Solar Powered Hand Crank Flashlight

Very satisfying piece of gear. This is my favorite "go to" flashlight. I like everything about it: the way it fits in one's hand, the fact that it works from either solar or hand crank power. It is said to be waterproof but I have not tested that out yet. This is brighter than my Eveready "PMZH21" model which takes two AA batteries and says it is 1,000 Lumens. The Eveready sometimes works and sometimes does not, depending on its mood. This Thor Fire ALWAYS works and is more powerful than the Eveready when used in the two-bulb mode. But one bulb is sufficient for most household uses. Outdoors, camping or for emergency use in the car this flashlight excels for what it was designed for. That would be normal use lighting up very brightly whatever you might be working on in your vehicle or tent and around the camp. BUT it is not a super high power mega lumens flashlight like my 1200 Lumens Bexel. But for a daily user without ever having to worry about running out of batteries and a very reliable glovebox flashlight that does have a third mode: Emergency flasher and it is very bright flashing all three bulbs.I love the thing and you will too.Now, after about a year, this thing still gets used all the time and works like a charm keeping the battery charged with hand cranking. I put it out in the sun once in a while but it's alway ready to use. It's quite the cool-looking item and people stop me on the street to inquire about it. Now all my relatives want one, too. So having bought this is starting to get expensive!

Summary: solid construction, charges properly via sunlight, the crank works well, and the light is adequately bright for the uses for which it is designed.I've read a few other reviews that have complained about the crank being hard to turn. I don't think of it as difficult, but as solid. It does not have a cheap feel to it and I appreciate that. You can tell it is doing something when you are cranking it.The different options for brighter or dimmer are blinking work fine. It should be noted that the blank is not literally SOS, it just makes the light blink. Not a big deal.This next item isn't really a complaint, but an observation: I am somewhat baffled by some of the design elements. The light is constructed as a kind of oval cylinder, with strange boxy, protruding edges which don't appear to serve any functional purpose. All of this gives it a rather unnatural feel in my hand. I don't have a serious problem with this because I think of this as an emergency light. It's not the first thing I'm going to grab for an actual household maintenance job. I'm not likely going to bring it camping as the main flashlight I'm using to navigate the woods at night. That said, it is bright enough to do either of those things.

Nice flashlight without the worry of batteries going dead. The Solar charging seems to work well, although there's no indication that the unit is actually charging like some other similar products have. Having the hand crank provides a secondary method of charging the flashlight which I love. The unit is made of plastic, but actually has a high quality feel to it. This is one of the rare instances where an instruction sheet is actually included. You gotta love their description of the "Working Principle: This product adopts the principle of cranking for power by three phase alternator...". Wow! 3-phase is massive...although it's the "principle" that counts. Personally, I was kind of disappointed by the lack of brightness, but that's a trade-off with battery power and LED quality. The flashlight comes in a paperboard box making it easy to remove and is wrapped in a bubble wrap pouch. The instructions indicate it has an 80mAH/3.6V Ni-MH chargeable battery, so I assume it's a coin cell since many low-end solar AA rechargeable batteries are 900mAH @ 1.2V.. Although I haven't tried, it looks like the unit could be disassembled by removing a few screws...so replacing the battery may be doable. The switch goes between 4 modes: 1) Off, 2) 1 LED On, 3) 3 LEDs On, 4) Blinking LED. I've tried to include some pictures of the unit I received including the instruction sheet.And by the way...Disclaimer - I did NOT...I repeat...NOT...receive this item for my honest and unbiased review. All opinions are my own based on personal experience. I really did pay US dollars for my unit at cost advertised on Amazon.

Love this flashlight. Whenever I go to use a flashlight it kills me when the batteries are dead. This solves that issue so I can keep a flashlight in the car, boat or RV and not worry about dead or corroded batteries. It has two charging methods, solar and hand crank. The hand crank is solid. At first it is a little tight to turn but over time it loosened up.It has 3 levels, 1 beam, 3 beams and blinking. I use the 1 beam and have used this in a small tent-type space. I left it on overnight. I woke up about 6 hours in and it was dim at that point, so I hand cranked it a minute and left it on. In the AM it was barely lit but still trying. Hand cranking is actually pretty easy. I am gentle with it so it will last.I rarely have to crank it since I tend to leave it out where it gets direct light (charging I presume by solar - think of it like a trickle charge). I do give it a crank when I think about it to help keep the battery topped up. But every time I grab it, it works. I think if you left it in a glove box where it could not get light, you would need to use the crank. But hey, love that you have that option. I leave it where it gets light.Pretty solidly built. Perfect size fits in your hand. I liked this so much I now have 3 of this type of flashlight. These would be good for older kids (the crank would break if smaller kids did not treat it gently). Never worry about batteries again!! Wish we had these when I was a kid camping. My Dad used to always tell us to turn off the light as we were wasting batteries. Ha ha