Eton The American Red Cross Frx3 Emergency Weather Radio With Smartphone Charger Arcfrx3wxr, 14.9 Oz

Let me go through questions, pros, cons, and tips about the Eton American Red Cross FRX3. Te Red Cross and others suggest having a radio available for use in case of a power outage so I bought this one because it didn't require me to keep extra batteries on hand to use it. To answer the question I think most people ask: Will this thing really charge my cell phone? The answer is…eventually. “Dump” charging didn’t do the trick for me. I expect that the Li-Ion battery in my phone stores far more power than the Nimh in this radio. Try to be realistic about this. It takes several hours to charge my phone from the computer using a USB cord. So don’t expect your phone to magically charge in ten minutes by cranking the handle on this thing or dump charging from the battery. It’s an emergency radio that happens to have a USB plug on it. When I dumped the battery from this radio into my phone, the charge didn’t even go up ten percent before the internal batteries were empty. It will charge a phone…eventually…but you will have to crank it for a long time. Possibly for several hours, just like plugging it in. If your power is out, use a car charger. If you can’t do that, then this will do the job but it’s a last resort for “emergency” situations and you should expect it to work that way. You could buy an external backup battery for half the money but those only work one time and don’t come with a radio. Following the philosophy of use that this is an emergency radio that it just happens to be able to charge a phone, this will do the job. The positive stuff: It seems solid although I doubt it would handle being dropped very well. I like the way it looks and it will easily store away or sit on a windowsill because of the size. The speaker performance is better than I expected but not exceptional. Cranking it is also easier than I expected. It charges relatively quickly from a wall plug USB adapter that came with my phone. It’s small and lightweight, the LED lights are decent but not exceptional and should run for a long time off the internal battery. The LEDs are angled down slightly so they work well for lighting the ground while walking and carrying the radio. Not overly bright but just fine for emergency use and if you want a better flashlight, then buy a flashlight. The weather alerts may come in handy and the ability to charge other items is a plus. Can also be used with regular batteries. The glow in the dark ring will keep glowing for many hours when you leave the radio in the light for much of the day. The negative stuff: The batteries are pretty weak at only 800 mah. That’s about the same as a rechargeable AAA battery. There’s no place on the radio to store the charging cable which means you’ll have to find it whenever you want to charge the radio without cranking the handle. The charging cable is USB only, there’s no adapter to plug it into a wall, so you’ll have to use a 120V to USB sdapter that came with something else like an Ipod or phone if you don't want to charge it from a computer. The Alert function drains the battery so you’ll have to charge it every week or so if you leave the Alert on. The handle is pretty wide and not designed particularly well for holding it for long periods and often causes your fingers to hit random buttons. The buttons aren’t as easily accessible as they could be due to the buttons being on top of the radio under the handle. The antenna doesn’t sit flush at one end so it doesn’t lay flat on its back. And the words Volume and Tuning don’t stand out because they are the same color as the rest of the radio and are very thin letters. I made mine stand out slightly better by carefully tapping the end of a Sharpie against the raised letters but they are only slightly more visible than they were before because the letters are so thin. Overall impression: Again staying with the philosophy of use, I’m very happy with this item. Something else might be the perfect solution to the negatives that I've listed but I'm sure it wouldn't be tihs small and it would cost much more. The radio plays clearly and the weather radio works well. I can see myself using all the other features at some time so I don’t think this will be something that I test once and put away for years until that one time when the power goes out. I expect I will use it every few weeks as either a flashlight or a radio in the garage just because it’s available, especially since it has an aux input so I can hook an Ipod or phone to it. I will have to try rechargeable AAA batteries to see if those work instead of alkalines. I don’t think it’s even remotely water resistant so I’d be careful if I took it camping or left it out to solar charge and it was rained on. I wish the batteries were a higher mah rating but they might be what they are based on the generator or radio itself. I don’t know. Tips and tricks: If you are like me and don’t read instructions, the first thing you need to do is open the battery compartment and plug the battery in. There are three batteries strapped together with a plug coming off them. Plug that into the receptacle right next to the battery. Otherwise nothing will work. Many smart phones can now get weather alerts like this does. If you have that option on your phone, you could save some money and buy the FRX2 which doesn’t have the Alert function but has the weather radio and will still charge a phone. If you turn on the Alert function, none of the other radio functions will work. If nothing works and you don’t know why, check to see if the Alert is on. The instructions say that you can’t charge this radio through a window. I tried it and I was able to charge it somewhat, but it has to be in the right window, facing the right direction. In a south facing window, it worked. I could keep it a little bit charged through an east facing window if I laid it on its side and angled it towards the sun but it will never completely charge unless it sits outside in direct sun for most of a day and the plastic will get pretty hot if you do that. A nice feature and it beats cranking the handle. To extend battery life, don’t insert any alkaline batteries but switch the radio over to the alkaline setting by hitting the battery button at the upper right side of the front panel. The clock still runs but none of the other functions will work until you switch it back to the internal battery. This makes the internal battery last much longer on standby. I’ve had the battery indicator drop from three bars to two overnight but when I switched it to alkaline with no batteries in it, it stayed on three bars for several days. I don’t know if the Alert function will still work if you do this because there hasn’t been a weather alert since I bought it. If you plan to keep this radio stored away for long periods of time, you might want to unplug the battery before you put it away. I don’t know how long it will hold a charge but I can guarantee that if you leave that battery plugged in, the clock will kill the battery. The easiest way to crank it is to hold it down on the edge of a table or counter with one hand and crank with the other rather than holding it in the air with both hands. It will crank in either direction so it’s usable by either hand in either direction. Crank it per the instructions which say about two revolutions per second. Cranking faster won’t charge the battery faster because the charge controller won’t let more than a specific voltage through so save your energy and just expect to crank it for a while.

