Description
From the manufacturer
Manufacturer Eton
Part Number ARCCR100RSNG
Item Weight 4.9 ounces
Product Dimensions 6 x 1.25 x 2.25 inches
Country of Origin USA
Item model number ARCCR100R_SNG
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer No
Size Single
Color Red
Style Single Pack
Finish Red
Material Plastic
Pattern Charger
Power Source Battery Powered
Voltage 5 Volts
Item Package Quantity 1
Type of Bulb LED
Special Features Portable, Lightweight, Sturdy
Included Components Flash Light, USB Cable
Batteries Included? No
Batteries Required? Yes
Warranty Description 1 Year Parts and Labor
ASIN B003BYROUQ
Best Sellers Rank #3,152 in Cell Phones & Accessories (See Top 100 in Cell Phones & Accessories) #193 in Cell Phone Portable Power Banks
Date First Available April 1, 2010
Crank Powered Flashlight and Charger: Great for emergency kits or outdoor adventures, the hand-powered Clipray makes sure you’ve always got light and power for your smartphone, no batteries needed Easy to Use and Portable: Crank for 1 minute to produce enough power for 10 minutes of light; Or use it to charge your smartphone or other device; A sturdy carabiner clip makes it easy to take anywhere Stay Safe and Have Fun: As a proud partner of the American Red Cross, we are committed to your safety. For over 30 years, we’ve been dedicated to creating award-winning, innovative products for entertainment and emergency preparedness Keep Connected: From World Band and Weather Alert radios, to solar powered sound systems and connected home products, we’ll keep you connected and in the know at home, in the office, on the road or in the great outdoors Eton’s Commitment to Preparedness: We’re committed to helping you be prepared for everyday fun and unexpected emergencies, whether you’re out on a 10-day backpacking trip, or just barbecuing in the backyard › See more product details
Product Description
The American Red Cross Clipray is great for emergency kits or outdoor adventures. You will always have light and power for your smartphone—the best thing is no batteries needed! Crank the Clipray for one minute and you will have enough power for 10 minutes of light. When you need power for your smartphone, simple crank it and use a standard USB port. No batteries required for light and power! It even has a built-in carabiner to clip on your belt or backpack for convenient hands-free use.
From the Manufacturer
john p. irving –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Red cross sponsored flashlight with phone charger
Nice rechargable flashlight with twosizes of plugs to charge cell phone! Very important in emergency. Confession: Haven’t charged phone with it. Micro size plug. For C plug, plug in charging cord from C plug charger. Nice flashlight too!
Roberto Rivera –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great quality
Great quality
Dadahktah –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Meh
It would be faster to fly overseas and mine the material to make my own battery and fly a kite in a lightning storm than to charge these things by hand. Best bet is to give it to your bored kid and tell them they can eat when the light will hit full brightness for more than 5 seconds. It’s also loud enough to scare away any animals nearby so safety.
6 people found this helpful
Colleen Henrichsen –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good for emergencies.
It works but in order to charge a phone you have to continue toTurn the crank non stop and it gets tiring. It does however not take a lot of time. My phone charged 10% in about 30 spins.
One person found this helpful
christina lima-joneschristina lima-jones –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great if it stayed in one piece
It would have been great if it stayed in one piece. The power button came right off. I haven’t even had it for 3 weeks and I’m handicapped so I was counting on this thing to work and be durable but it couldn’t last a month. This was for hurricane season and it let me down.
4 people found this helpful
Kimberly Wright –
2.0 out of 5 stars
This Does Not Charge a Phone
Your post is quite misleading. While I did want a light I could hand crank in an emergency, I also wanted a phone charger. The only way you can get a charge sign to come up on a phone is to crank and crank and crank. Only, you will not get any real charge. In fact, you cannot even get a one percent charge.Funny thing, but the Red Cross makes no such claim, although there are 2 USB ports on the flashlight.Someone needs to get their facts straight about this product.This was quite a disappointment.
