Excalibur 9028BK Weather Channel 5 LED Crank Flashlight

I bought two to add to my survival gear. I won't send them back but I am very disapointed. The copy says weather radio. Where? They are very hard to operate as the switch has no markings on it. You must be "off" to crank them but there is no way to tell what position the switch is in, as for weather radio Im sorry I can't find one. I will not recomend them to anyone. They were cheap but useless. Not worth the trouble to send back just garbage!

The switch that changes between lantern and flashlight was defective. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. (Typical for stuff made in the Big "C"...no quality control or testing.) If it wasn't for that problem, I'd give it 4 stars for a 'decent' lantern and 3 stars for a mediocre flashlight...with moderate (1-2 minute) cranking. As for the use of the term 'powerful' in the description, I would ignore that product 'puffery'. However if you cranked and cranked and cranked, it did render a slightly stronger and longer duration light than after a minute or two of cranking. One decent thing: the light was distributed up; down; and around, so you got even somewhat 'even' illumination in all areas.

At first I found this to be lightweight and easy to use. The lantern function would be really useful for scouting. After a short time (and my original review), this item failed to light up bright enough to use for anything. Don't waste your money on this product!