Wind up torches / radios ?

Delancey

The above items would be really good to have in an emergency or disaster situation as batteries would quickly vanish off the shelves.
Anywhere in Ireland sell these things ?

Grizzly 45

Maplin usually do them.

the monk5845

tesco sell them as well as most outdoor shops

the drifter

argos have them

Lidl stock the torches from time to time

Tabnabs

I'm fairly sceptical about the efficiency of the torch. I fully accept the battery shortage argument however.

But does anyone have any practical experience and advice of using wind up torches?

I just can't help but think that battery stockpiling should be part of your supplies and a better solution.

kildare.17hmr

i have a couple of wind up torches around the house and they are very handy. I usually take a small one out at night when i go lamping just in case, the light off them is not great outside but it will do if your stuck. They are fine in the house tho and would let you save batteries until you had to leave.

mrbig

I have one it is hopless, the winding you need to do even for short use is excesssive. I thought it would be usefull if I had forgoten to charge up a torch in an emergency and i guess it is slightly better than a candle.
Mine was part of a torch phone charger from the vodafone shop.
Has anyone got one that is usable?

Grizzly 45

Better one IMO is the shaker light.Instead of winding you shake it to get an electrical charge,which powers up a small nicad battery.Any motion that slides the magnet will charge it.EG kept in a car the motion should keep a charge in them.Still not a super nova in lights,they will do with LEDS for getting around and lighting up your way.

H.O.T.A.S.

I've several ones, some better that the others.

The Lantern ones, such as the ones that come up in Lidl/Aldi occasionally are quite good for indoor use giving you ~60mins lighting for ~10mins winding depending how many of the LED's are being used.

One good quite good one I managed to pick up was a Discovery Channel branded Lantern/Radio. One thing that makes it different is that it can use AA batteries if you want but if you want to use the winding function you have to install rechargeable batteries. It's an added expense granted but you can charge up the batteries for other uses. The radio drains more power than the lighting function though and as with the Lidl/Aldi Lanterns is only really good for indoor use.

My experiences with shaker lights is that they are quite delicate and prone to breaking, saying that though the only ones I've come across have been either cheap €10 ones or freebie ones given out by car dealerships.

mrbig

I think rechargeable batteries are the way to go for emergency torch you can use wind or solar to recharge, the dynamo might be good in a grab bag where you don't use it to often and it is really just better than nothing.

Corsendonk

I had one of the early wind up radios that came with a solar panel. It wasn't bad but the turning mechanism broke off in no time. The solar panel worked very well do.

Mahatma coat

I Had one of these in the Landcruiser for Years, cost $5 and was bright enough for wandering around the farm at night.
http://www.robertdyas.co.uk/P~146846~Uni-com-Wind-Up-Squeeze-Torch

Tigger

a genny and a carwith a transformew will serve you better

the drifter

1) genny and a light source
2)a decent battery powered light source and battery supplies
3) wind up torch

aldi are carrying a cheap one next thursday and ill be picking it up

http://www.aldi.ie/ie/html/offers/special_buys3_18691.htm

As a backup to a backup for a fiver even if it only got you out of one sticky suitation for €5 its worth it

eth0

Most wind up torches I see are very poor quality gimmicks

Moving parts tend to involve plastic cogs, small rechargeable batteries that are charged WAY too fast when you wind the thing and consequently wear out very fast.

Normal torch + solar battery charger or normal battery charger and another source of power would be better. Some of the "pre charged" variety of NiMH cells should last a long time before they are worn out

CamperMan

Tabnabs wrote: »

I'm fairly sceptical about the efficiency of the torch. I fully accept the battery shortage argument however.

But does anyone have any practical experience and advice of using wind up torches?

I just can't help but think that battery stockpiling should be part of your supplies and a better solution.

we have several wind up torches dotted around the house, great items to have... consider a battery torch left in your draw, you get it out... and guess what, just when you need it, the batteries are dead.. a wind up torch.. take it out, wind it up and away you go...

Tabnabs

CamperMan wrote: »

we have several wind up torches dotted around the house, great items to have... consider a battery torch left in your draw, you get it out... and guess what, just when you need it, the batteries are dead.. a wind up torch.. take it out, wind it up and away you go...

