I really liked the idea of solar and wind energy. With traditional energy sources running low, and prices rising, I am all for taking advantage of "free" energy as long as it can be implemented cheaply.
I often forget to charge my phone before I head off somewhere, and if I can keep something ... Read review
Advantages: "Free" energy, compact portable design, plent of attachments Disadvantages: Solar needs direct brilliant sunshine, in the UK, unlikely
I really liked the idea of solar and wind energy. With traditional energy sources running low, and prices rising, I am all for taking advantage of "free" energy as long as it can be implemented cheaply.
I often forget to charge my phone before I head off somewhere, and if I can keep something like this in the car, or the office, then I can hopefully give a quick boost to the battery.
I say hopefully, as although ... ...solar charging aspect, for which I bought it, doesn't appear to work very well. It takes about 6 - 8 hours to full charge via the USB port, but leaving it on a window sill for 3 days did not charge a great deal via solar.
The instructions do say that charging behind a window greatly reduces the performance of the solar panels, but I didn't expect it to render them pretty much useless on an overcast day. I would imagine that once fully ... more
I really liked the idea of solar and wind energy. With traditional energy sources running low, and prices rising, I am all for taking advantage of "free" energy as long as it can be implemented cheaply.
I often forget to charge my phone before I head off somewhere, and if I can keep something like this in the car, or the office, then I can hopefully give a quick boost to the battery.
I say hopefully, as although you can charge the unit via the USB port, the solar charging aspect, for which I bought it, doesn't appear to work very well. It takes about 6 - 8 hours to full charge via the USB port, but leaving it on a window sill for 3 days did not charge a great deal via solar.
The instructions do say that charging behind a window greatly reduces the performance of the solar panels, but I didn't expect it to render them pretty much useless on an overcast day. I would imagine that once fully charged via USB, the solar panels will be able to keep it topped up if you don't use it.
Perhaps in the height of summer, with a clear sky, and the unit left out in the open, then it may perform admirably, but unfortunately, it's March now, and I am not going to know this for another couple of month yet.
There are one or two good points, measuring a little more than a cigarette packet, the unit is certainly portable. Also, the unit comes with 12 different attachments for the wire, which covers most mobile models. You do need to buy an additional adaptor if you want to use the device with an iPod. There is also an adaptor for a Sony PSP, which I suspect I will be using whilst on holiday too.
In summary, I think this is a nice idea, but it really needs to mature.
Advantages: Green energy, simple to use, and portable. Disadvantages: cant recall of any at this point in time.
I recieved this as a gift for my birthday in october 2008 and im very in to solar things. I was very keen to open it up and get it out of the packaging.
Its very easy to assemble up and get going. It has 2 solar panels which attach to the central hub battery and can then dissasemble for ease of taking away on holiday or taking any where you like. It comes with many attachments including usb chrging port adaptors, many phone charger adaptors which ... ...handy when going away camping with no mains connections. It costs around £30 from some where like an oxfam shop which will give some money to the charity unlike if you were buying from ebay or amazon. Have used it to charged wii remotes, wii charger, mobile phones. It holds quite a bit of charge but does soon run out. The one i have sits on bedroom windowsill from the morning until the sun goes down at night then i top it up using the usb cable on ...
keepsmiling86 15.03.2009 (22.03.2009)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Freeloader Portable Solar Energy Charger
Advantages: None for me! Disadvantages: Doesn't work.
Huge disapointment is the only thing I can say about this product. I charged it via my computer usb to start with and then took off to the south of france in the middle of summer. You would think that 8 hours in direct sunlight would do the trick but no! That gave me enough charge to add one battery bar on my phone at a time and it didn't work at all with my ipod or PDA, despite having the right connections. It connected fine and turned my ipod on ...
Marcindy 24.07.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Freeloader Portable Solar Energy Charger
Advantages: small, light and cheap. Disadvantages: unreliable, faulty and a letdown.
I bought a Freeloader Charger so that I would be able to charge my digital camera whilst on a 5 week expedition to Greenland.
When it arrived, the packaging seemed fairly cheap, making me unsure about the quality of the product, but i tested it using the USB charging method and it seemed fine.
When I got to Greenland, my camera battery lasted for around 4 weeks of the expedition, but when I needed to charge it for the last week the Freeloader did ... ...but when I plugged it in to my camera nothing happened at all. I was angry that I missed out on capturing the last week of a trip that would be hard to repeat. Unreliable product, if I needed a solar charger again, I would invest in a more expensive model. The price attracted me to this and it was not a good choice. ...
mini_clutterz 25.09.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Freeloader Portable Solar Energy Charger
Purchased this from Maplin's in a package deal meaning you got a pouch and an additional quick charge solar panel for £45. Would not charge hardly any of my USB based products and when it did, it refused to charge them more than to get them out of the red. After this it would stop charging and would allow the product to run down to the point they switched off. Given it claims to have the minimum charge requirements for a USB charger I fail to see ...
Al9633 16.01.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Freeloader Portable Solar Energy Charger
Advantages: Charges quite quickly, Lightweight Disadvantages: NO IPOD ADAPTER!!!!
The freeloader charger is a good solar powered charger for a much cheaper price then lots of the competition.
The charger itself took about 8 hours to reach full power plus an additional 2 hours to charge the device. The charger came with lots of adapters, this was good and helpful but i was really annoyed to find out that the usb female adapter did not work and if you want to charge your ipod you need to buy an extra adapter!!! This extra only ...
Dajack2 05.01.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Freeloader Portable Solar Energy Charger
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