One person found this helpful
new32 –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Decent for an around the house flashlight
Bought one of these since we tend to lose power in the winter for at least a few hours when the snow piles up. Lasted about an hour with around two minutes of steady cranking, the first 40 minutes decently bright with the last 20 being very dim. Not sure how well that will hold up over time but so far, it’s consistent. If you’re steady and aren’t trying to force or speed through it, you could probably charge your average smartphone a few percent, enough for an emergency call, in about an hour. Admittedly, that would be very tiring. I was averaging about 1% on a 20000mah battery pack in about 10 minutes (my cardio for the day) so that would be something on the order of 17 hours of cranking to fully recharge. Not great for a back up but for an absolute emergency in the cold or on the roadside, definitely doable. My only real concern is longevity as the dynamo crank feels like it could snap or slip if someone got frustrated using it.
6 people found this helpful
Manuel Guijosa –
5.0 out of 5 stars
EMERGENCY flashlight.
I understand this is not intended for regular use a battery pack. This will charge your phone as long as you are cranking it while charging. But great to keep in car in case of emergency.
2 people found this helpful
Lucinda Grant –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great product
I have purchased several of these for myself and gifts. This is a sturdy and reliable product. Great to have in many scenarios.
One person found this helpful
Anthony –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great emergency light
The crank operates smoothly. It doesn’t take much cranking to power the battery. Once the battery has a charge, the light is fairly bright. I haven’t had a chance to try the USB port to attempt to charge a dead phone but it did charge an iPhone that already had at least 50% power. I don’t know if it can provide enough juice to start a dead phone battery or how long it would take to crank the battery for it to do so, but it does seem to have the capability to give you an emergency charge if no better options are available.
11 people found this helpful
Kindle Customer –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Useful and inexpensive
It is what it is. Useful and inexpensive when the lights go out. Now where did I put it? Really everybody should keep several cheap emergency flashlights like this and at least one quality flashlight.
2 people found this helpful
John P. Creamer IVJohn P. Creamer IV –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fix for iPhone Charging Problems!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Like most people who got this device, I wanted it mainly to be able to charge my phone in an emergency and also like most people I have an iPhone. I was disappointed when it would not charge and error messages continued to pop up.Then I remembered that I had bought a Duracell LI portable charger (about $25 on here, but prices fluctuate use link at the bottom) sometime ago to charge my phone if I ever had to go on a long trip without any way to charge it. It plugs into a USB port to charge the battery, so I simply plugged that into this handcrank charger and it worked! The portable battery charging light came on! Then I just plugged the iPhone into the battery and presto! The iPhone began to charge! I am not certain of the efficiency of this method, but I will try to test this and repost later with the results. I’m sure there are other portable USB phone chargers out there that will work with the method. I will also put up a photo of my method.Otherwise, the light is quite bright and takes little cranking to charge. You can tell when the the dynamo is working as it is much harder to crank than when an ineffective USB device is plugged in. Only other minor complaint is that it is not likely waterproof, but with some duct tape and epoxy, it can at least be made water resistant. Overall, good, inexpensive product.
Duracell Instant USB Charger with Lithium ion battery / includes universal cable with USB and mini USB,100 people found this helpful
Edward Teach –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Effective Emergency Charger. Not for playing games on your phone.
This is not for charging you phone up to play games, as others have mentioned. This is intended to be used to generate enough charge to make a phone call. For that, it works. There are realistic limitations to the amount of current that can be created with a small hand crank, so don’t expect too much. When I tested the USB charging, I was able to easily generate about 100-150 mA at a rate that I could sit and have a conversation or do something else mildly distracting. Cranking on it, I was able to generate consistently 200-250 mA with peaks up to 500 mA. For reference, your computer outputs 500 mA from it’s USB ports, and most cheap wall chargers these days output 1000 mA. However, unless you have a phone with a giant battery, the phone usually regulates the current and rarely uses the full 1000 mA. Also for those not aware, your wifi and bluetooth drain the battery like crazy and if you turn everything off except the cell network and turn your screen brightness down to minimum, you would be surprised how long a tiny charge can last (obviously this depends on the phone). The light is functional and bright enough with a good spread for general use, but not a spotlight. The carabiner is fine as well, nothing fancy.
4 people found this helpful
SGB –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Options for more than a flashlight
When our son was little, we had crank flashlights all the time for him. He could stay up as long as he had the energy to keep the light going. Now, it’s a great option for charging his electronics while he is away in remote locations as well as a flashlight. A lot of companies make these, but the Red Cross manufacturer gave me greater comfort and is better quality.
2 people found this helpful
Scott A. Vinci –
2.0 out of 5 stars
Don’t think for a second it will charge your phone.
