Eton American Red Cross Crank-Powered Clipray Clip-On Flashlight & Smartphone Charger, Hand Crank, Cherry Red, Commitment to Preparedness | camping-lights-and-lanterns

The light isn't crazy bright, but it definitely does the trick when you need a flashlight. It charges fairly quickly with the crank dynamo. You may want to crank it for a couple of minutes each time you go to use it, to make sure it will last a while before cranking again. It says 1 minute of cranking is 10 minutes of light, but I think that may be a bit exaggerated, which isn't a big deal. When you're stuck in the dark, spending whatever amount of time cranking it for light isn't much worse than sitting in the dark. The battery will hold a charge for a while, so if you leave it charged it will stay charged for at least couple of weeks, in my experience.I haven't used the USB for charging very much, but it seems to only really charge the phone while you actively crank it. In addition, it only charges the phones I have had very slowly (the phones literally say "charging slowly" instead of just "charging"). Again, when you're stuck with no electricity it will do the trick temporarily, and is far better than no charger at all.As for the build quality, it is fairly decent quality but definitely fairly cheap, as well. It might break the plastic enclosure if it were to be dropped down a flight of stairs, for example. If you struck it with a hammer as if hitting a nail, it would likely shatter into a lot of pieces, as it is a rigid but relatively thin plastic. If wedged into a survival kit or other tight space it would likely be fine though, it is a bit flexible and would probably only break due to impact. It is definitely not water-resistant at all, hah. Overall meets my expectations and is a pretty quality product.

I use this light all the time as my primary flashlight around the house and outside. I've had it for a year and a half now. I've gotten it wet (it stopped working until it dried out and then was normal again), dropped it and cranked it a lot over this time. I can say that the build quality is solid, with nice-feeling materials. It's great not to have to worry about batteries. I bought another as a gift for a travelling friend.The light output from the 3 LEDs is surprisingly good, with a wide spot. Pushing the button once keeps the light on, you don't need to continually press anything.The clip is a nice feature, I put it on my belt loop for illuminating the area when I need to use both hands.I can verify that the USB charger does work, but for modern cell phone batteries it really is a worst-case emergency backup. I tested it on my Samsung Galaxy SIII: You always get the best charging results when the phone is using the least battery, so turn on airplane mode and keep the screen off. The problem is that the charging only works while you are spinning the handle, and most phones will turn on the screen when you start charging. That means you can't turn off the screen while you're charging, and the output of the charger is so little that the drain from the screen almost negates the charge you're adding. In airplane mode with the screen on, it took about 9 minutes of quick spinning to go from 65% to 66%.As long as you keep in mind it's not going to work as a regular charger but would work in an emergency situation to get enough for a call, or to keep a call someone else is making going, then you won't be disappointed.

First, let me say I'm really glad I bought the Eton Clipray, and I will probably be buying at least one more as backup to keep in my truck.The pros of this include1) Its affordable.2) The light is plenty bright enough to be usable. Its very nearly as bright as my larger, much heavier battery-powered flashlights.3) It does not take much cranking to be able to use the flashlight for 10-15 minutes.4) The cranking mechanism/motion is not hard to use, and the unit has a nice grippable plastic exterior that helps.5) The color is great. Petty, but I like it anyway.6) The light stays on. Some led camping flashlights only let you have the light on while you're holding the button down.7) The carabiner clip means you could attach the light above while you were working if you needed two hands (like if you were relighting your boiler).8) It seems sturdy and well made. You could drop it and it would still work -- there are rubber "bumpers" that would absorb much of the impact.9) It actually does charge my palm pilot and my boyfriend's blackberry.10) Its reasonably light: 4.8 ounces, which makes it a viable option for camping, backpacking and travel.The con? You would wear your wrist out trying to charge a cell phone with this. In an emergency situation, that's the least of your problems, but I spent 10 minutes cranking and saw no increased charge on my palm treo 650, though I was able to make two calls at a battery level that normally would have shut the phone down. The charging light on the phone only came on when I was cranking -- when I stopped turning the handle, the phone stopped charging, unlike the other reviewer here. Maybe I need a different usb charger, but this happened with both the treo and the blackberry. Still, it is a HECK of a lot better than having no way at all to charge either phone.Again, I'm glad I got it, and I'll probably get another one. In an extended power-down situation, having basic items that do not require batteries or sunlight is a major plus. I wish there were more hand-crank gadgets, and I'll be playing around with whether or not I can use the usb charger on this to charge a battery... with some creativity you might (MIGHT) get a couple of these to actually power a thermoelectric cooler or some other very low-wattage devices.This would be a great stocking stuffer/ small Xmas gift for someone who's into gadgets or emergency prep.

