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Freeloader Solar Charger Silver

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1 new from £20.00
  • 120mA premium quality crystalline solar cells
  • 1000mAh environmentally friendly Li-ion battery - typical battery life is 2 years
  • Freeloader's solar panels can charge its internal battery in as little as 5 hours or 3hours when using the supplied USB charging cable
  • Supplied with a computer USB charging cable
  • Impact resistant
  • rust free aluminium body
  • Freeloader holds its battery charge for up to 3-months
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Product details

  • Product Dimensions: 16.5 x 14.5 x 3.5 cm ; 150 g
  • Boxed-product Weight: 699 g
  • Delivery Destinations: Visit the Delivery Destinations Help page to see where this item can be delivered.
    Find out more about our Delivery Rates and Returns Policy
  • Batteries 1 Lithium ion batteries required. (included)
  • Item model number: SC8088
  • ASIN: B000ODRNDA
  • Date first available at Amazon.co.uk: 14 Mar 2007
  • Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)

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Product Description

Product Description

Freeloader is an advanced portable charging system that can power any hand held device anywhere, anytime. Freeloader takes power from its solar panels or via a supplied charge cable that plugs into a computer's USB. Once charged, Freeloader's internal battery can power an iPod for 18hours, a mobile phone for 44 hours, PSP for 2.5 hours a PDA for 22 hours and much much more. New, from March 1st 2008, the Freeloader has had its electronics re-configured to make it compatible with the iPhone but NOT newer models 4, 4S & 5. The kit also now comes with an adaptor to power all iPod applications. Supplied in a tough but stylish aluminium body, Freeloader can take the knocks of every day life whether on a business trip in New York, back packing in the Andes or chilling on a Caribbean beach.

Manufacturer's Description

Freeloader is an advanced portable charging system that can power any hand held device anywhere, anytime. Freeloader takes power from its solar panels or via a supplied charge cable that plugs into a computer's USB. Once charged, Freeloader's internal battery can power an iPod for 18hours, a mobile phone for 44 hours, PSP for 2.5 hours a PDA for 22 hours and much much more.
Customer Questions & Answers
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Customer Reviews

2.3 out of 5 stars
5 star
9
4 star
5
3 star
9
2 star
10
1 star
28
See all 61 customer reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 56 people found the following review helpful
It does work after all
By martinhp5 on 18 May 2008
I Have updated this review and kept in the original comments as it might be useful. I have since gone from 1 star to 4 stars.
I purchased this to power up my ipod video on holiday. As the instructed by the manual I charged the freeloader frst by USB until the led indicated it was fully charged. Then on holiday when my ipod was low on juice I plugged it into the freeloader. The freeloader didn't charge my ipod at all. When the freeloader was connected my ipod battery symbol said that my ipod was fully charged and not re-charging in the normal way. After being connected to my ipod for hours it hadnt given any charge to my ipod at all. I tried using the ipod with the freeloader connected and it kept malfunctioning. Every time I disconnected the freeloader the ipod would work as normal. Eventually my ipod completely ran out of juice. The freeloader did not charge it and my ipod wouldnt work if it was connected to the freeloader. A no-win situation. Beware of this product, you will not get any real reviews on websites, only manufacturer blurb.
Since first writing this review I have contacted the Manufacturers. They were very helpful and said that this problem is bacause of a change in how ipods are now charged. The advised that I use the specific adaptor for my model of ipod, available on their website, and that this would fix the problem. When I receive the adaptor I will update this review accordingly.

I have now received the adaptor. on a very sunny day I charged up the freeloader in the garden which took about 5 hours. Using the new adaptor I successfully full charged my ipod using the freeloader.
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91 of 94 people found the following review helpful
The product is great - documentation is bad
By J. Ford on 1 Dec 2007
I've had one of these for some time, and found it very effective at charging mobile phone, PDA, ipod, and... shaver!

But the manual stinks. Only by doing a bit of research on the net did I find out 2 crucial bits of info

1- when charging from solar, the light(s) never goes green. It's designed that way - something to do using less power. If you have a manual that tells you that the light goes green when solar charging - it's an old, incorrect version.

2 - as new, there is a transparent film on the solar panels to protect them. You need to peel them off- they seriously reduce the charging.
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332 of 345 people found the following review helpful
facts about using the Freeloader
By solarspider on 18 May 2008
I just tested my freeloader solar panels with a multi-meter. It's not a particularly sunny day but in full sunlight, and pointing at an optimum angle to the sun, one panel was generating 59.5mA at 6.38V so with two panels that would be 0.759VA (6.38*0.0595*2, and that's 0.759W using a power factor of 1.