This guy is what everyone should have. This is an excellent radio for a good price. The amount of emergency features on this radio alone is worth it. Power via AAA Batteries, Hand Crank and Solar, if you somehow are not able to power this radio then you are doing it wrong. Full NOAA spectrum of stations, as well as full AM/FM reception, ability to charge your cell phone, and flash light makes this unit indespensible. Volume and sound from the unit is great, clearly herd all of the major stations in my area on both AM and FM. the NOAA station in my area (NYC area) came in loud and clear. Tested charging my phone as well, and it took a while but charged it about 40% from 1% (The little battery is not going to charge your heavy duty phone batteries from 0-100% 37 times here, but 1% to 40% is great for emergency calling - if you want battery backups for your phone there are better options. This is an emergency radio, remember that). Radio seems durable, hard plastic and well thought out construction. Flashlight is ok - not the brightest but gets the basic job done of lighting the area in front of it. Solar Charging does best in direct sun for several hours. Not the fastest, but it works. All in all, a great emergency radio that every home should have laying around. Hope it never has to be used in an emergency, but a good peace of mind knowing that it is there, always ready to go.

Pros: 1) Multiple ways to power this unit (solar, hand crank, rechargeable battery (incl), 3 AAA batteries (not incl), dc plug) 2) Can dump power to cell phone 3) Can choose between FM/AM as well as 4 weather frequencies 4) flashlight lasts a long time even on minimal charge 5) redundant controls (both knobs and buttons to tune stations) Cons 1) Design could be better. You have to manually select between power sources and if you run out of, say, Dynamo charge, it doesn't automatically switch over to the AAA power source. This means your unit might die in the middle of the night even if it has "backup" batteries installed. 2) No ability to select region or types of alerts to receive (e.g., no SAME) so you get every single alert that your weather station picks up (even those outside of your region, if you have a good signal) 3) In order to be in "alert" or monitoring mode, the radio must be set to a specific weather frequency and turned off (standby). This means that you can't listen to the FM/AM radio while it's set to alert. A minor inconvenience. In short, this radio is perfect for the apocalypse- lots of ways to power it, and does what it's supposed to do in a very simplistic manner. But it's easy to forget about it and find all the juice is gone. I read a few reviews that stated people could leave the radio on their windowsill and it provided enough charge to work for weeks. That was not my experience. The solar cells work, but they don't keep it charged long enough to continuously monitor a weather frequency in alert mode overnight. So now I just keep it plugged in all the time, with three AAA batteries (wrapped in wax paper to avoid losing charge) in the back for emergency bug outs. I see myself using this radio at home during tornado season, and on camping trips when I need to be alerted to flash flooding or severe weather. I would also take this with me if we had to evacuate at a moment's notice. One thing- be sure to remove the protective film of the rechargeable before you try to use the solar panel or hand dynamo, otherwise they won't hold the charge and your radio will appear to be broken right out of the box. ;)

