Wagan EL2558 Solar eCharger

I bought this solar charger last weekend. It did not take too much time to setup, however it did take quite long (about 4 hours) to get fully charged. Then, I used this charger to charge my cell phone without any difficulty. This made me feel good because it was the first time that I used green energy directly. Over all, it is well designed and easy to use. The case can be more slim and some switches can be combined, a little bit confusing though.

This item is designed very well. It appears to be very durable and well put together. Unfortunately the one I ordered was defective and would not take a charge from either solar or AC power. It appears that not all of them are like this, so its a bit of a gamble when you order. Fortunately Amazon allowed me to return the item without any trouble and even paid the postage.

Unfortunately all I had to work with is the one unit that I received so I have given it two stars. Sure it didn't work, but it was well designed and the price is great. If I receive a working unit I'll update my star rating appropriately.

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Would not take a charge after 1 year of minimal use. Think I try one that has user replaceable batteries. I suspect the batteries have failed on this unit.

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Worked fine on a trip to Europe. I've used it more as a backup power supply fully charged from home and then packed in my bag.

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Bought this item on June 24, but will be returning today.

As another reviewer had said, the design was great: it's about the same size and weight as a Nintendo DS Lite (looks similar to it too!), the 2 USB ports were great, and it came with both an AC adaptor for charging indoors and a DC adaptor for charging in the car. The inclusion of 5 nicely-made output adaptors (the description shows 4, but I also got a 5th one that worked with my daughter's iPod Touch) for charging different devices was very thoughtful. Another thoughtful touch was the built-in white LED flashlight. It was surprisingly bright, given it was just an LED peeking from a hole in the case.

I bought this to keep on my car dashboard to charge. Out of the box, the device didn't show any indication of charging from the solar panels (the Light1 LED was supposed to light up and indicate charge levels --red for low, orange/yellow for half, and green for full charge); Light1 was unlit. So I decided to charge it to 50% charge (the LED glowed golden yellow) with the included AC adaptor for about 2 hours. Exposed to indirect sunlight (about 1 foot away from a window), the Light1 indicator glowed gold still, so I thought maybe the battery needed to be "primed" to accept charging from the solar panels.

I used the EL2558 to power my USB fan (Connectland USB Desk Fan USB Powered with On/Off Switch Black Color) while I was working on the car (the unit was left open so the solar panels can continue to charge the battery). The first thing I noticed was that the battery got really hot while it was discharging. The unit ran the USB fan for about 1.5 hours (the Wagan's plastic case withstood the heat from the hot battery okay) until the Light1 indicator turned red and my USB fan slowed down to where it wasn't cooling anymore.

From then on, I kept the unit on the dashboard of my car, hoping that the red Light1 light would turn to at least orange. Here we are almost 3 weeks later, and the poor unit I got still has Light1 = red.

Before packing it, I thought I'd charge the battery again using the AC adaptor, and that part still worked, so as a USB battery, it works great, but I bought it for its solar-charging capability, plus I can get a USB battery for half the price.

UPDATE (07/20/2010): While shopping for a replacement for this product, I came across Sc-2800 Solar/usb Nimh Battery Charger (2800 Mah) which appears to be the same product, only better. With a price tag that's 50% of this product's, and a non-skid skin to boot (great for the dashboard!), I wish I could've seen it earlier. But alas, it looks like its performance matches the EL2558's (dismal!) so I think I'll just reuse my rechargable AA batteries with the 4 Battery Solar Charger and the (Portable AA Battery Powered Emergency Charger with Flashlight Black For Anything Powered Via USB to power my USB fan.

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