- Self charging hand crank
- Anti-slip grip
- Power section on and off switch
- Self standing magnetic base
- Adjustable lanyard
It's not heavy, but is big: 9.5" tall and 2" thick at the top part. Will take up some space to store.
Used stopwatch to time this.
1. After full discharge 1 minute crank
Flashlight: About 4 minutes, lost 70-80% intensity, in 5 minutes full discharge. Good enough (compared to other such flashlights which do far worse), so I find this reliable.
Is useful in many ways: for checking engine, tires, power failure at home etc
2. After full discharge 1 minute crank
Emergency red beacon (blink/siren) (without siren as volume was kept on zero)
At about 28 minutes, started loosing intensity. At 41 minutes, quite dim, 46 mnts really low, 49 mnts still blinking but really low not usable. So I'll stop here.
3. After full discharge 1 minute crank
Radio volume at mid level, good until 9 minutes, then volume goes down and in a few minutes stops.
This I think is a unique device, with siren, beacon, flashlight, radio, hammer, seat belt cutter.....
I find this reliable and will keep in my center console in my car where I can blindly reach it in case of emergency.I wanted a car-escape tool that also had a flashlight and a dynamo crank to recharge it. This was one of three I found and I went with this one because it looks flatter and easier to store. The radio is a nice addition so it can double as a disaster situation news source. I also really like that the rechargeable batteries are removable AA batteries so if you already have other methods to recharge the same type of batteries, you can recharge them with other rechargers and then put them in this tool. It can go the other way too, if you feel like cranking for two hours, you can fully recharge two AA rechargeable batteries for other electronics :). There's an optional AC adapter you can buy and connect to this tool to recharge the batteries that way or run the lights/radio off AC power. I couldn't find the adapter online for sale so probably have to call swiss+tech for it. Everything that I tested works. I didn't test the hammer on any windows but it looks solid. I didn't test the seat belt cutter on anything other than paper so not sure how sharp it is. I didn't test if backup batteries would work.
Minus 1 star for the dynamo causing lots of static/interference on AM radio, so you can't crank while you listen to AM radio. But FM radio, lights, sirens work while cranking. Also it is 10 inches long, which is bigger than I expected but it still fits in the center console of my '98 Accord. But that's more of a mark against the seller/Amazon for lack of information on its dimensions.this works better than i would have believed, thet price is great and it does so much, good for emergencies. a must have for all who camp, have emergency kits or own a car.For the money this is a nice tool to keep by my driver's seat for emergencies. I bought one for each car because the price was good. Admittedly, it doesn't do any one function like a dedicated tool (radio, flashlight, etc), but it does everything well enough for me to be confident using it stranded on the side of the road. The fact that the hand-crank is easy enough for my three year old to operate and powers everything sufficiently, is fantastic. Now I occupy her attention in a stressful situation.
I only wish the flashlight was a bit brighter and that it received NOAA weather channels. But if any event occurs big enough to be on NOAA here in Hawaii, I'm sure the public FM/AM channels will be reporting as well.
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I purchased four of these units as presents for relatives. First, I was forewarned by other reviewers about the large size of these devices. I still didn't expect them to be quite as large as they were. The window breaker is something that needs to be kept immediately to hand, and frankly, I'm not sure where in an average car these devices could be stored and still be to hand in an emergency. But that isn't why I returned them.On opening one of the packages and testing the device, I found that the radio did not work at all. This was not a battery problem. I had put in a set of fully charged Eneloop batteries. Finally, fiddling with the volume control intermittently caused the device to emit distorted audio. Obviously, the volume control potentiometer was faulty. Next I tested the flashlight, about which the most charitable thing I can say is that it is slightly brighter than a glowworm.
Overall, the build quality was very low. I have lived in Switzerland and can say that, based on personal experience, the Swiss are absolutely superb at anything to which they aspire to excel. I commend the sense of humor and irony that caused the manufacturers of this device to call themselves Swiss+Tech. Nevertheless I returned all four of these enormous, impractical and defective devices.
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