Eco Friendly alternative power - Freeloader Battery Charger

Nice idea, bad execution - The unit recharges two AA or AAA batteries from USB, and yes it does do this, however it does it rather badly. The bad points are,* it s the only unit of this type that overdrives my USB ports, causing the USB hub to shut down. A unit I have that charges 4 AA batteries doesn t do this.* It can recharge AAA batteries, but unlike all the other units I have, it needs a separate battery case to do this, you put the AAA batteries into this and then put them into the unit. My other units have pull-down contacts so don t need this easily losable item.* It comes with a special lead that ends with a mini-USB lead for recharging the freeloader, however it can t use the freeloader s leads, so you can t use it to recharge your mobile directly, a silly omission and adds another easily losable custom add-on.* it has a built-in torch, triggered by a large button that sticks out from the side, so this means that you can t put it in a rucksack with batteries in it as it ll turn the torch on and flatten the batteries.* The USB port is protected by a cap that comes off and will get lost quickly.* Considering that this is intended to recharge batteries, you d think that the battery compartment would be large enough to fit the batteries in, but sadly not, you have to wedge the batteries in and it s a very tight fit and quite hard to get them out. I had to prise the batteries out using the battery cover as a lever. It s a battery charger that makes it hard to insert and remove batteries!* Again considering this is a battery charger, you d think the battery compartment cover would be easy to remove, easy to fit and would be robust. Again no, the cover can be hard to remove, fiddly to re-fit, and feels very fragile. Because the batteries don t fit in very well, they often foul the cover and make it even harder to remove.* For some odd reason, it continuously flashes a red LED twice a second, very low brightness, but this flashes all the time that a battery is in the unit, so it ll slowly wear the battery out if left in there.Other than that, it seems well-made...You can get plenty of much cheaper USB battery chargers, this one has no advantages and plenty of disadvantages. If you bought a freeloader and found that the solar panels are useless even in bright light (as many do), then this can recharge it to a small degree, but even for that use it s not much good.

• THE smallest and lightest AA and AAA battery charger on the planet
• from either a Freeloader Solar Charger or from its in built USB connector.