The American Red Cross FRX3 Hand Crank NOAA AM / FM Weather Alert Radio with Smartphone Charger, ARCFRX3WXR

Let me go through questions, pros, cons, and tips about the Eton American Red Cross FRX3. Te Red Cross and others suggest having a radio available for use in case of a power outage so I bought this one because it didn't require me to keep extra batteries on hand to use it.To answer the question I think most people ask: Will this thing really charge my cell phone? The answer is…eventually. “Dump” charging didn’t do the trick for me. I expect that the Li-Ion battery in my phone stores far more power than the Nimh in this radio.Try to be realistic about this. It takes several hours to charge my phone from the computer using a USB cord. So don’t expect your phone to magically charge in ten minutes by cranking the handle on this thing or dump charging from the battery. It’s an emergency radio that happens to have a USB plug on it. When I dumped the battery from this radio into my phone, the charge didn’t even go up ten percent before the internal batteries were empty. It will charge a phone…eventually…but you will have to crank it for a long time. Possibly for several hours, just like plugging it in. If your power is out, use a car charger. If you can’t do that, then this will do the job but it’s a last resort for “emergency” situations and you should expect it to work that way. You could buy an external backup battery for half the money but those only work one time and don’t come with a radio. Following the philosophy of use that this is an emergency radio that it just happens to be able to charge a phone, this will do the job.The positive stuff: It seems solid although I doubt it would handle being dropped very well. I like the way it looks and it will easily store away or sit on a windowsill because of the size. The speaker performance is better than I expected but not exceptional. Cranking it is also easier than I expected. It charges relatively quickly from a wall plug USB adapter that came with my phone. It’s small and lightweight, the LED lights are decent but not exceptional and should run for a long time off the internal battery. The LEDs are angled down slightly so they work well for lighting the ground while walking and carrying the radio. Not overly bright but just fine for emergency use and if you want a better flashlight, then buy a flashlight. The weather alerts may come in handy and the ability to charge other items is a plus. Can also be used with regular batteries. The glow in the dark ring will keep glowing for many hours when you leave the radio in the light for much of the day.The negative stuff: The batteries are pretty weak at only 800 mah. That’s about the same as a rechargeable AAA battery. There’s no place on the radio to store the charging cable which means you’ll have to find it whenever you want to charge the radio without cranking the handle. The charging cable is USB only, there’s no adapter to plug it into a wall, so you’ll have to use a 120V to USB sdapter that came with something else like an Ipod or phone if you don't want to charge it from a computer. The Alert function drains the battery so you’ll have to charge it every week or so if you leave the Alert on. The handle is pretty wide and not designed particularly well for holding it for long periods and often causes your fingers to hit random buttons. The buttons aren’t as easily accessible as they could be due to the buttons being on top of the radio under the handle. The antenna doesn’t sit flush at one end so it doesn’t lay flat on its back. And the words Volume and Tuning don’t stand out because they are the same color as the rest of the radio and are very thin letters. I made mine stand out slightly better by carefully tapping the end of a Sharpie against the raised letters but they are only slightly more visible than they were before because the letters are so thin.Overall impression: Again staying with the philosophy of use, I’m very happy with this item. Something else might be the perfect solution to the negatives that I've listed but I'm sure it wouldn't be tihs small and it would cost much more. The radio plays clearly and the weather radio works well. I can see myself using all the other features at some time so I don’t think this will be something that I test once and put away for years until that one time when the power goes out. I expect I will use it every few weeks as either a flashlight or a radio in the garage just because it’s available, especially since it has an aux input so I can hook an Ipod or phone to it. I will have to try rechargeable AAA batteries to see if those work instead of alkalines. I don’t think it’s even remotely water resistant so I’d be careful if I took it camping or left it out to solar charge and it was rained on. I wish the batteries were a higher mah rating but they might be what they are based on the generator or radio itself. I don’t know.Tips and tricks: If you are like me and don’t read instructions, the first thing you need to do is open the battery compartment and plug the battery in. There are three batteries strapped together with a plug coming off them. Plug that into the receptacle right next to the battery. Otherwise nothing will work.Many smart phones can now get weather alerts like this does. If you have that option on your phone, you could save some money and buy the FRX2 which doesn’t have the Alert function but has the weather radio and will still charge a phone.If you turn on the Alert function, none of the other radio functions will work. If nothing works and you don’t know why, check to see if the Alert is on.The instructions say that you can’t charge this radio through a window. I tried it and I was able to charge it somewhat, but it has to be in the right window, facing the right direction. In a south facing window, it worked. I could keep it a little bit charged through an east facing window if I laid it on its side and angled it towards the sun but it will never completely charge unless it sits outside in direct sun for most of a day and the plastic will get pretty hot if you do that. A nice feature and it beats cranking the handle.To extend battery life, don’t insert any alkaline batteries but switch the radio over to the alkaline setting by hitting the battery button at the upper right side of the front panel. The clock still runs but none of the other functions will work until you switch it back to the internal battery. This makes the internal battery last much longer on standby. I’ve had the battery indicator drop from three bars to two overnight but when I switched it to alkaline with no batteries in it, it stayed on three bars for several days. I don’t know if the Alert function will still work if you do this because there hasn’t been a weather alert since I bought it.If you plan to keep this radio stored away for long periods of time, you might want to unplug the battery before you put it away. I don’t know how long it will hold a charge but I can guarantee that if you leave that battery plugged in, the clock will kill the battery.The easiest way to crank it is to hold it down on the edge of a table or counter with one hand and crank with the other rather than holding it in the air with both hands. It will crank in either direction so it’s usable by either hand in either direction.Crank it per the instructions which say about two revolutions per second. Cranking faster won’t charge the battery faster because the charge controller won’t let more than a specific voltage through so save your energy and just expect to crank it for a while.

