Life Gear LGTF38 LED Flashlight with LED Reading Lamp, NOAA Emergency AM/FM Radio with Alert and Weatherband
by Life+Gear
|
List Price: Category: Tools See more product details |
|---|
(Click here)
Tools and Hardware Reviews of Life Gear LGTF38 LED Flashlight with LED Reading Lamp, NOAA Emergency AM/FM Radio with Alert and Weatherband
Customer Review: Works as promised.
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this for my mother initially after a storm knocked out the power and we had tornados in the area. She had neither a battery-powered radio nor a functional weather radio (her house has a large hill blocking all the National Weather Service signals from reaching her).
It is rather nice in that it includes a lot of features that are handy.
1. It has a plug for a cellphone charger. At least at this time, you can order a charger plug for many different cellphones directly from the website and just pay shipping (around $5) so that you can charge your cellphone off of the hand crank. Very good idea.
2. There is an LED flashlight on the front and an LED area light that flips up from the side. These are not going to blind anyone, but they will adequately light up a room or help you navigate through a dark house.
3. The FM/AM/Weather radio is functional and adequate for the intended purpose.
4. It has a build-in clock and alarm. Unfortunately, the alarm on/off button is located on the top of the unit and will easily get bumped such that you are turning on/off the alarm accidentally any time you reach for the device.
5. It includes the rechargeable battery in the package, and it will also run off of regular batteries. The hand crank can be used to charge the rechargeable battery or you can charge from a wall plug, also included.
6. It is not a heavy device and would be very easy to carry around. It does have an included carry handle that flips up from the side opposite the lamp. Unfortunately, it's not that robustly built, either, and wouldn't survive a lot of abuse.
7. There is a built-in hazard alarm/light, but it's of dubious usefulness. As mentioned above, the flashlight is not very strong (though adequate for a flashlight), but it is flashed on-and-off with the alarm and likely wouldn't be spotted all that far away unless in pitch black darkness. It also plays an alarm noise over the built-in radio speaker, but again, the speaker isn't very loud. You could easily talk over this and carry on a conversation without yelling with this alarm going off. You'd be better off just yelling.
Overall, this a great emergency utility that should be in anyone's kit at home or in the car trunk. The hand crank can help make up for not having fresh batteries in or having forgotten to charge it with the wall plug. I'm so impressed with this unit overall that I'm investigating Life Gear's other devices. This is great for Tornado Alley residents, coastal folks who are subject to hurricanes, earthquakes, or even blizzards. I can't think of any natural disaster this wouldn't be at least somewhat helpful in.
Customer Review: Great little item!
Summary: 5 Stars
The reviews I found online were not exaggerated. This little gem (and it is small) is packed with features. For the price of a small portable radio you get that and much much more.
Power options;
This radio will run on standard batteries (3 X AA) or rechargeable (supplied) the rechargeable battery can be charged with an AC adapter (Not included but available free + postage from the Life Gear website)or the hand crank. This is not a noisy spring run generator. The hand crank charges the battery, so it can be ready whenever you are. About a minute of cranking gives you 20 minutes of play (your cranking may vary). The radio will also supply charging for your cell phone via a supplied (Nokia) adapter, more adapters available from the website for free as well.
Radio options;
AM/FM but the big feature is the weather radio. It will pull in the computer generated forecast as well as alarm if there is a weather alert. This proved valuable on a recent camping trip as we knew to expect thunderstorms our last morning. After a quick breakfast we packed up camp. Literally 5 minutes before we were done the rain came. Not having to pack up wet tents and camping gear "paid" for the radio!
But wait there's more! The reading light is great! Very bright but not harsh. The flash light will not replace a real one but is a nice option.
I'm not sure what the "siren" would be used for but.. There it is.
It also has an alarm clock, a back light for the digital display and a headphone jack. A small carry handle (not in the picture, that is the light) allowed me to hang it from the tent peak it is that light in weight. Power, charge and battery status lights let you know what up with power.
Truly this item should be in your camping gear, the back of your truck, in your boating gear or nearby anytime. It is attractive, with a sturdy feel and small enough to fit in my glove box. I can't think of something this radio needs that it doesn't have. It's not often you can say that.
Customer Review: Not much more than a toy
Summary: 2 Stars
The idea of the Life Gear LGTF38 is nice - it combines a lot of the functions you would want if the power goes out or the weather is bad. However, none of the components are of good quality and you might find the whole thing rather frustrating.
Out of the package, the carrying handle that swings out from the back was snapped off and the swing-up LED "reading lamp" refused to turn on until I played with the little switch in its storage slot. The flashlight is ok and reasonably bright, even off of the rechargeable battery, which is just a couple of button-sized cells. The dynamo crank did work. You can also run it off of 3 AA batteries.
As others have noted, you have to buy an AC power supply separately - it says "free" but it costs $5.95 in shipping. That does include a 12V car power adapter, though. You can also get for another $5.95 a cellphone charging cable, but none of the available cables fit phones I have.
The weatherband radio has poor reception - worse than the 18-year-old RadioShack weather radio I have - but it does work. A chart of frequencies is provided in the instruction leaflet.
For the GoldBox price I paid, it's marginally worthwhile. I can't imagine paying its list price, though.
Customer Review: 2 Defective clocks in a row. Do not buy.
Summary: 1 Stars
I got this in a Gold Box deal hoping for a good emergency flashlight for my car. It was hard to connect the rechargable battery. I then started testing it. Both lights worked well. The Weather Radio worked on the opposite setting the poorly written manual (with microscopic text) said to use. The regular radio was hard to tune, very bad reception.
The clock did NOT work at all. I tried using AA batteries, no difference.
I exchanged with Amazon, which was easy. They paid for the return postage, and sent a new one right away.
2nd 1 arrived with the rechargable battery floating loose in the compartment. I connected it and charged with the crank.
The display on this clock does NOT WORK either. This one displays 3 dashes instead of the time. Put in AA batteries, no difference.
Amazon's automated return made me call. The customer service rep was professional and courteous. They are refunding my money and paying for the return.
Life Gear should be ASHAMED to have such lousy quality control on an EMERGENCY use product.
Customer Review: Beaware of the Nicad Battery and On/Off Switch
Summary: 2 Stars
The big problem with this radio is 'two-fold'. First, you can easily be fooled by turning 'off' the Volume knob (and hearing the 'click'), thinking that you shut-off the radio. WRONG! You must THEN remember to slide the power switch to OFF as well. If you don't, despite not hearing any sound, the radio will still be 'ON'. And if you had the power switch in the Rechargeable Battery position previously when you shut off the Volume knob, that would severely 'wear down' the internal Nicad battery (after about an hour of having left the power switch in the ON position). And if you discharge a Nicad battry (unlike a NimH) too much, it will never again hold a decent charge...if any at all. The same holds true if you just leave the radio 'playing' with the rechargeable batteries, and leave your home for an hour without shuttting it off. If the Nicads are drained beyond the time that they hold a charge, you will never again be able to recharge then fully or possibly even partially (especially via the crank.)