I own the eton FR160 Microlink, and the Kaito KA350 Voyager. Both are great for bug-out bags or camping, but I was looking for something for my home preparedness kit, and thought I'd like something a bit larger, with more to offer than the other radios. I was prepared to purchase another Kaito, mainly because it allows you to use batteries as a 3rd power source. But then I saw the FRX3 and after hours of research between the Kaito, the eton FR600, FR360, Axis, and the FX3, looking up the manufacturer's manuals rather than reviews, I decided to go with the FRX3. The main feature that clinched it for me wasn't really even advertised. I compared this to the eton FR600 and the Axis. The FRX3 does state in the manual that it dump-charges like the Axis (and it DOES), but it's not really advertised anywhere else. The styling looks a little nicer too than the AXIS. But the FRX3 supports solar charging, and the Axis does NOT. They're both the same price, but an extra power source is a definite plus, especially if it's "free". You CAN tune the FRX3 with the knob, or the up and down buttons, a nice feature I stumbled upon. It also supports 24 hour time, but it's not in the manual. Just press SET for the hour, again for the minutes, and again for the 12/24 hour. The unit charges through a window even on a slightly over cast day, so I can leave it in the window and not worry about the battery going dead from non-use, or having to keep it plugged in. Compared to the eton FR600, you give up the shortwave capability, and the date on the clock, but the FR600 does NOT support the dump charge, nor does it use the USB input to charge - a big sticking point for me - all I need is a USB AC Adapter, a mini USB cable and a micro USB cable, and I can charge my phones, 2-way radios, GPS, and almost anything else I need, including the FRX3. Nice, instead of everything having it's own cable. The flashlight it a little weak (I couldn't find a lumens rating, but it's only the top 2 LEDs, I'm guessing 50 - less than a square lantern flashlight), but it's good as an emergency one until you find your main light. The red LED beacon is kinda goofy, but I guess it serves a purpose. Some do SOS, this ones does not. This radio has everything you could want, except for the shortwave capability. Like I said, you can move to the FR600, but you loose the dump charge, which makes a big difference, and you can't use a USB cable to charge it. And it's $20 more. The only downside I've found is that you can't turn the unit off. You get ON, or STANDBY, which leaves the clock on. I guess you'd need that for the SAME function, but I have a separate unit for that and would like to shut this off to save the battery. Otherwise, LOVE IT. If you're juggling a few, BUY THIS ONE.

I purchased the Eton FRX3 radio almost 10 years ago. Thankfully, I haven't had to put it to use in an emergency but it still works great whenever I inspect my emergency gear. Definitely dependable and easy to use!

I just received this radio. I purchased it for emergency purposes. Here is a summary of the features: AM/FM/7 weather bands. The reception in my area for all 3 functions is excellent. It comes with a retractable antenna which tucks away nicely when not in use. The radio is powered in 1 of 4 ways: solar (takes 10 hrs of direct sunlight to completely charge the NiMH battery); an included NiMH battery which is what is charged by the solar panel & the hand cranking (90 seconds of hand cranking yields 5-7 minutes of radio use per the instructions). The NiMH can also be powered by plugging the radio into a USB port on a computer (2 hrs to charge the battery this way). The radio can also be powered by 3 AAA batteries (not included). In addition, there is an adapter for DC power, but no charger was included (I need to call the manufacturer to inquire). The radio comes with a clock and alarm clock. A cell phone can also be charged via a "dump" from the included NiMH battery--the built in battery simply trickles the charge from the radio to the cell phone. The radio is indeed plastic, but doesn't see "cheap" to me, and if basic care is taken, the radio should do fine. The crank is also made of plastic, but again, with common sense, should provide years of service. I paid $45 for this radio on Amazon, and plan on getting several more for family/friends. There is a simple 2 white LED light and a blinking red LED. Someone criticized this light, but seriously, if you want a good light, then buy a dedicated flash light!! The built in LED light is adequate for a simple task, but it's not an "uber-lumen" light--I would suggest a Steamlight or Surefire light for a great LED light.

Very poor radio. I ordered this radio mainly for the weather alert ability and secondly for the AM/FM receiving capabilities. I liked the idea that the internal battery could be recharged with the solar panel and by the crank magneto when needed. I tried two(2) of these radios from Amazon. Both radio's AM/FM/Weather reception worked fine. The problem I kept having was that the internal fully charged battery kept dying shortly after being fully charged. The battery charge lasted about one day. I couldn't figure what was killing the battery, so I returned the radio to Amazon and they sent another new one to me. The same thing happened with the second radio-a fully charged radio would die after one day of no use. I think I figured out what was happening. I had the radio switch set to AM, low volume, turned off, from the last time I used it. The "alert function" of one or more of the weather bands(7) was turning radio on automatically, as it should, but while in AM or FM mode, when I wasn't around and the radio stayed on continuosly thereafter and killed the battery. The radio never switched itself over to the weather band when it turned on automatically for an alert, or maybe a test signal from NOAA, and then never shut off after alert ended. The funny thing is that the weather was fine during this whole period. With a fully charged battery and listening to an AM or FM station at low volume, the battery pack included never lasted more than 1/2-1 hour before it died-very poor battery capacity and/or radio power usage. As far as solar charging of the internal battery pack, the solar panel is way under sized. It took 1-1/2 to 2 days of full sun(8-9 hrs. of sunlight/day, at that time) to complete a full charge. I also charged via the USB cable to my computer and that worked fine(~2-3 hrs. to a full charge from dead battery). The LED light works fine, but the switch is very easily turned on if you aren't carefull where you put your hand when handling the radio. Several times I found the radio with near dead batteries and the light was unintentionally on. The light switch should be harder to turn on, in a different location, or protected some how to prevent accidentally turning LED on. Overall, I would not recommend this radio as an emergency weather alert radio or even as a portable every day radio!