As a crank flashlight in a pinch or emergency it’s fine. Not really that bright, but acceptable. The charging port gives you the impression that this should be a handy-dandy way of charging your phone in a pinch when the power is out, or worse. Don’t even think about it. My Iphone was on 39%. I even placed it on airplane mode so as to not use any unwanted power. I used an apple charging cord and cranked for 5 straight minutes while my hand, wrist and forearm felt like they were going to falloff. Want to guess how much charge I got????Z-E-R-O!!! Nuff said.
Frank Adams –
5.0 out of 5 stars
A good emergency light that does not require batteries and can power and charge your phone.
Price
One person found this helpful
valeria mcclendon –
5.0 out of 5 stars
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS PRODUCT
Great to have in case your power goes off.
3 people found this helpful
M. Kirichenko –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very useful
I’ve had this device for about three months, and I can say that it’s the ultimate flashlight. The three white LEDs are brighter than you’d expect, easily lighting up an entire room when reflecting off a white surface. That being said, here are some vital stats about it:Handcranking:60 seconds of cranking produces 60 minutes of light. (75 joules produced / 0.02 joule/sec use)USB Charging:The capacitors inside of the flashlight are not connected to the USB out.The flashlight will not charge your phone when you aren’t cranking it.Measured in real-time via multimeter:Wall/Outlet Charger: 5V 650mA (Constant) = 3.25WFastest/Exhausting Cranking: 5V 500 mA (avg) = 2.5WNormal Cranking: 5V 250mA (avg) = 1.25WFor a standard Android phone with a 4.2V/1.8A/7.56Wh battery, you need to charge it from the wall for about 2 hours and 20 minutes.For a standard iPhone, a 4.2V/1.5A/6.3Wh battery, you would roughly two hours to reach full charge.To reach 0->100% on an iPhone while hand cranking at the normal speed you would need to crank non-stop for *five hours*. At the fastest cranking speed, this is reduced to 2.5 hours, but who is going do that?Once again, not as practical as you’d imagine for charging cell phones, but a lifesaver in emergency situations. Cranking for a few minutes *will* give you time to make emergency phone calls — or have a friend generate power while you make the outgoing calls.For anything more serious/long-term than an emergency phone call, consider solar panels (20-100W) or a bicycle generator with a dynamo (100-400W).
7 people found this helpful
spool –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Doesn’t Charge iPhone
This unit is cheap and good as a flashlight only. It will not charge my new iPhone. No amount of speed cranking nor time cranking will charge the phone at any batter level – I tried it at 1%, 5%, 10%, 20%, 30%, and 60%. My son and I took 5-minute turns vigorously cranking it for 30 minutes, and the phones battery percentage wouldn’t move even one percentage point.Maybe spring for a hydrocarbon generator or solar setup if they’d fit your budget and application.
7 people found this helpful
amazon dude –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Warning – this is not a battery
It will charge your cell and other USB devices but it does not store energy and will ONLY charge while cranking.I think the average for this size if crank is 10 min of cranking = 1 minute of call time.In an emergency it’s a life saver! But if you are expecting to fully charge your phone with this device you’re looking at hours of constant cranking. It’s really only enough to make a phone call but in a bad situation this could be extremely useful!Great for the car or home! Never be worried batteries when you need them
2 people found this helpful
Gabriel –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Efficient and affordable
This is a real neat device, and one of the only crank flashlight/phone charger combos that incorporate a usb port instead of a DC port that I could find. Though the led lights don’t provide very focused light, they serve well as an emergency backup light source. If it’s light enough that you can’t see any noticeable illumination from the flashlight, then you obviously already see perfectly fine. With 3 LEDs, I wasn’t really expecting a flood light anyway.My main use of this device is actually the usb charger. I have with me some power-hungry portable electronics, such as my PSP and my Droid phone, and some of their portability is negated by their limited battery power. Don’t get me wrong, they’ll last a good while on a full charge, but sometimes I’m not always in range of a power socket or car charger. This helps me out a great deal in this regard, and although not every device has a usb-friendly charge adapter, my Powermonkey-explorer kit (
Powermonkey eXplorer – Portable Charger with Solar Slave (Grey)
) expands that versatility greatly. The included battery has a female USB adapter which I can use to hook into my Clipray and charge up when the sun is down or on overcast days, and when a power socket is out of reach. These two products make a great team and have increased my satisfaction with both.If you don’t feel like dishing out $100 however, there are much cheaper standalone usb adapter kits out there as well.Pros: – Power crank gives you a constant light source and USB power source for your portable electronics.- Sleek, solid design ensures it will not fall apart easily.- Featured clip makes it easy to attach to a belt strap, readily available when you’re on the go.- Cheap and affordable.Cons: – 3 leds isn’t much to work with, but they could have focused the light a bit better.- External accessories (adapters/usb cords) required to unlock the full potential of this item, which may be to the dismay of some.Overall: Great device, I’m extremely happy I could find a decent hand-crank USB charger, and the flashlight and clip are welcome additions. If you’ve got lots of power-hungry portable electronics, give this a look.
