I got a couple of these Duracell lights in my sock for Christmas and was so impressed I had to get a couple more. 3 LED flashlight, red emergency strobe, AM/FM radio with retractable antenna and a port to charge cell phones etc all operated via a retractable hand crank, plus the adapter cables to fit almost any phone or other chargeable device using these connections. 1 min of crank time = 30 minutes of LED white light, 3 hours of strobe, 11 minutes of radio on normal volume or 1 minute of talk time depending on phone model. USB cables can also be used to charge the device by plugging into your computer. The Flashlight is surprisingly bright, and the radio is clear with a whole range of channels. Drawbacks?? I would not imagine they would stand up to being dropped on a hard surface and they are not water proof. This and the bulk would make them unsuitable for outdoor use, but during a blackout in the home they are perfectly suited. I now have 1 in my vehicle borne bug out kit and 3 in various locations through the house in case of power failures. Now I don’t have to worry about replacing all these batteries periodically and best of all a package of two of these lights with 2 sets of charging cables cost a total of 26 dollars. Pretty big bang for the buck.

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Look nice

You do realize there is a battery in these, you will just have to replace it with a soldering iron in a couple years when it wears out.

They'd only wear out in a couple of years with heavy use.

Or if left plugged in all the time or allowed to drain too low (cell reversal).

Well I think the issue is that if they are nicads, they will develop "memory" and will no long take a charge.

Dave

The correct term is "memory effect", when I used to simply say memory I was finally questioned as to why can't they just build them without memory so I'm careful to note that is just an effect that makes it appear as to have memory memory effect was pretty much taken care of after the first NiCads used by nasa in satelites.

NiCad's are the most tolerant of being constantly charged but that doesn't mean that a constant trickle charger is a good way to charge them. NiCad would probably be the easiest to put into something that might be left in to charge or have an on consistnet charge cycle like that from a solar or crank charger. NiMH is less tolerant and will go bad in just a couple years if used that way.

Self discharge is also an issue. Batteries sitting around will slowly drain over time and if they get too low polarity reversal can happen resulting in a bad cell in the pack.

To get the best battery life you really need a smart charger and a maintenance schedule. Thats why I don't like products like these, they are treating the batteries in the worst ways possible yet may be relied on in an emergency. many people will pull these kind of deviced out of their emergency kits only to find the batteries have gone bad and can barely hold a charge for longer than the crank is turned.

Wow folks. I had no idea that these things were so shady. I have never used anything like them before. Maybe I will reconsider my thinking on them. At any rate they have some uses. Considering the price, if I get a couple of years use just around the house with them they will have paid for themselves. They are by NO means my only source of emergency light.
Thanks for the info!!

the main thing I just try to caution people on is to not put these kind of tools away in a kit and expect them to work perfect 5 years later. The batteries will porbbaly eb bayond recovery from just sitting by then.
It just seems to me everyone is jumping on this crank fad so they don't have to worry about batteries but they still do. My suggestion is to buy a decent battery charger, decent batteries and tools/gear that use those batteries then check your gear at least twice a year or once a season change.
You should be checking your gear every so often anyway to rotate water and food and replace expired medication and supplies so its not any more effort to rotate out some primary batteries or top off some low self discharge NiMH's.
Rememeber also that a lot of the crank stuff uses NiCad batteries so don't toss them in the trash when they die, take them someplace to recycle the NiCad's properly.
Its a preference of mine to have things serviceable, I want electronics powered by AA batteries so I can re-charge them every few months then roatate them out in a few years. I have gear that last ten years or more that way.

I would also take a look and see if you can take the thing apart and if you can, go to a RC hobby store and buy some good nicad batteries and replace the battery pack that they come with. That's what I did when I got tired of the replacement pack that most cordless phones use and paying a lot for a battery pack that last a year and only an hour.. the one I built now lasts about 6 hours and cost about 10.00...

my 2 cents.

Dave