- 10 Watts high-efficiency mono-crystalline solar panel with foldable design offers excellent portability, ideal for emergency preparedness, backpacking, camping and other outdoor activities
- Built-in dual USB charging ports for directly plugging in iPhone, iPad and other USB compatible mobile devices
- No additional battery needed for charging external devices, 100% green energy with zero carbon footprint
- Measures only 9 X 6 X 2 inches and weighs less than 1 lb
- 1-year manufacturer's warranty
After reading many reviews and seeing disappointing reports on other solar chargers I decided to buy this one because, with amazon reward points, it was a very good deal. I recently traveled to Namibia and didn't want to increase the electric bill of the people I was staying with so I thought I would give the Instapark a try. It was excellent! My ipad went from 33% at 11:40 to 55% at 1:00 and when I unplugged it at 2:00 it had charged to 89%. I just propped it up against a rock so it was at a 45 degree angle, tucked the ipad underneath the Instapark so it wouldn't be out in the desert sun, even winter sun, for hours and then went about my day. I touted its praises so much that one of my fellow travelers borrowed it to charge her ipod. All in all I charged my ipad twice, my ipod twice and a friend's ipod once. I highly recommend the Instapark® 10 Watt Solar Panel Portable Solar Charger with Dual USB Ports for iPhone, iPad & all other USB Compatible Devices
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I bought this to use while hiking and backpacking to keep things like camera, GoPro and GPS charged. Just spent 6 days in the Grand Canyon and found that I wasted a lot of sunlight because everything charged so fast!
For the most part, I kept this strapped to my pack hanging from top to bottom so that it would get sun while I hiked. I then had it plugged into a 5000mAh battery pack that I would charge during the day, and would use the battery pack to charge devices once I was in camp. Next day, recharge the battery pack. There were several days we were at camp by 9 or 10am, so on those days I would set the charger in the sun and plug the battery pack AND a device like my GoPro or fellow hiker's iPods in to charge. Charges rarely took more than 2 hours and usually were done in about an hour for partially charged devices. The last 2 days of the hike I didn't even bother strapping it to my pack...it charged things so fast in camp that it was redundant.
All in all, I'm very happy with this unit and I felt like I was wasting sunlight when not charging something. The two USB ports combined with the fold up design make this a major win!
Read Best Reviews of Instapark® 10w Solar Panel Portable Solar Charger with Built-in Dual USB Ports for iPhone, iPad & a Here
This device is rated to output 5 VDC at 2 amps max and it features dual USB port outputs to charge two devices at once. I had success with the product as it would charge an iPhone 4, two iPhone 4's simultaneously, iPad 2, iPad 3, an 11,000 mAh storage battery and a Kindle Fire. This is on a beautiful sunny day.
Here are my test results:
* Charging my wife's iPad 2 was OK. This charged it from 80 % to 100% in under one hour.
* Charging one iPhone was fast and easy.
* Charging two iPhones from 45% and 56% respectively to 100% simultaneously on both phones in 80 minutes.
* Charging an iPad 3 from 28% to 85% in 5 hours. This is a good job as the iPad 3 uses a lot of power to recharge and takes a long time even using the Apple AC wall charger. My iPad 3 did stop charging 3 times due to clouds passing over and the iPad 3 displayed the charging not supported with this accessory error each time. I had to disconnect it and plug it back in to resume charging.
* Charging an 11000 mAh battery was also slow. It charged the battery from 25% to 52 % in about 90 minutes. Charging 2 1/2 hours more raised the battery charge to 62 %. It is good that you can charge batteries in this manner as now you will have both a daytime and nighttime source of energy. This slow charging may have been due to a few clouds passing over on the first day of testing.
* Be very careful of exposing your electronic devices to the hot sun. I covered mine with a white towel and then covered that with a white cardboard box. High temperatures are not good on batteries, electronics and LCD displays. Left in the sun unprotected they will be damaged severely.
* Charging a Kindle Fire worked but again it was slow going due to randomly cloudy skies. The Kindle Fire LED lit power button did not light up but the Kindle Fire did charge.
This solar panel would be ideal for outdoor use by campers and anyone who needed to charge a phone, iPad, or a USB rechargeable battery, GPS or flashlight. This product is great for emergencies when you lose power.
The unit folds up nicely into a portable package that is small and lightweight. It is easy to pack or put into a backpack. The USB ports are contained in a Velcro closed pocket that is also large enough to hold your phone and the cable while it is charging. You can also carry extra USB cables in the pouch for your various electronic devices. The solar panel has multiple hanging loops to hang it on a wall, side of a tent or a line if you need to.
I tested the unit over 2 days and both days had nice sunny skies. Despite that fact the solar panel performed much better the second day. Full intense sunlight provides the best results and any clouds or shadows can stop your device from charging even though the solar panel resumes outputting the proper voltage and current levels when the sun returns. This is due to your electronic device charging circuit and this cannot be helped. Please watch my attached video and I hope it is informative for you.
I was provided a free sample of the device for testing and to provide an impartial review.
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List of devices for which charging works (both ports used on a sunny November day in New York area):
iPhone 4
Ambient Weather WR-111
Ambient Weather WR-333
Motorola MR350 walkie talkie
Does not work with Blackberry Bold, but that's most likely the Blackberry's 'fault'.
The same Blackberry did not charge from WR-111, while all other devices did.
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used it last weekend on the lake. plugged my iphone into it with a pug in speaker. it charged both while they were playing. i was the only one who had battery left at the end of the day. win
I used to recharge my palm in the middle of the cricket game using a laptop. Once I purchased this product, I have no problems of loosing the charge on my palm for a whole day. But, I had to purchase 8 rechargeable batteries (4 for the palm and 4 spare ones). Nevertheless, it is a great device to have.
We purchased this in advance of a hurricane and initially charged it with the USB and a computer. Our electricity was out for four days and we used this to keep the Android phone alive. We recharged it in the sun and it worked great too. Just don't put the phone in the sun while you are recharging. It will cause the phone battery to overheat. This item is on our list for the emergency "go bag". It would be good for backpacking if you don't mind the extra weight. Warning-if you don't use mini/ micro USB adapter, then bring your original USB connectable charging cord to use. This item did not recharge an iPad, so if that is what you want, get something else.
This works well and is just as the product was described. I do wish the arm was a little longer but it still works. The case is good and will hold the phone but not if it is in any kind of protective case.