20 people found this helpful
mb –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Durable, convenient and good light.
I use this light all the time as my primary flashlight around the house and outside. I’ve had it for a year and a half now. I’ve gotten it wet (it stopped working until it dried out and then was normal again), dropped it and cranked it a lot over this time. I can say that the build quality is solid, with nice-feeling materials. It’s great not to have to worry about batteries. I bought another as a gift for a travelling friend.The light output from the 3 LEDs is surprisingly good, with a wide spot. Pushing the button once keeps the light on, you don’t need to continually press anything.The clip is a nice feature, I put it on my belt loop for illuminating the area when I need to use both hands.I can verify that the USB charger does work, but for modern cell phone batteries it really is a worst-case emergency backup. I tested it on my Samsung Galaxy SIII: You always get the best charging results when the phone is using the least battery, so turn on airplane mode and keep the screen off. The problem is that the charging only works while you are spinning the handle, and most phones will turn on the screen when you start charging. That means you can’t turn off the screen while you’re charging, and the output of the charger is so little that the drain from the screen almost negates the charge you’re adding. In airplane mode with the screen on, it took about 9 minutes of quick spinning to go from 65% to 66%.As long as you keep in mind it’s not going to work as a regular charger but would work in an emergency situation to get enough for a call, or to keep a call someone else is making going, then you won’t be disappointed.
10 people found this helpful
Reader –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent emergency flashlight/charger – but not perfect
First, let me say I’m really glad I bought the Eton Clipray, and I will probably be buying at least one more as backup to keep in my truck.The pros of this include1) Its affordable.2) The light is plenty bright enough to be usable. Its very nearly as bright as my larger, much heavier battery-powered flashlights.3) It does not take much cranking to be able to use the flashlight for 10-15 minutes.4) The cranking mechanism/motion is not hard to use, and the unit has a nice grippable plastic exterior that helps.5) The color is great. Petty, but I like it anyway.6) The light stays on. Some led camping flashlights only let you have the light on while you’re holding the button down.7) The carabiner clip means you could attach the light above while you were working if you needed two hands (like if you were relighting your boiler).8) It seems sturdy and well made. You could drop it and it would still work — there are rubber “bumpers” that would absorb much of the impact.9) It actually does charge my palm pilot and my boyfriend’s blackberry.10) Its reasonably light: 4.8 ounces, which makes it a viable option for camping, backpacking and travel.The con? You would wear your wrist out trying to charge a cell phone with this. In an emergency situation, that’s the least of your problems, but I spent 10 minutes cranking and saw no increased charge on my palm treo 650, though I was able to make two calls at a battery level that normally would have shut the phone down. The charging light on the phone only came on when I was cranking — when I stopped turning the handle, the phone stopped charging, unlike the other reviewer here. Maybe I need a different usb charger, but this happened with both the treo and the blackberry. Still, it is a HECK of a lot better than having no way at all to charge either phone.Again, I’m glad I got it, and I’ll probably get another one. In an extended power-down situation, having basic items that do not require batteries or sunlight is a major plus. I wish there were more hand-crank gadgets, and I’ll be playing around with whether or not I can use the usb charger on this to charge a battery… with some creativity you might (MIGHT) get a couple of these to actually power a thermoelectric cooler or some other very low-wattage devices.This would be a great stocking stuffer/ small Xmas gift for someone who’s into gadgets or emergency prep.
