Survival UK Forums

I just saw this on the LIDL web site.

It's £9.99. Looks pretty cool.

I got 2 of those last year and they are excellent.

I keep them on a south facing windowsill so the battery is kept topped up via the built in solar panel and they are ready to go when needed.

The lantern is not a super bright cree led, but is fine and provides good background illumination at night.

The radio reception is good and the hand crank works well as a secondary charging device.

Dev, does the radio last more than 30 mins without going flat? I'm thinking for at my allotment. I bought a gelert wind up radio for £20 & I may aswell have thrown the cash in the bin for all the use it is.

I haven't actually kept it on for that long, but I'll give it a go tonight and see, but all you need to do is wind the handle for a couple of minutes and it'll give you (I think) about 20 minutes charge....

Rob is your Gilert radio the small green cube box type ? because my experience is its a great piece of kit , no probs , excellent !....okay no torch ...but i do have a radio/torch ....okay for 5 mins at a push and i do mean at a push.... even so okay in an emergency.

No mate, it's a grey rectangular shape with a torch on the side of it.

(14 May 2015, 11:14)Geordie_Rob Wrote: [ -> ]Dev, does the radio last more than 30 mins without going flat? I'm thinking for at my allotment. I bought a gelert wind up radio for £20 & I may aswell have thrown the cash in the bin for all the use it is.

Hi Rob

I've had the radio on one these lanterns playing for the last 90 minutes this morning and it's still going strong, no indications of it being ready to give up yet.

I've not given it any additional charge via the hand crank, it is just running of the battery which has been charged by the in-built solar panel. Obviously it will still be charging whilst p[laying, but it is located inside the house, so despite it being a bright sunny day down here, it's not getting that benefit.

I've it playing whilst I'm in the house and see if it just keep going or whether it eventually drains the battery.

One thing that has not been mention with these is that they also act as a power bank, they come with a USB Cable that you can plug into the lantern and then use the battery to charge items such as phones and 2 way radio's etc.

Update, the radio kept going for just over 3 hours before I've had to give it a quick wind up with the hand crank.

Thanks mate. Looks like I'm buying one if my local store has any in stock.

went to my local lidl , not in the store till next week...