Life Gear LGTF38 LED Flashlight with LED Reading Lamp, NOAA Emergency AM/FM Radio with Alert and Weatherband
by Life+Gear
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List Price: Category: Tools See more product details |
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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: LGTF38 Radio/Light
Summary: 3 Stars
The first unit I received was defective- Appeared to have been dropped/treated roughly. The replacement unit, from Amazon in about 2 days, was fine.
The radio itself is like all "one size fits all" devices- does everything OK, but nothing is great. It does have a "Way cool" reading light built into the carry handle. The radio functions as expected, but the flashlight function is of little use- not particularly bright, and cumbersome to use.
All in all, it's OK, and not too pricey. If you are buying a similar unit, one without the flashlight is preferable.
Customer Review: Poor quality
Summary: 3 Stars
Defective on arrival-LED display/alarm not working.Poor quality plastic casing and hand crank. What do you expect from Chinese engineering? Not much!Customer Review: Somewhat handy
Summary: 3 Stars
This is pretty handy but needs an additional rechargeable battery so you don't need to crank it all the time. Love the weatherband radio.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: 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.)