Portable Solar Charger Review

I decided I was going to do away with alkaline batteries in favor of rechargeable batteries. Taking it one step further I thought I would charge my batteries via the sun. Off to the Internet I went in search of a portable solar panel. The first item I picked up was a small, flexible panel that was soldered to a little unit which holds 4 AA batteries. There is one window in my bedroom which gets a lot of sun during the day so I placed my unit in the window and went to work. Upon my return I placed 2 AA batteries into my digital camera and sure enough it showed a full charge. For about $20-$25 I’ve found away to free myself from my dependence on disposable AA batteries.

Although I’m quite pleased with my little solar battery charger it only charges AA batteries. After a little more searching I found another unit which charges not only AA batteries but also AAA, C and D. It will only charge 4 batteries at a time but it also comes with an adapter to charge other devices such as cell phones and MP3 players. Unfortunately the adapter doesn’t fit my cell phone or MP3 player so I can’t really test it out. This particular unit encloses the batteries while charging which makes it easy to carry around and I’m looking forward to take it camping. It also comes with a little kick-stand so you can angle it at the sun. Although this unit was advertised on Amazon for around $60-$65 I was able to pick it up on the same website for around $30-$35.

I’ve found a way to charge batteries to power things like my radio, camera and flashlights but I wanted to find a way to charge my cell phone and other devices when there wasn’t an outlet around. I did a little more searching and found a hinged, 2 panel solar charger which came with a USB cable and an adapter that that allows you to plug in a cigarette lighter adapter. I thought this would be perfect for charging my cell phone since I have the cigarette car charger for it. Although I was most excited about this unit it turned out to be the most disappointing. It has a blinking light to let you know it’s charging in the sun and when it’s fully charged the light stops blinking and stays solid. I’ve yet to see it solid. I left it in the sun for days but it never fully charged. Not only that but when I plug my cell phone in it seems to actually drain power from my phone. Even more disappointing than the unit itself was customer service. I bought this unit from a company called Solar Style. When the unit proved to be non-functional I emailed them. No response. I submitted a request online through one of those chat features but again, no response. I called and was finally able to speak to someone on the phone. They took my number and promised to call me back later that day. After 2 days of not hearing from someone I called back and left a couple of messages. Again, no response. I think I paid around $45 for this unit and if it actually worked I would think it was a bargain. Unfortunately I cannot recommend either this charger or the company that sells it.

The last item I’m going to mention here I picked up on eBay for less than $20 including shipping. Although it comes with an array of adapters there is only one I can use. The only device I can charge with this is my GPS. It actually turned out to be quite handy as I only have on cigarette lighter in my car therefore I can only charge either my GPS or my cell phone at any given time. Until I find a way to charge my cell phone with solar energy I’m stuck with either charging it through the cigarette lighter or wall charger. At least I can run my GPS while charging my cell phone in the car.