I took this thing on a overnight in the white mountains and It seemed to work alright but there are a few things that could use a redesign. First off when packing this I found the buttons easily would be pressed. I found the light would inadvertently turn on often while it was in my pack and would easily go unnoticed and drain the battery. The radio itself would also turn on while moving around in my pack, but at least when that happens you would most likely know about it right away, but you still would need to drop your pack and dig through it to turn it off. It also was quite bulky for a backpacker. I suppose you could remove the batteries when your packing it, but if they could put in some type of switch that would prevent accidentally turning it on that would be a great improvement. It might be ok for a camping trip, but if you are doing anything were space is valuable and your going to be traveling with this in a backpack keep on looking.

Excelente radio, para una emergencia más vale estar preparado. Me gusto mucho que se recarga por toma de corriente, por energía solar o por la manivela. Sirve para cargar tu celular y en general funciono muy bien. La recepción es bastante buena. Un poco elevado el costo pero vale la pena por la calidad de la manufactura.

Todo muy bien, puse cuatro estrellas porque no hay manera, hasta donde pude observar, de cambiar las estaciones de emergencia, dado que son estaciones que solo se utilizan en Estados Unidos. No olviden cargarlo durante unas 12 horas antes de utilizarlo la primera vez, ya que puede parecer que no dura mucho la batería, aún cuando el indicador de batería esté lleno, pero una vez hecho esto, la batería dura mucho tiempo.

This item is amazing. Good price and perfect size (not to big) to keep in bugout bag. I tried all features on this radio and everything is A1 and works perfectly. I am not désappointés at all and I recommend this item without hesitation.

We had previously purchased the regular ETON version of this radio and after working very well for a couple of years we purchased this version for family living in the country where power outages occur often. The radio is built so that it’s easy to hold onto. Even without the top bar which houses the solar panel, the side loops which protect the station tuning and volume controls make for easy holding. Durability wise these things are built well. We've dropped ours a number of times while camping, mind you it fell onto grass or dirt but nonetheless the drops didn't result in any damage, either to the outside or the inner workings. It still works and sounds as good as it did the first day. The design is nice, everything is well laid out, from the top corner mounted button to work the flash light/red flashing LED to the fold down crank handle. Radio, clock, and other buttons are shielded from damage by the top handle. The slider, mounted on top of the crank pivot point, for selecting AM, FM, or the various VHF weather radio channels is nicely indented so that it doesn’t slide around easily, you can feel when it’s been moved. The broad lanyard connection point makes attaching a cord easy. On the back side is a small pop out panel which covers the batteries. Here is where you place the three AAA Alkaline and rechargeable 600mAh NiMH batteries. Sitting across the middle is the pull out telescoping AM radio antenna which has its own slot to tuck away in. On top of this is the rubber flap that’s used to cover the various ports. ~Auxiliary audio input for listening to tunes from an MP3 player or SmartPhone but requires an audio cable ~Headset audio output ~Mini USB port for charging the NiMH battery from an external source ~USB A connector for powering a phone or other USB charged device It is a rubber flap but don’t consider this water proofing or even water resistant, it’s made to keep dust out and that’s about it. The other cover for the batteries doesn’t provide any better sealing. Cranking for power is simple enough and doesn’t require a lot of effort. The generator runs smoothly and its just a matter of spinning the crank. We’ve found that for about 5 minutes of cranking we get 30 minutes of radio at low volume. For charging a phone it’s a different story. Today’s phones are power hungry and it can take a good hour of cranking before getting enough juice to run the phone for a few hours. Don’t think of this as a power source, think of it as an emergency power source only. The internal NiMH battery is only 600mAh, most SmartPhones have 2500+mAh batteries. The solar panel does a good job of keeping the NiMH battery charged and makes the radio or light useable but if the battery is dead it requires some cranking to get it built up enough so that the solar panel can keep the battery topped off. The crank is the real power generation option here and like other similar products, it takes a while to generate enough to make things useable. In an emergency, this is a good thing to have. Radio wise the performance is good. Like any AM radio to get good reception you want the antenna pulled up. For FM and VHF (weather channels) it also play an important role. So while not being the ultimate emergency radio/power generator it does a great job for the price.

Super disappointed with this radio. It looks really nice and the digital tuner was cool but I found the reseption was spotty at best and after one camping trip it no longer takes a charge with the USB port, crank or solar panel. Haven't tried aaa batteries because I bought this radio in large part because it was rechargeable. Very unhappy, seams very delicate for an emergency radio