256 people found this helpful
Clark Woolstenhulme –
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best gifts for kids
Our six-year-old loved this. Then he turned seven and still loved it. Now he’s eight and he still plays with it regularly. This has more staying-playing power than most other toys we’ve bought for our kids. It’s also handy to use as an actual flashlight. I wouldn’t count on it much to charge a phone nowadays, though, since most of them are hungry enough that its small battery isn’t going to make much of a difference. But in a pinch it could well be a lifesaver if it lets you get a call out when you’re stranded camping!
Epiphany –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent
Love this thing to have on hand in emergency. Crank works easily and charges up quickly to provide light with no batteries. I also appreciate the clip for hanging. Great to have in go-bag or for camping
One person found this helpful
dj_nzdj_nz –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great light. Not a phone charger.
As an emergency flashlight, this thing is great. It’s cheap, light, bright enough, and gets a decent run time from cranking.It is wildly irresponsible of Red Cross/Erin to suggest it can charge a modern cellphone. It cannot.Details: my iPhone X has a 2700mAh @ 3.8v battery. This thing has an 80mAh battery. Clearly it could never store enough energy to charge even a tiny percent. What about the crank? The most I’ve been able to pull using a configurable load through USB @ 5v is 50mA, and that’s putting significant energy into cranking. Also due to the unavoidably inconsistent nature of a human operating the crank, power delivery isn’t perfectly constant. No phone is ever going to willingly utilize the small varying currents that this produces. And if it did, you’d probably be losing power faster than you could crank it out.This is a decent emergency flashlight. Remove the USB port and stop misrepresenting your product, Eton. Don’t license your brand to this, Red Cross.
100 people found this helpful
Jerome P. Lukas –
5.0 out of 5 stars
good product
easy to use; many nice features
Carolyn J. Devaney –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great product
You can never have too many flashlights. These are wonderful when you need lighting on the go!
Lisa –
5.0 out of 5 stars
For my car
I bought this to keep in my car for emergencies. I had bought one before a couple of years ago for another vehicle. Good to have around but I have used it yet.
Yoda San –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent VFM (value for money)
So good the first time that bought one for each of my family as a gift !
Bill Moss –
5.0 out of 5 stars
works
Purchased as an emergency charger for power outages and car/motorcycle camping. Works well, the flashlight is a bonus.
3 people found this helpful
Timothy D. Gray –
2.0 out of 5 stars
very light plastic, you can feel it flex as you wind. Very low power output.
Very very lightly built, so dont expect this to last very long. I can see it getting you through a single emergency, but beyond that I would doubt it’s longevity. you can feel the very thin plastic body flex in your hand while you crank, if they would have added $0.50 more plastic it would be very sturdy.I connected it to my USB charge meter and at a brisk cranking pace it charges at 0.20A or 1 Watt of charging. slowing down at all and the charge rate drops to 0.5Watts as the voltage sags below 5 volts. very fast cranking does not increase charge rate nor does it spike the voltage so cranking at a steady rate for 5-10 minutes will hopefully give you a charge enough to make a phone call, I suggest having a longer cord and have someone continue to crank while you make your call. Figure the amount of time you cranked cut in 1/4 is how long of a call you can make. so 10 minutes of cranking is a 2 and a half minute call. It would not even charge up a dead cellphone enough to even turn on, at 1Watt charging you will need to crank it for nearly an hour to get enough juice into a modern dead smartphone to get it to turn on. I strongly suggest pairing this with a small “usb battery” and every time you are just sitting there crank the thing to charge the little USB battery.For the price it’s better than nothing, but if you want something that is a REAL emergency charging tool, you need to spend a lot more and I suggest getting a large folding solar panel first. (if the panel is not almost 5-10 times larger than your phone it’s worthless.)The ETON Boost turbine is better and has a battery built in, but you will only get about 2-3 watts of charging with it’s hand crank. Reality is you do not want to have to charge your phone with a hand crank.
38 people found this helpful
BeeGee72 –
1.0 out of 5 stars
Worked OK but after a few years of storage becomes a sticky mess
Bought a pair of these about 10 years ago for emergency use, and they worked fine. However after about 3 years of storage, indoors in cool, dry So. California climate, the material on the red surface becomes very sticky and kind of gooey, will stick to your hand and some of the red coloring wears off. Really nasty actually and had to toss them out. So they worked fine, but what you want them for – emergency use sometime in the future, the materials were not well thought out. I have to give it 1 star – look for something with normal hard plastic or other material
LK –
3.0 out of 5 stars
only in emergency light
you can’t charge this light in advance, though it does come fully charged. There’s no way to see the battery fullness. It’s really for an moment when you have no other light source and the idea of cranking for 5 minutes is preferable to no light source. Have not tried to power a cell phone from cranking so can’t say how well this works. Packaging does not provide full instructions; had to go online to look up and print out. Despite design drawbacks this is still a useful item to have when replacement batteries are not available in an emergency.