That's why you gotta prep

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056452905

CamperMan

TabNabs. that is just a waste of money buying batteries only to throw them away when they are dead!

paddyandy

I've bought a few wind up gadgets and some of them need to much of it.Okey for an emergency.5 minutes torchlight for 1 minute winding the thing is not good enough.

CamperMan

paddyandy wrote: »

I've bought a few wind up gadgets and some of them need to much of it.Okey for an emergency.5 minutes torchlight for 1 minute winding the thing is not good enough.

that's the problem with the world today, they want everything to be easy... and sod what it costs.. tumble driers, central heating, etc. etc

Tabnabs

CamperMan wrote: »

TabNabs. that is just a waste of money buying batteries only to throw them away when they are dead!

5 year shelf life, they'd be long since used up and replaced in that time span.

CJhaughey

I got a wind up and solar panel charged torch with 3 leds in it.
Its been really good, I haven't actually had to use the wind up feature but it does work.
I must test the battery life out on it some day.

Fallschirmjager

saw the wind up torches in ikea last week...for some fecken reason i didnt buy it.

they seemed okay, only issue i saw was a plastic wind up handle so might not last. were bright however, 3 big led's in them.

seem to recall they were around a fiver

gbee

I can't find our right now!!! :rolleyes:

But it was quite handy, it would not be suitable for anything sustained, there are night candles and such for that but the light was good and one could wind slowly to sustain a charge in the battery.

The five led main beam was very bright with fast cranking.

The radio we had took batteries as well, that's long gone as a standard radio will run for weeks on a set of batteries.

Doc Ruby

You can build radios without a power source as well, handy to know in a pinch.

paddyandy

No Memory rechargables are the best that i know of.Cranking up is too often needed on wind ups.Winds up Customers as well.

eth0

paddyandy wrote: »

No Memory rechargables are the best that i know of.Cranking up is too often needed on wind ups.Winds up Customers as well.

Are these 'pre charged' NiMH batteries you speak of?

paddyandy

Ni-MH NO MEMORY
Lith-ion no memory these can be topped up without damage i believe.Did you ever try makin' sense of info. on batts.They make the print very small and as confusin' as possible.Anybody know of a good website to explain this stuff?

eth0

No NiMH battery has much of a memory effect to speak of, topping up is safe with these*


NiMH:
They become empty after charging them quite fast unless you buy "Pre Charged/hybrid/eneloop" Technically known as "Low self discharge"

Wear out after 500-1000 cycles.

Shelf life is long, but not infinite. A NiMH battery can be stored for years without adverse effects as can NiCD batteries

Li Ion:
Stays full fairly well after being charged but their actual maximum capacity decreases year on year as well as after each charge.

This is temperature dependent, ideally they are stored at a few degrees celcius and half-charged. They wear out most when stored fully charged or empty at 20+ degrees.

Poorly designed laptop where the batteries are allowed to stay over 20 degrees for long times have batteries that wear out very fast. Apple loves these batteries because they help enforce the 2-3 year upgrade cycle as people get fed up of using products with greatly reduced battery life

Wear out after 500 or less cycles.



*Still recommended to fully empty and recharge every 20-30 cycles.
"Worn out" usually means their maximum capacity has been reduced to 70% of what it was originally

gbee

eth0 wrote: »

NiMH: They become empty after charging them quite fast

Yes, very fast. Even one week and the cheaper ones are stone dead. All NiMH batteries should be put to service immediately after charging and they are happy put.

A strange tale. I can have freshly charged NiMH batteries flat in a week in the pocket as back ups ~ but put them in my flash gun and use a few times and throw the whole unit to back up and come back even months later ans the flash charged and fires ~ strange.

NiCD batteries are the hard workers of the group ~ charge em, run em into the ground and they LOVE it. Charge em, leave them for a week or more, use them a few times and let them idle and the just DIE. Cardiac Arrest and fatal.

But if you're a hard worker, they are [still] the best.

