down to 93% after sitting on the floor turned off for 9 days. This is unacceptable in my opinion. I don't want to bring this in the house to recharge it every few weeks. That's quite a large decrease for literally 9 days with no use. I want something that I can leave in the car and pull out in a few months and still have a decent charge if I need it. My NOCO, which I charged the same day still shows full charge, although it doesn't show the percentage, just the bars.

That combined with the fact that I don't trust these clamps on this thing at all, made the decision for me that I just need to return it. I just hate that I canceled my second order for a NOCO. I hope the NOCO's go on sale for Black Friday or again sometime soon so that I can pick up a second one.

For the Tesla, roll down a hill and pop the clutch.

Unbiased review
https://youtu.be/JN8A2nIMUWA