6 people found this helpful
Ladyhawk –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Little Portable Charger
These chargers were larger than I thought and are very well made. Easy to crank. Bright LED light shines far. I haven’t clipped it onto anything yet but I’m sure that would work as well. Having gone through the Texas blizzard and rolling blackouts lasting for several hours at a time, I wanted to make sure if something like that ever happened again I had enough battery power around to keep at least some light and our phones working if the power bank ran out of juice. These chargers are a great backup to the backup….no batteries required! Of course I didn’t have them then but I do now. One is forever in my emergency kit. I have not used it in the rain so I don’t know if it’s waterproof or weather resistant but I did drop on the hardwood floor it and it still works.
Chuck –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Clipray crank LED light
I agree with people who have said that this is a great light. I also agree that it charges some, though not all, USB devices. It seems to charge devices that do not use a lot of power, and not those that do. So, you’re OK with MP3 players, but forget charging a current smart phone.As a light, though, it’s really good. A minute of cranking produces a good, strong, broad light beam. The crank handle tucks nicely into the case when not in use, and the clip is handy for keeping the thing handy.Those lights that you shake to charge don’t work worth a damn. A full minute of shaking one I tested recently produced a decent beam for a couple of minutes, but I was worn out from all the shaking. Maybe if you billed it as a light and an exercise device, you’d be all set. This crank light, though, is not hard to crank and it produces a bright beam for over 20 minutes with one minute of cranking in my testing so far.I don’t know about the complaint one person had of the pin falling out of the crank handle, but I note that the pin is actually a screw, so it should not be hard to put it back in if it does fall out. Mine seems good and solid so far.In all, I really like this light and I am putting one in each emergency kit I have. It’s great to forget about batteries in a back-up light like this.
One person found this helpful
Sir –
5.0 out of 5 stars
eton red crank flash light
This light works very well for me. Someone said the crank broke, I say dont let Godzilla crank it and you’ll be fine. It’s built well I’d say. The light source is perfect for what the light is, 3 LED’s throw alot of light and the light is ‘white’ not yellowish and it doesnt take alot of cranking to get the light up and running. I purchased a charge cable for my Tracfone and it worked, it charged my phone. I didnt try to charge my phone to full power only to one bar which was sufficient enough to call out. For a survival light or when power goes out and your batteries go dead in a battery powered flashlight this would be a life saver. I’m buying one for my girl friend that lives in Alabama also.When the tornado’s went through her home town there was no power for days, her phone went dead and she had no way of charging her cell phone also they had to use oil lights ‘inside the house’ which was a hazard. So when you look at what this light is intended for.. I’d say it’s well worth the $ spent. I also purchased an eton ARC emergency radio which has 2 way radio, base radio, normal radio, NOAH radio, and is also crank and also has a light and siren. (the small RED flash light your looking at now is a bit more ‘on the go’ than the radio crank). You might want to look into the radio as well though. Better safe than sorry when the time comes. Be ready and confident.
9 people found this helpful
DEBORAH ADKINS –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good product
The product is good. It charges your phone not as fast as a wall charger but it still works. I would recommend this product. especially if you’re out in the woods.
6 people found this helpful
Babear –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bought it, loved it, bought four more to give away for Christmas presents.
After having gotten temporarily lost while hiking near Chattanooga, I’ve never gotten over how quickly a cell phone seems to lose it’s charge when you desperately need your compass or your downloaded maps. I had plenty of water and was never in real danger, but I was REALLY dreading the embarrassment. I carry an extra battery now, but when I found this nifty, light, inexpensive dynamo, I knew as long as I didn’t have a broken arm or two, I was not going to be in that position again. There are models with radios and weather bands. I wanted as barebones as one could get and this would appear to be it. Thirty seconds of vigorous cranking gets you a surprisingly decent amount of charge. Five or six times and you’re good to go for a while.
