Uniross U0148917 Solar Charger

Not Good

The solar charger is ideal if you don't need your batteries in a hurry. Put your batteries in then leave it somewhere the sun shines and forget about it until you need it. I managed to charge some high capacity AA batteries in just over a week. However it could take longer than this depending on the weather. Pros: Uses renewable energy to charge your batteries Has a USB adaptor to charge USB powered gadgets (this actually uses the power from the AA/AAA batteries you have inserted) Has a battery tester Has a LED which indicates if it is charging or not. The solar panel can be positioned to make the most of the daylight. Cons: Can take a while to charge batteries (this however is the nature of these kind of solar devices) To charge AAA batteries you need to insert a little AAA battery holder which is a little annoying.

This is a nicely designed bit of kit that's perfect for trickle charging batteries that you don't need to have charged in a couple of hours. It reckons to charge high power batteries in 24 hours of bright sunshine. In practice, I leave mine on the windowsill most of the time and hardly notice how long it takes. You'll have to think up your own uses, but for me it's perfect for topping up the batteries in my bluetooth mouse. If the sun is really bright, the batteries get warm, just like in a mains-powered charger. This is somehow reassuring. You can charge AAs and AAAs, two at a time. There's a neat insert for the smaller batteries, though you might lose this if you don't use it much since you have to take it out to charge AAs. The batteries sit under a rather pointless cover that snaps shut but is awkward to open again. There are two buttons: one usefully tests your batteries and lights an LED in either amber or red depending on charge; the other tells you whether there's enough light from the sun by lighting another LED. I doubt you'll ever need the latter though, since it's usually pretty obvious when it's sunny! Cleverer still is a plug-in USB socket that for some reason plugs into either side of the device. You can't charge USB devices directly from the sun though: you have to have fully charged batteries in the charger. Yet this is still a useful feature. There's an LED on this bit too to let you know it's working. The solar panel tilts smoothly so you can point it at the sun. I think it's quite a stylish device and it seems well made too. You need to pay the right price though so do your homework!

This worked really well on a camping holiday in the Med - batteries went from empty to fully charged in about 6 hours of sunlight. Back in the UK it's not so good: I've had it sitting on a windowsill for about 2 weeks until the batteries will charge, although again keeping it outside in direct sun it worked much better and got the batteries charged. The USB adapter does get pretty hot when using the batteries to charge my phone, which means a lot of wasted energy which is a shame after spending so long generating the energy so this is better suited to devices that will use the AA batteries directly, and for emergency charging through USB. Overall though a great product that works well if you are outside and at the £12 I paid much better value than the alternatives currently around (which are either cheap but useless or around £50).

Excellent charger for the price little and compact charges AAA batteries in about 3-7 Days and AA in about 5-10 Days depending on how much sun is about.

With travelling to Oz via Bangkok, and home 5 weeks later via Hong Kong, the issue of keeping my wireless internet-enabled smartphone, my separate camera, my wife's mobile phone, and now her video camcorder all constantly charged up was a worry. Obviously, we will use whatever hotel or train electric sockets we can requisition or comandeer,and might take a 2-way block to charge 2 items at once, plus my trusty car cigarette lighter socket plug with its interchangeable heads, but the idea of using Oz's sunshine whilst doing longer-distance coach or train travel is sensible. The solar charger works through charging 2 AA or AAA batteries, and has a USB output socket. This means you can (i) use it for recharging batteries that are used in your camera, etc.(ii) or, once batteries are recharged, you can use the USB socket to accept the USB plug from your mobile phone, camera, whatever, and 'drain out' the charged batteries (iii) logic says you can pop in fully charged batteries to keep the draining out process going, and (iv) I'll experiment to see if that includes using available-anywhere non-rechargeable batteries to drain them out too! Am no electrical engineer, and don't know if electricity will flow in either direction, and therefore unqualified to say whether using a USB plug to USB plug lead from a pc base unit computer's USB socket to the unit would continue the battery charging function whilst you are indoors, eg, asleep in the hotel! I have established that the solar charger works well in dull and dreary UK weather conditions. I assume it's not charging as rapidly as it will in bright sunshine, but, hey, it works!

An economical way of charging batteries

I bought this charger as a novelty. But it really is good, i have been able to charge my camera batteries (2-AA) by just leaving them in the charger in my porch on the window ledge, they are charged after one day i am really chuffed, i have different set of batteries charging each day-they even charge when it is over cast. Glad i bought it.

Bilan mitigé pour cet article. Le panneau doit être impérativement installé en extérieur ( rebord de fenêtre par exemple) sans quoi l'indicateur de charge ne s'allumera pas ( donc par voie de conséquence pas de recharge). Je n'ai pas testé en intérieur au travers d'une fenêtre très ensoleillée ( a voir pour les résultats), aucune charge sous un ampoule électrique ( alors que d'autres chargeurs fonctionnent même sous une lampe). Point de vue recharge, il faut au moins 24 heures pour atteindre péniblement une charge de 1,34 à 1,38 volts. En plein soleil j'ai atteint le niveau de charge maximum ( led verte allumée ), mais comme j'ai attendu pour retirer les piles j'ai eu à ma grande surprise une rétrogradation de la charge ( led repassée en orange), les piles se re-dechargent elles si les oublient quelques heures dans le chargeur ????? A voir de voir si vous voulez acheter cet article et selon vos conditions de luminosité. je réévaluerai peut être cette appareil selon les test que je ferai en conditions réelles. N'hésitez à pas a vous munir d'un voltmètre pour mesurer la tension réelle de vos piles.