hand crank generator – alternative to solar or power packs?

forgot to mention… the unit apparently weighs 15oz and is ~2.5×2.5×7″ so not exactly small. I poked around the website and couldn’t find anything saying how hard/fast you had to crank in order have it outputting power, or if there is any sort of battery in it that allows you to crank really fast for say 1-2 min and then it outputs for 5-10. I have a feeling you have to crank at the appropriate speed for as long as your device needs to be charged/powered.

It seems to be putting out 110 volts and at least 2 amps (judging by the plug/USB adapter).  I may be simplifying things, but it seems to be a lot easier to put out the 5 volts and 1.5 amps directly rather than run whatever juice is generated by the crank through an inverter.

My experience with hand-cranked lights and radios is that it is really only viable / preferable if it is a VERY low-power device AND it will sit for years letting normal batteries go flat.

For handheld lights, it only ever made sense after LED lights were produced.  We had some hand-crank lights for the kids to read in the backseat on their (dark, Alaskan winter) ride to school.  Because the battery-powered lights all got left on and discharged while the hand-cranked ones gave a few minutes of reading between cranking and the next chapter of Harry Potter was sufficient motivation.

The other reasonable usage I’ve seen is hand-crank for 1) the earthquake / flood / power failure / Y2K scenario because if you really want to use a light or hear the news, you’ll bother to crank the light / radio and because leaving the radio play non-stop during a disaster is NOT helping anyone’s mental health or 2) an off-the-grid cabin dweller listening to Art Bell on Coast to Coast America discussing alien abductions and government coverups in part because when they’re too tired to stay up, the radio will go off in a few minutes.

But what if you REALLY needed to send a text / voice call in an emergency and your phone battery was dead?  Then a minimal external battery will do more with less weight than any hand-crank device, as long as you NEVER use it until you really need it.  Compared to this unit’s 15 ounces, you could carry a serious USB battery pack with a built in light.

Going to be in bush Africa for 6 months?  Just bring a small solar panel.  And you want a “belt&suspenders” approach – yeah, maybe one of these.  Or, better yet, an additional solar panel/battery set-up.

I wonder if micro hydropower isn’t a better possibility.  This example seems much heavier than whatever batteries you might use on any trip where you could carry the food, but presumably there’s room for improvement. Around here it’s much easier to find a fast-flowing bit of water than sustained sunlight.

@Kevin- this specific one is 110v standard plug output, but they also make a 5v USB version as well. It appears to be same weight and size though.

I looked up some of the battery packs that Adventure Alan recommends and they’re generally 5-7oz and obviously charge simply by plugging in (rather than cranking away for an hour?) so for any situation where you’d be able to charge the pack about once a week or so, it seems like the better option for sure. And for situations where you couldn’t recharge weekly, solar is probably better.

little mini hydropower is an interesting option too! I could def see that being much more useful in the Northwest than solar :)

I got a $12, 5-volt, hydro generator off of eBay to experiment with.  It would need a hose bib / spigot under some pressure or a lot of tubing to generate enough head, but it’s only 3.2 ounces plus some adaptors for 1/2 IPT to 3/4″ MHT and FHT which, using plastic adaptors, would all be under 5 ounces.

Since I have un-metered city water, I can charge my phone for free, while I fill our 14,000-gallon goldfish pond.