One person found this helpful
SWA –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great insurance against fumbling in the dark
Looking for a replacement for a less-expensive hand-crank LED flashlight that has served me well for years, I decided on this Eton model. The Eton cranks harder than my old flashlight did when it was new, but also delivers a brighter, longer-lasting beam for a given time spent cranking. The Eton feels reasonably solid, and fit and finish are quite good. The carabiner makes the light easier to carry in some circumstances. My old flashlight has nothing like that. If the Eton holds up as well as my old flashlight has, it will have been well worth its cost.I haven’t tried the USB port for charging anything and don’t plan to this side of an all-out emergency. I expect with a few minutes of cranking it probably makes a quick call or two possible.A note about the technology: Unless and until Murphy’s Law is repealed, you can count on finding your battery-powered flashlight dead or nearly so just when you need it most. It might not happen every time, but in my experience it’s not a matter of if but when it’s going to happen. That’s likely to be the worst possible time. On those occasions a hand-crank flashlight really earns its keep. I think every home should have at least one.
3 people found this helpful
Sue F. –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perfect survival gear
Exactly as expected
Holbrook Stark –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing
It’s so hard to charge a phone with one of these, it really makes you notice how much power is behind even a tiny bit of electricity. Of all the methods I know for getting a tiny bit of juice into a phone battery, this is the worst, it should be your absolute last resort even in an emergency. From a design standpoint this thing could really use a solar panel, even if they are expensive. The main reasons to buy this are it offers a learning experience that makes you appreciate electricity, and it can serve as a backup of a backup in the worst case scenario.
5 people found this helpful
Zot –
2.0 out of 5 stars
Outer surface turned super sticky over time
It’s fairly small and light, and the usb plus hand crank make it flexible and fairly reliable, but the outer surface always had a weird texture that I guess was meant for grip. Problem is, after letting it sit for a few years unused while overseas, it became extremely sticky, like it’s disintegrating into some kind of liquid plastic state. So because of that I would not buy this model again.
One person found this helpful
Batwoman –
5.0 out of 5 stars
It works with just a crank No power needed
This was recommended in my credit coalition class and I’m so glad I made this purchase it’s very much needed. We never know when we will be without power. I tested it and it works great. The light is very bright. Makes a great gift or like me add it to your red cross go bag.
7 people found this helpful
ursula –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Does not work to charge iPhone or other smart devices
If I was to rate the light and crank itself 5 ⭐️, buuuuuut as a whole the usb port and other port are completely useless they don’t charge anything.
15 people found this helpful
Amazon Customer –
2.0 out of 5 stars
Charger doesn’t work for iPhone
Works well as a flashlight, but doesn’t charge cell phone (iPhone 14) AT ALL. If you only need a flashlight for emergencies, this is great, but it is irresponsible to market this as a phone charger for emergencies. Glad I tried it before the power went out.
One person found this helpful
Gayle CrabtreeGayle Crabtree –
2.0 out of 5 stars
Will not charge my phone, strong flashlight beam
The flashlight was well charged when it arrived. It has a hand crank, three LED lights, a USB charge for a cell phone and a carabiner clip. There is a green light on the top that comes on when the unit is charging. Sending it back is a hassle, so I’ll keep it. However, here are a few things that I wish I would have known before purchasing.Be ready to crank it a lot.The first charge lasted for a few hours. Since then, the LED batteries have only stayed bright for few minutes before dimming. The brightest light is when the unit is cranked. Stop cranking and the light begins dimming in under a minute. Interestingly, there is a green light that comes on when the flashlight is being charged. In my opinion, this light is completely unnecessary since the unit will only charge when you are cranking it.There is no battery indicator.A battery indicator would be very, very helpful. Without it there is no way to know if the flashlight is fully or partially charged.USB PortThe flashlight has not charged my cell phone since day one. I have tried three phones. Not only has the phone not charged, but the charging indicator on the phone never indicated a charge was flowing at all.ChargingThe only way to charge the flashlight is by hand crank. I have seen others that could be charged by hand or by USB. Not this one. Cranking is loud. There is always noise with a hand crank flashlight because of the way it charges. This is louder than one that I used to own, but it’s not a deal breaker.CarabinerThis is sturdy and is strong enough that I don’t worry about it falling off. The carabiner might actually be the best feature of the flashlight.The light.LEDs on this unit give a bright light with a blue-ish tint. It was bright enough to illuminate underneath the car seats well at night when I was looking for a dropped set of keys. It is also bright enough to illuminate a trail at night for a few minutes.Final thoughtsI wanted to have something for power outages that would provide a light and charge a cell phone. Although the light stays bright for a few minutes, it fails at cell phone charging. The failure to charge is pretty disappointing when you’re looking for that particular combination. I’m also disappointed that the light won’t last more than a few minutes even when the light has been cranked for 10-15 minutes. However, it’s durable and even though it doesn’t stay lighted long, the flashlight works. I am keeping it, but am still looking for a flashlight that will also charge (or top off) a cell phone.