Great charger for cell phone. Hand cranking to charge a cell phone does not take long as some might think. Good brand American Red Cross approved.

At this price point, this is just perfect. We've had one for a year and 4 months, there have been several power outages and it's worked well every time. It's easy to crank and it charges my husband's cell phone well enough. My husband and daughter have used it as a handy flashlight to look under furniture, and to provide light for tasks when making repairs. It lives on a hook in the kitchen ready to grab if the lights go out.We liked it so much that when my husband and kids commented on how handy it is . . .I ordered 3 more.Not perfect, but does everything described with predictability.

It's unfortunate that I trusted the good reviews and the Red Cross brand and didn't dig deep enough in parts of the reviews that were "below the fold." Yes, it's fine as a flashlight. But it's terrible as an emergency charger, which is what I really wanted.Despite *obviously* containing a battery for the flashlight, the battery has no role in the charging ports. So as others have noted, you literally have to continuously crank in order to charge anything. This interacts stupidly with the iPhone, which literally powers on (even if the battery is at only 1%) as soon as you start charging, and then of course stays on, prompts you for your passcode, etc. So if you pause for moment because your hands get tired or you slip off of the tiny crank handle, then that's treated as an "unplug/replug" event and you can't even manage to keep you phone turned off while you try to inject some power into it.The only viable way that I can see to use this is to have it charge an external power bank, which you then use to charge the phone. But when you're hiking and every ounce counts, why would you want to carry both the crank light (with an internal battery) and an external battery? This is fundamentally a cheaping out design decision: I have designed low power electronics and this is *not* how you do it if you want a competent and versatile product. Among other things it makes me wonder how much of the crank power is being wasted. If they didn't bother to include an efficient boost regulator off of the battery to the USB ports, then they probably also didn't include an efficient battery charger circuit either.I won't be returning this, because emergency flashlights are a nice thing to have around the house, but it's useless for my intended purpose.

I've had this device for about three months, and I can say that it's the ultimate flashlight. The three white LEDs are brighter than you'd expect, easily lighting up an entire room when reflecting off a white surface. That being said, here are some vital stats about it:Handcranking:60 seconds of cranking produces 60 minutes of light. (75 joules produced / 0.02 joule/sec use)USB Charging:The capacitors inside of the flashlight are not connected to the USB out.The flashlight will not charge your phone when you aren't cranking it.Measured in real-time via multimeter:Wall/Outlet Charger: 5V 650mA (Constant) = 3.25WFastest/Exhausting Cranking: 5V 500 mA (avg) = 2.5WNormal Cranking: 5V 250mA (avg) = 1.25WFor a standard Android phone with a 4.2V/1.8A/7.56Wh battery, you need to charge it from the wall for about 2 hours and 20 minutes.For a standard iPhone, a 4.2V/1.5A/6.3Wh battery, you would roughly two hours to reach full charge.To reach 0->100% on an iPhone while hand cranking at the normal speed you would need to crank non-stop for *five hours*. At the fastest cranking speed, this is reduced to 2.5 hours, but who is going do that?Once again, not as practical as you'd imagine for charging cell phones, but a lifesaver in emergency situations. Cranking for a few minutes *will* give you time to make emergency phone calls -- or have a friend generate power while you make the outgoing calls.For anything more serious/long-term than an emergency phone call, consider solar panels (20-100W) or a bicycle generator with a dynamo (100-400W).

This product is very bright after just a little bit of cranking the handle, but it charges a phone battery slowly. Seems like the flashlight has some sort of battery, as it will store some energy for later. After 2 minutes of cranking, I used it for probably 15 minutes of light with no problems. Overall, very good for the price and what it’s intended for, I purchased 2 because it was very nice.

ExcelenteCumple su funciónBuenos materiales

Belle éclairage. Très satisfaite.

very good doesn't hold the charge for long

I really like it

A bit dated as it uses USB A instead of USB C