59.5 + 59.5 = 119mA (The panels are rated to total at 120mA, so this is very close, and this is May, not even proper summer yet), so with an internal battery of 1000mA it would take 8.37 hours of full sunlight to fully charge the battery, though that is ideal conditions with full sunlight all day, and the panels tracking the sun! The manual says 5 to 10 hours in sunny conditions.

The sun just went in and I now get 14.1mA at 6.05V, which shows how much difference direct sunlight makes. 1000mA / (14.1mA*2) = 35.46 hours to full charge under cloud. So, don't expect a full charge off the freeloader every couple of days if its cloudy! What are your expectations? All the reviews saying it won't charge are useless unless you provide the relevant information. e.g. have you removed the thin plastic film from the panels? Did you do the first couple of charges via USB to condition the battery? Were the panels behind glass? How many days were you charging them for? Was it sunny? Were the panels south facing? How many hours per day were they in sunlight for?

The separate battery pack/torch is not well designed in my opinion. The AAA converter is rubbish as has been said. It's fiddly and the metal clip in the AAA piece keeps popping out. the battery cover is flimsy and doesn't fit easily. However for charging AAs it ok. The plastic cover for the usb connector is a waste of time, and you don't need it anyway.

Note that I am not comparing Freeloader to other chargers.Read more ›
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105 of 118 people found the following review helpful
Clearly all the attention went on the design not the electronics
By ogle1bogey on 10 July 2007
It is quite shocking that this product is continuing to be marketed and sold when it it is obviously defective. I have not found any reviews where anyone has managed to get this thing to get any useful charge from the sun- any positive reviews which I have found look like they have just charged with USB, then put it under the sun, seen the red lights and assumed it was working. Except it works nothing like what it is claimed to. Under strong sunlight at midday at the height of summer the panels give out a puny charge of 16mA even though they claim it should be able to get upto 120mA. It would therefore take about 60 hours in strong sun to fully charge the battery not 6! To add to that even when charging by USB the battery only seems to give 80% of the charge that is claimed and even worse it appears to give the wrong voltage when charging devices as the screen of my PDA became corrupted and the wireless stopped working after using the Freeloader to charge it up (which was only fixed by multiple resets and may have caused permanent damage). This product was clearly designed with image as the main consideration with very little time or testing given to the inner workings.

Going by the principle that they can't really get much worse than the Freeloader I suggest the following alternatives:
the Ultimateaddons Portable Solar Chargers from GPSForLESS have more than double the battery and solar charging capacity and also allow you to select the exact voltage for your device. If you need water resistance you could try the Solio or the PowerMonkey eXplorer which both have more capacity and are about £50. For more serious waterproofing you could try one of the solar backpacks from GPSForLESS (ranging from £35-£55).Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Read the small print carefully

Disappointed that incompatibility with Apple and Blackberry was not flagged sufficiently. Nothing wrong with the product - i just cant use it with my devices.

Published 1 month ago by P.M.F
Three Stars

good build quality but not impressed with charging ability

Published 5 months ago by Port1 -
Not durable and inconsistent

Very disappointed, I used this several times and persevered because I wanted it to work but it just never are through for me. Read more

Published 7 months ago by ECGKO91
Not Good

I Purchased the freeloader classic and supercharger. I have been using it in Spain for around 3 weeks, it seems impossible to fully charge the battery by either the supercharger or... Read more

Published 12 months ago by Scifibuff66
Awefull

It was a fine sunny day, i left it in the window all day, in direct sunlight, i even had the additional large solar panel plugged in, 8 hours of direct sunlight. Read more

Published 22 months ago by Russell
Not my best purchase.

This product had been recommended to me by a friend who used it at festivals. Although he had warned me that a lot of direct sunlight was required to get a minimal charge from the... Read more

Published 22 months ago by Danwa
brilliant

this gives me a one charger fits all capability than can solar charge or - as I tend to use it - charge from a USB. I have 3 of these now and they work well for me.

Published 23 months ago by Richrd
It doesn't work

I've tried to get this device to charge my mobile but it simply drains the phone's battery. Full sun, part shade, British summer or tropical sunshine >> nothing.

Published on 12 Sep 2012 by Zedness
Freeloader Adaptors

We bought four of these (and one Kindle) from Amazon for Christmas for the family . Everything works perfectly - except that none of the adaptors fits either my Blackberry phone or... Read more

Published on 28 Dec 2011 by Islander
not compatible with iphone4 despite claims

Tried to charge my iphone 4 - got error message saying it wasnt compatible. The Freeloader actually drained battery life whilst plugged in. Obviously not tested. Waste of money.

Published on 17 Aug 2011 by Sue

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