96 people found this helpful
Megan S. Hiking with a purpose –
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best invention ever
Doesn’t put out as much power as one would wish, and it’s not an effort free cranking, it takes more muscle then you’d think to crank this suckered. Once you get it going its rather easy to continue to crank. This would work great for rechargeable battery packs or rechargeable lamps, better than charging your phone directly with the crank cuz u cannot slow down, if u do your screen with flash on and cancel out about a whole minutes worth of cranking power u just muscled out. 😆
3 people found this helpful
Just me –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Satisfied customer
I absolutely love this. I’m amazed at how bright the light is and how quickly it charges a phone. Totally satisfied with my purchase.
5 people found this helpful
Lewis –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Emergency Light
Place in emergency power outage box, for just in case.
One person found this helpful
Bridgette M. –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Gift
My parents loved getting this for Christmas. They are really into emergency preparedness and loved how practical this would be for various situations.
Brenda A. –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Better than expected
These are great emergency devices. I got one for each vehicle we own use older durable.
Amazonjesus ortiz Customer –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Promedio
Promedio
Li –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hand held light
Nice flashlight. Hand crank doesn’t stay locked into place when you close it. Low charging when you try to charge your phone.
3 people found this helpful
J –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Safety Product
I got this for emergencies. I haven’t used it to charge a phone yet but it’s easy to wind it up and it lasts a long time. I’ve been using it as a flashlight. I have piece of mind knowing that I have it in the event of an emergency. It’s easy to use, doesn’t take up much room and I like that it’s red so it’s easy to find. Having the Red Cross name is a bonus.
Sonia –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Charging
Haven’t used it yet but holds it’s charge
Amazon Customer –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great for flashlight
This works well as an emergency flashlight. Tried to charge phone and it doesn’t work while cranking or not.
4 people found this helpful
Dan H –
5.0 out of 5 stars
I like this light.
I bought this to keep in my truck so I would not need to worry about batteries going dead. After using it I liked it and bought another for my wife’s car.What it doesn’t say in the product description or the instructions is that there is also a mini usb port. The mini is for charging the flashlight. It is right next to the standard usb that is used for charging a phone or whatever.I used this to charge my iPhone, it took forever, but it did it.I’d buy again.
11 people found this helpful
Jack –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Its Ok…
Wont charge anything big very fast, or at all.Bright flashlight, but charger is a hassle
One person found this helpful
M.B. –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Mediocre Design with features that should be provided missing
I ordered this so I could have a backup light as well as a backup method of charging a phone and other items.Unfortunately even though it’s got an internal battery, the only way to charge it seems to be to crank it. Why it didn’t occur to the designer to allow it to be charged via USB is baffling.The build quality is mediocre at best. The clip is so flimsy it looks like it’ll snap off the first time it snags on a bush in the woods.The light is dim, barely enough to keep from falling off a cliff if navigating a trail at night… if you’re not distracted desperately trying to hand crank it back from a dead battery from sitting without a charge too long as you couldn’t charge it before your trip as again, you can’t charge it with USB.All these things would be forgivable at this price point if they’d spent an extra 10 cents to allow USB charging. I even got a USB A to USB A cable out and plugged it in that way. This just makes the green LED light up but there’s no way to tell if it’s charging this way or just making the LED glow. I left it overnight this way and it was still sitting with the same green LED lit up.Spend a few bucks more and just buy one of the many emergency radios on Amazon with hand crank charging with battery bank and USB chargable capability. You’ll get a radio in the deal and can actually charge it to be available during an emergency. I’ve seen ones that even have a solar panel on top to charge with as well for a couple bucks more than these.Maybe if they spent more money on design than on the Red Cross branding deal it’d be a better product.
10 people found this helpful