Power Monkey Solar charger

[Tyrant68]

Has anyone used/bought one of these, are they worth £60?

[Jelly]

No but I have one of these..........



and its about as much use as an asthmatic with a collapsed lung playing a plastic harmonica.

[AckAckFlack]

No but I have one of these..........



and its about as much use as an asthmatic with a collapsed lung playing a plastic harmonica.

try plugging it into the mains Jelly!


Sorry Tyrant no I haven't tried one

[backofbeyond]

No but I have one of these..........



and its about as much use as an asthmatic with a collapsed lung playing a plastic harmonica.

On your Amazon link there's a great review from someone who's checked out the spec of the Freeloader with a multimeter and found that, by and large, it does what it claims to do. Unfortunately that's not much and to get any sort of usable power generation it needs to be in continuous direct sunlight - something in short supply in the UK. That's been my experience with a number of solar chargers over the last 20yrs or so, exposed to normal UK daylight they are not much use and even in southern europe they are marginal.

I suspect it's probably more me than the technology though as there seems to be loads of solar panels appearing on bus shelters and traffic signs over recent years, so someone must be getting them to work. I probably just need to buy a bigger one but they can be a bit pricey and I'm a bit wary about throwing good money after bad after my previous experience of them.

[redbikejohn]

I have one. It does work but takes a while. The battery back up that comes with it works very well and charges a phone no problem.

[Harty]

I had one and took it back a week later to Maplin. Personally I found it very slow to charge anything (Road Angel and phone)

[LargeWayRound]

I bought one of these porta pow premium things , not solar but nice piece of kit .

[ebay]260849287826[/ebay]

[Harty]

When I was at bike event last weekend, someone had one of these wind chargers on there CCM

[ebay]110426625053[/ebay]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Uniross-Hymin ... 19b5f0941d

[redbikejohn]

Mine was a gift. If I was spending my own cash I'd get a power pack instead.

[backofbeyond]

When I was at bike event last weekend, someone had one of these wind chargers on there CCM

That was me. When I got the wind charger that's when I gave up on solar stuff. It's a bit more fiddly than just sticking a solar panel in the sun but it works (for the three years I've had it anyway).