Freeloader Portable Charger (Freeloader Portable Solar Energy Charger)

Member Name: firefox111

Product:	Freeloader Portable Solar Energy Charger
Date:	16/10/08 (78 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Small compact nice design good range of adapter parts included

Disadvantages: No pouch supplied could have a larger battery fitted

Freeloader Solar Charger

Having portable solar charger if you are out and about a gadget lover like me is a necessity. You never know when you will be using a hanheld game console, mobile phone or portable music player and the batteries will fade out. This is where the freeloader comes in.

Specifications
Battery - Lithium rechargeable 3.7v 1000mAh
DC Output - 5.5v +-0.5% 500mAh
Time required to get power from the Freeloader - 30 minutes to 1 hour
Time required to charge the FreeLoader via the supplied USB charge cable - 3 to 4 hours

Basically it's a battery for portable electronice devices that can harness the energy of the sun to make electricity and store this in a battery.
The freeloader comes with the freeloader battery and two solar panels that clip into each end of the battery to allow you to charge it up. The Freeloader also comes with a variety of connectors so you can connect the Freeloader to a portable electronic device. It also comes with a USB charging cable so you can charge the freeloader from a pc or car adapter if you have a USB to car socket adapter.

The Freeloader itself is small, compact and lightweight. It has a brushed aluminium finish available in a few colours Silver/Grey and Pink. Being a bloke n all I had to go for the Silver/Grey but I was tempted by the Pink :o).

Setting up the Freeloader
Anyway the Freeloader is pretty much hassle free to set up all you have to do is plug one of the two supplied solar panels into the end of the battery block. When the panels are connected in daylight the Freeloader lets you know its charging by illuminating two lights (LED's) one for each of the panels connected to the freeloader. The initial charging of the Freeloader takes about 5-10 hours depending on the intensity of the light and after that it's ready to use. To use the Freeloader to run or charge another device from the Freeloader battery there is a socket on the side.

Connecting the Freeloader
There are quite a few connecters that are supplied with the Freeloader it's around 11 and they simply plug into the side of the freeloader. The most important one is the connection to the USB cable. This allows you to get any USB lead that say came with your digital camera and attach this to the camera. As you can see it's pretty versatile in the connector department and there is the option to additionally purchase extra adapters to fit your device if you don't have a USB lead or its not included in the Freeloader adapters that are supplied.

Charging the Freeloader
You can top up the Freeloader by just reconnecting the solar panels and putting it in a light source or by using the supplied USB cable and plugging this into an available power source.

Pros
The Freeloader is very portable and compact when stored away
You can buy more adapters to expand the range of the devices you can plug in to the Freeloader
Its enery for free and can store the power for a couple of months
It looks very nice with its brushed aluminium finish.
You can charge it from the mains or by the solar panels supplied.

Cons
It does have a limit to the amount of charge you can store in the Freeloader it's not a bad amount of energy but sometimes I wish the storage battery was bigger.
It doesn't come with a pouch to store all the connectors - I had to buy one seperately because I was loosing all the little adapters that come with it.
It can also take a long time to charge from the sun

Summary: Very good well woth the money if your phone runs out of power regularly