Solar chargers,do they work ?

Daz2009

Imagine this scenario,you're on holiday somewhere hot,sitting by the pool or on the beach,reading your kindle or tablet and the low battery warning pops up.
Would something like this keep you going ?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Universal-Portable-Solar-Cell-Phone-Charger-New-/221201607162?pt=UK_MobilePhones_MobilePhoneAccessories_MobilePhoneChargers&hash=item3380a4a9fa

Dave_C_2

On a point of order, mister chairman, If you have a Kindle e-reader (not a kindle fire) then one charge before you go on holiday will easily last the fortnight!

Dave

Daz2009

It was a general question but I probably shouldn't have said Kindle then in that case,let's just say tablets or smartphones

mummyroysof3

I could do with one of them as my iPhone needs charging every day.

Kite2010

Yes they might work, for about 10 minutes before breaking.

If you want a solar charger than don't buy a cheap one.

Stooby2

The short answer is no, as they don't produce enough wattage - many just charge an internal battery that you then use to charge your gadget. I have two different ones (both presents) that are fairly useless. They take forever to charge their own batteries and don't produce anything like enough to charge my phone.

Instead I have two of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DURACELL-PORTABLE-USB-DEVICE-CHARGER-1150-MAH-3-HOURS-/330853467178?pt=UK_Sound_Vision_Battery_Chargers&hash=item4d0867442a

These will bring my phone up to about 70% and can be charged easily enough.

paddyrg

From experience, they're pony, not worth the money. Assuming your device uses micro-USB or mini-USB to charge, take a charger or get an international one at a cheapo shop. If you can get one that can supply 1A as opposed to just 500mA then some devices (large phones, tablets) will recharge faster, otherwise letting them feed overnight in your hotel room and you're good for at least a day anyway

the one linked, left in ideal sun for 10-15h (where do you get peak sun for 15h/day?), assuming 100% efficient energy transfer (which is massively unrealistic), would still take 3-5h (from their spec) to only 50% recharge my phone. AT BEST (and assuming their spec is accurate). Ones I tried in the past fell far, far short of spec.

neilwoods

Not a chance in a month of sunday's, it has a 1350 mah battery, some tablets have 4000mah battery so only give 1/3 charge before it needs re-charging via solar which takes 15 hours.

Need to get at least a 5 watt solar charger and maybe 9000mah battery

S0litaire

for them to be any use solar chargers need to be around A4 size to be any use for day to day charging!

Those tiny pocket sized ones take a day to charge up and usually only give a smartphone or tablet a 30-50% charge! (if they are powerful enough to charge it at all!)

daz378

dam that hennie heynes website.... just too tempting... just bought !!!!!!!!!! pico solar charger and gel case