Merch

the torches themselves are the wind up, bloody useless yokes

eth0

NiCD batteries have been mostly banned by the EU due to them containing dangerous scary CD. So you must import them from abroad if you want (can buy on ebay from Hwong Kong)

Actual capacity is much less than NiMH though


The Pre Charged ones should have 80% left in them if left idle for a year

Normal NiMH they say 70% after 1 month, though like you say in practice its probably more

gbee

eth0 wrote: »

The Pre Charged ones should have 80% left in them if left idle for a year

They are by far the best, and now for something see through =

http://www.batterycity.ie/rechargeable-batteries/sanyo-eneloop/sanyo-eneloop-glitter-aa-r06-8-pcs-limited-edition-4823

eth0

Must get a pack of them. Havn't ever seen 1500 cycles claimed for NiMH but I hope its true and not just some outrageous claim to sell more

paddyandy

How many have noticed that the battery on the positive end always empties first and often the rest of them are still okey and hardly used when the appliance starts reducing performance.Take out 4 batts out of a radio that's losing it and 3 of them are near enough full.

gbee

This depends on the actual device in some circumstances. It is somewhat normal to drain the first battery, cameras with multiple batteries do this too.

A flash gun attached to a battery pack will flatten the unit batteries and carry on using the pack [despite this being configurable in the menu].

Some LED lamps will drain all the batteries and will not not dim until on the last one.

But it also highlights the necessity to refresh or condition your batteries routinely as already described. Also to note is that most cheap battery chargers will only charge to the level of the lowest of the set put into it for charging.

This effectively means you first battery is not fully recharged when charged with the cheap charger. Independent cell chargers are much better but they are pricey and not readily available so they'll run to €120 or so importing from the USA, but they are seriously worth it if one is a heavy battery user.

eth0

gbee wrote: »

This effectively means you first battery is not fully recharged when charged with the cheap charger. Independent cell chargers are much better but they are pricey and not readily available so they'll run to €120 or so importing from the USA, but they are seriously worth it if one is a heavy battery user.

There are very few series chargers you can buy today for ordinary AA batteries. Even my very first charger from the 90's had at least 2 channels and charged two batteries in series.

Its not terribly costly to make such a charger so no reason they would be that expensive. I think i paid around 20 pound for mine. Charges each cell individually and has a little display to tell you how full the battery is or if it's gone faulty. A charger like that is great because you flush the bad batteries out of your collection (ones it consistently shows as being bad)

If I'm stuck ill charge 10 AA batteries in series using a current-limiting power supply but you cant charge them very fast this way, low current charge of about 0.1C for 12 hours will fill them up nicely and give them time to balance out. Charging that many in series isn't ideal but I have a feeling my actual charger charges them too fast at times, being designed for 'want everything NOW!' type consumers and all and that its good to charge them slow once in a while from empty

paddyandy

The more i find out the less i know here. Thanks.

irishlostboy

I have 2 wind-up radios. a small grundig model and a science museum model. got them for about a tenner each on ebay a while back. both are easily portable and reliable. they wind for about a minute to give half hour play. I use the science museum one in my house every day as my main radio, running regular batteries. good pieces of kit. you can splash out on nutty expensive options such as Eton/Grundig fancy ones http://www.etoncorp.com/grundig or you might get lucky with a cheaper one that is fairly solid as well. but remember, test everything, and always have a back-up of your back-up.

the winders on these devices are never super strong. don't crank them hard. build up a smooth steady rotation that does not stress the parts.

battery science is important to know a bit of. remember the printed best before date on batteries is not accurate. in practical terms, well stored batteries will hold sufficient charge for much longer. key here is well-stored.
rechargeable batteries are well and good, but far more involved a process in a more extreme case of need.

for lighting, the candle is king. old school indestructible, no best before date, portable, multi-use, etc, so always have plenty of these to hand, and always have several ignition sources. snap-lights are good to have to hand. old oil lamps and tilly lamps are also cool pieces of kit to have, but make sure you keep them well serviced and regularly tested.

also remember there are scale differences in survivalism/prepping. you have from the "woops, power is off for a few days" and all the way up from there, so prepping should in my mind ideally cater for as broad a scale of use as possible. hope this rambling helps.

eth0

I have a philips wind up radio that will recharge two NiMH AA's although it charges them at such a rate it cant possibly be good for the batteries.

What was the greatest piece of shoite was that big wind up radio with a long metal spring and a solar panel. Supposed to have been designed for 3rd world countries but it wasnt long before the spring was gone too weak to be useful and the solar panel started peeling apart. No unintended features like being able to use batteries from it in another device (it had none)