Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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147 of 155 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
facts about using the Freeloader, 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. I don't have any others to compare it to.
If you order from some places you do get the new IPOD connector included for free.
As I write this the Freeloader is happily charging a pair of AA batteries after having spent several days sitting on a west facing internal window sill behind double glazing. No the red charging light doesn't go out after 5 minutes, if yours does the internal battery wasn't charged up enough or is faulty and needs replacing.
To test the effect of charging behind a double-glazed window (Freeloader tell you windows affect charging time significantly due to most windows doing UV filtering), I'll just go and measure the readings either side of the double-glazed window.
The window is currently fully shaded and is west facing, it's now cloudy, and the panel was flat so I could touch the contacts without moving the panel. The actual values aren't relevant here, just the difference. With the window closed I got 1.8mA and with it open I get 2.9mA, so about about a 40% drop in current with the window closed. So a rough estimate would be that my windows cause a doubling in charge time.
As for charging up external devices, before saying it only adds 2% to your phone or whatever, firstly are you 100% sure the charger is fully solar charged? Test this by connecting the Freeloader to the USB and see if the charge led goes green quickly. If it doesn't you didn't get enough charge from the panels first. Then check what the battery mA rating is in your device. If it's 2000mA for example, you will only get a 50% charge from the a full internal Freeloader battery, so if you need a 100% charge you'll first need to charge some AA's off one Freeloader charge-up, then charge the Freeloader again, then charge the device off the Freeloader internal battery, and then via the battery pack.
Why such a long post? I'd hate that people were put off solar charging because of a few comments that provide no context to the use of the charger, and in some cases demonstrate that people haven't spent the time to understand the facts about solar charging. For example the Freeloader charging light won't ever go green when charging via solar. The manual actually tells you that, as it keep trickle charging the battery via the panels even when it's full. If you charge off USB it does go green, but that's because USB delivers more power, so it's a warning as you are not supposed to leave the Freeloader charging on USB overnight as you can damage the battery if you leave it connected for ages.
I suspect 95% of the dissatisfaction is because people haven't charged their Freeloader enough before trying to charge devices, and they aren't charging their Freeloader enough because they aren't charging it under the right conditions and so mistakenly expect a full charge when they aren't using it correctly. And as for complaining about it never fully charging because you don't get a green light - please try reading the manual more carefully!
So, the Freeloader does deliver to it's rated specification. I work in IT and there's a common saying for many IT 'problems': It's not a hardware problem, it's a wetware one, i.e. the user.
If you are going to spend the time to write a comment trashing a product at least first spend the time to understand the parameters within which it's designed to work and if you aren't going to follow those parameters, don't moan about it 'not working'.
EDIT: Because one obsessive Freeloader reviewer has questioned my review, here's a link to video showing a Freeloader panel generating around 48mA even though it wasn't a very sunny day. About 80% of the stated 60mA per panel. He claims Freeloaders can't generate more than 9mA per panel even in bright sunlight, so took offence at my review, so I decided to back up my review with some proof.
http://s292.photobucket.com/albums/mm13/solarspider/?action=view¤t=freeloader.flv
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39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The product is great - documentation is bad, 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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88 of 98 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Clearly all the attention went on the design not the electronics, 10 Jul 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).
For more advanced use consider the Brunton Solarport which is about £75 and comes with it's own AA/AAA battery charger. There are various foldable water resistant panels availiable that fold up into flat carry cases- the Brunton Solaris, ME2 Solar / Global Solar Sunlinq / P3 and Powerfilm F15 range all deliver a decent amount of wattage ranging from 5W to 60W (£75-£900). For seriously wet situations you can get rollable waterproof panels (note the connectors are not waterproof however): the Brunton SolarRoll comes in 4.5, 9 or 14W sizes and the Powerfilm R15 range comes in 5, 10, and 20W sizes ranging from £100-£300. Most of these can be linked to get more power- to charge a laptop you'll need at least 14W, or to run directly at least 60W (you'll also need a charge controller for 10W or more). Note these more expensive models don't come with integrated batteries like the smaller devices so you'll need to attach them directly to your device or get a separate power pack.
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