PowerFilm 10 Watt Foldable Solar Panel Charger

• Ultra lightweight (less than 12 ounces)
• Portable
• Compact
• Durable
• Easy to use, and includes the RA-2 adapter (female 12V CLA)

I have been trying out Solar Chargers for the past 6 plus months. Interest in solar charges grew from wanting to be prepared for emergencies. The electronic devices that I have are powered through AA, AAA, and USB sources. Therefore, my focus was on finding a solar charger that can power one or any combination of the three. This is the review of the PowerFilm 10-Watt Foldable Solar Charger.

Starting with some basic information for this charger, the product comes with the PowerFilm 10-Watt Foldable Solar Charger, one PowerFilm's RA-2 12 Volt Female Cigarette Lighter Adapter, a very basic instruction foldout, and everything is contained in a cardboard box. I appreciate the cardboard box as it does not waste space and is perfect size for efficient storage. It fits snugly around the charger which when folded, is approximately 10 1/2 inches long and 4 inches wide. The solar charger itself appears very durable and its build quality is excellent. It has a thin and flexible solar film encased in a UV protection layer, and it is stitched into durable nylon material. The manual instructs that if the solar charger becomes wet or submerged, it should continue to work after given some time to dry.

The solar charger was able to successfully charge my iPhone 3GS with different car adapters. With the iGo car charger and different levels of sunlight (direct-indirect, peak-off peak, etc.), I was able to charge the iPhone at a rate of 10% charge for every 14 minutes. This is fast when compared to different chargers that have been tested, especially among other solar and portable chargers. I never drain my iPhone completely, so actual trial times for a complete charge is not available.

Another great positive to this charger is that I am able to utilize my Sanyo Eneloop USB AA/AAA Charger attached to a Scosche USB car adapter. This provides the ability to charge AA and AAA rechargeable batteries. The Sanyo Eneloop USB Charger instructions states that it would require two hours to charge AAA batteries and four hours to charge AA batteries. The charge time was consistent whether it was connected to my MacBook or the Solar Charger.

Being rated at producing 15.4 volts with 0.6 amps, the PowerFilm 10-Watt Foldable Solar Charger is not likely to charge a power hungry item, such as a laptop computer, on its own. However, these panels can be connected in parallel with combined output of up to 20 amps. PowerFilm also makes similar foldable solar panels that are rated at 20, 30, and 60-Watts.

Overall, I rate this PowerFilm 10-Watt Foldable Solar Charger a 5.0 out of 5.0 stars. This solar charger meets all of my needs with great success. I am now able to power my AA and AAA rechargeable batteries, USB devices, and other devices using car adapters. Plus the build quality is excellent, the necessary female adapter is included, and the packaging is great. I finally found the dependable, durable, compact, and lightweight source of solar power that I have been searching for in case of emergencies.

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I took this item into the woods for 2 weeks, and was able to charge my smartphone enough to keep up with facebook and sms for a few minutes in the evenings. Never got a full charge. What's up with the 5 star rating for something that only charged enough for 20 minutes of data usage? How is that possible?

Easy. No direct sunlight. The best sunlight I could find was dappled. Constant haze in the sky (humid east coast forest), with lots of clouds some days. In other words, horrible conditions for solar panels.

It still worked.

Fantastic product, puts up with a lot of abuse. You can drape it over a bush, or hang it from a tree, or off the side of your tent. It's light, folds up small, and doesn't care about getting damp.

I would recommend getting a charge controller, though. I didn't, and I think my results would have been much better with a decent charge controller. I don't think the blocking diode blocks 100% of the current flow, because the panel would (slowly!) drain the phone's battery if it was in the evening shade for too long.

A 10W panel is WAY OVER CAPACITY for a smart phone (I have the HTC G1, Google's first Android phone). I would NEVER hook this panel directly up to my phone in full, direct, clear sunlight without a charge controller! However, considering the conditions, I just used the car charger for my phone and plugged it directly into the panel and it worked great.

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I bought this panel as a convenient way to keep gadgets charged while away from civilization. The unit is smaller than I imagined, and seems very rugged. The solar panels themselves are a heavy duty flexible plastic film and are glued and stitched to the nylon fabric. The whole assembly has four grommets in the corners which I'm sure will come in very handy. In the package is a cable with the panel connector on one end and a female 12v cigarette lighter socket on the other; if you have gadget chargers that plug into your vehicle's 12v power socket you're good to go. I only wish PowerFilm offered a dual 5V USB port charger cable with integrated charge controller, for the increasing number of gadgets that charge via USB. Instead, I picked up a Griffin PowerJolt Dual at the local Wally-world, which works great.

So far I've only been able to test it in the back yard, but I'm very happy with it. In full sun (2:00pm, September 24, Northern California, 86 degrees F) my meter initially read 19+ volts. Voltage seemed to drop slowly as the panel heated up. In complete shade, under the porch, the panel still put out 12.2 volts.

I had a very good experience with PowerFilm support via email. I would definitely recommend this product, and will probably buy another in the future.

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Surprise #1: I bought my F16-600 10W solar panel charger from Amazon for a steal at 109 dollars on sale (Powerfilm was the seller).

Surprise #2: The item pictured in the description was the black one but I ended up getting a military grade version (camouflage canvas). NICE!

Surprise #3: It came with a female cigarette lighter adapter! Despite the description failing to mention this bonus I'm lucky I didn't almost spring for Amazon's "buy together with RA-2 cigarette lighter adapter for..."

Now for a quick review of the product itself. IT ROCKS! The end.

Seriously, I used this last weekend over a camping trip for 4 days. The first day was mostly cloudy and the solar panel barely produced enough current to charge my Samsung Focus Windows Phone. The second day was partly cloudy and with Seattle area sunbreaks it managed to charge my smartphone in 5 hours. The next day full sun and it charged it in 2 hours. Remember, the charging time depends on the charger itself.

Let's talk numbers now. I measured the voltage and it was as advertised coming in higher than 15.4 volts. On an overcast day it measured 50 milliamps. That's not enough to charge a smartphone. When the sun comes out it produces a strong 600+ milliamps.

Just for kicks I connected a 12 volt fan and you can tell that it runs full speed in the sun. When a cloud passes or a shadow blocks the solar charger then the fan dies.

One challenge with cloudy days is that depending on the device and the charger you might have an issue with these frequent disruptions of electricity. For example, on a smartphone when it gets power the screen turns on. This frequent disruption actually causes the device screen to turn on often and drains more from the battery each time causing the opposite effect.

I'd really like to charge some AA or AAA batteries but I can't seem to find a good battery charger that also provides USB power to devices.

The durability seems good so far. I'm a little concerned on the hottest day when the sun beat down hard on those cells and it looks like one of them might be coming off the stitching. I'll report back for sure if there is a quality issue. I have to admit, it's too soon for me to review this product.

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I'm using the PowerFilm F15-600 to charge and maintain a 7.5ah battery powering a 10 watt two way radio. The Solar charger works perfectly for this application. The fabric is sturdy enough to withstand some abrasion. Construction quality seems very good. When collapsing the charger, the first fold brings the solar panels into contact with each other. I don't know if this will create abrasion that will be a problem in the future, so I kept the paper it was packed with to prevent that happening. I have not metered the output current of the panel, I do see slightly less than 20 volts at full sunlight open circuit. As soon as I connect it to a load, it drops to a more usable level. After using the Charger three or four times, it appears it will be a nice piece of gear at a fair price.