This NOAA Am/FM Weather Alert radio is truly a must have.The solar charger chargers quickly in sunlight, but the most awesome part is that it will awesome charge [at least for us here] in sub-optimal conditions or many times even through room lighting. Very pleasant surprise. Even if it didn't do that, we would still love it.The hand turbine works quickly and it works fine in adult hands all the way up to small children. Can definitely see some kids loving these.We purchased this for our Bug out / Home Emergency Kit and we're certainly happy we did this.The weather stations pick up rather well. There's 2-3 that pick up perfect, and the others you can pick them up from time to time depending on conditions & reception.It also has a glow in the dark feature where its able to be found simply if you're paying attention. One time we forgot that it was next to the night table, and then went to reach for it to see what it was, and there it was! It was kinda neat. The glow in the dark isn't anything that will be seen from super far away but it should be able to be picked up by anyone with good vision by scanning the room once at night, especially if its pitch black.All in all its an exceptional product. Glad the reviewers on amazing took the time to do the write ups. Gotta be thankful for them.

I lose power a few times a year. Sitting in a dark silence and wondering how long I might be without electricity is no fun. Thought it would be nice to have a radio to listen to and keep updated. While I have a couple of radios and batteries, rummaging around for them in the dark called for better planning. Determined it was time to make a change and be able to get my hands on a fully charged, ready to go, easy to find radio when needed.In researching emergency radios, I've determined none are perfect. This one is pretty good. Wanted something that since you may not use it on a daily basis it should be intuitive in its use. Don't want to read a manual to determine what buttons to push and hold to program a station. While this does have a few buttons for sliding up and down the frequency, setting an alarm, power source and light. They are easy to understand. Also lights up temporarily when pushed. Better yet, has a dial to change frequency and control the volume which I prefer.It has AM, FM and WX stations obvious and easy to find. Your reception will vary depending where you live. I'm in a rural area and the stations I'm interested in come in satisfactorily. I get at least two weather stations. I like the multiple power sources. You should charge your new battery fully from USB before first use. I'll likely keep this radio in a window sill that gets a little sunlight. That should be enough to maintain the internal battery at a full level to be ready for use when needed.One glaring negative is the switch for the light. Could be inadvertently turned on. A back pack or drawer, probably not the place for this radio.