Customer Reviews

Etón FR360B Solarlink Self-Powered Digital AM/FM/NOAA Radio with Solar Power, Flashlight and Cell Phone Charger (Black)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Pros: Combination of emergency features, alternate power sources

Cons: Jack of all trades, master of none

While the Eton FR360 does many things, I bought this radio for 3 basic functions, all relating to emergency use.

1. Multiple power sources, notably solar cells and hand crank in addition to dry cells.

2. Weather radio, AM/FM as a necessary secondary.

3. Cell phone charger (via USB).

The ability to power this radio from multiple sources is good in theory but weak in practice. To maintain a battery charge sufficient to run the radio requires several minutes of cranking every 15 minutes. The solar cell's rate of charge cannot keep up with the radio's rate of discharge. This means that the radio will still require occasional cranking even if sitting in full sun. Given the effect that low charge has on radio function (more on this later) it's just easier to keep a set of spare batteries on hand. With the shelf life of modern alkaline batteries this is really the best option. It's not like this unit is ruggedized for go anywhere operation so don't imagine yourself riding out a hurricane in a waterlogged foxhole madly cranking so you can hear the weather report.

Radio reception is also less than what I expected of a $50 unit. Weather radio is intelligible. I don't expect great performance will make the voice sound any less robotic. I find there are two things that affect the radio performance. Fully extending the short telescopic antenna is a must for FM reception and battery power must be high. Operating from alkaline cells provides okay reception but with no power meter on the rechargeable battery (charged from the solar cells or hand crank) reception deteriorates with the battery charge without any indication. Not what you want in an emergency radio.

The most disappointing feature is the USB cell phone charger. The USB port derives its power from the crank only, not the batteries. This means that anything plugged into the USB port only charges as long as the crank is being turned. If you have a smartphone that takes several minutes to boot from a dead state then any appreciable charge that can be built up is expended before the phone is ready to use. I actually tossed an old Moto RAZR in with the FR360 because it boots fairly quickly, sips power and will provide 911 service without a contract.

While this review seems to cast the FR360 in a negative light consider that a few spare batteries resolve the major complaints and the solar cells and crank are really there for last resort use. (Seriously, who would crank or look for a sunny spot if they could just as easily duct tape three extra AAA cells to the back of the radio?) The radio isn't great but it's good enough for the intended purpose. The USB charge port is a bit of a disappointment but when all else fails, it's there. Is the FR360 worth $50? Maybe. It's a jack of all trades and when it's go time having only one thing to grab instead of three will probably be its greatest asset.

I bought this radio for motorcycle camping because of its compact size, multiple power sources, and weather radio capability. I've been using it daily now for over a month and am not at all disappointed. Signal reception is somewhat weak on the Eton compared to the radio in my vehicle as distance from the transmitter increases, but this is the only issue I've found in over a month of use and is far from intolerable. As an added surprise/bonus, the Eton has a scan function built into the tuner. The manual tuning knob is quite slow at tuning up and down the scale, but the "MIN/DOWN" and "HR/UP" buttons digitally scan up and down the scale quickly. This is a feature that I don't remember seeing in the product descriptions. As far as durability goes, my daughter knocked our radio off of our kitchen table and it bounced off of our hardwood floor. This happened the very next day after I received the Eton. I was certain there would be damage of some sort, but I looked closely at the exterior and could not detect where the impact had occurred on the case. I shook the unit and could not hear anything rattling inside. Finally, I checked all functions and found nothing wrong. This little radio is durable, but I asked my daughter not to perform any more destructing testing. Lastly, the radio does not ship with its own a/c adapter. This struck me as a little questionable, given the price of the unit. But I looked at all of the a/c adapters I already own and found that my Remington trimmer adapter was perfect (3.6 VDC, 100 mA output) for a full charge of the nimh battery pack in lieu of waiting for the sun to top it off. If you've been considering purchasing this radio, I readily recommend it. Keep in mind that the reception issue has a great deal to do with your location.

Overall, it's not a bad radio for the money, however, the reciever is not very sensitive. I believe the main reason for this is the short antenna. It loses signal easily if it can get a decent signal at all. I have to carry a wire to clip on to this very inadequate antenna in order to get reliable reception. If you live in the city, I doubt you will have any trouble but if your going camping you will have trouble.

We live in Central New Jersey and as of late we have been having a lot of power problems, generally weather related. I wanted to get something that would allow us a flash light, radio, and cell phone charger. I saw this product come up on Gold Box and figured what the heck...it seems to do what I need and I can hand crank it to power up/charge my devices...plus get some light and listen to the radio/weather reports.

I can now say it failed at every level....

The radio reception was USELESS unless we took it outside and touched the antenna to a back yard aluminum umbrella.

The hand crank charging for the cell phones made my cell phone even weaker then it was when I started...it felt as though the cranking was draining the battery.

The only good thing was the little LED flash light.....

That's it... I really wanted to like this but I am disappointed.

Do not buy this if you want a radio. The tuner is so poor it can't clearly pick up 50K watt stations from 30 miles away. I exchanged the first unit since I thought the tuner was defective. Its replacement arrived today and it's just as bad. The smaller Etons, with analog tuner, work much better. The flashlight function does work well, but I can get self-powered LED flashight at the dollar store.

I started by buying an Eton / Grundig Mini GM400 and it was a) defective (turns itself on automatically), and b) the AM and shortwave bands performed abysmally ...noise, buzzing, noise, buzzing ...no matter what position you held the radio, no matter how close to the transmitter. I returned it and upgraded to the SolarLink ARCFR360, still manufactured by Eton. Well, same garbage. The first thing that happened is that the glass window over the display came off the radio by merely peeling off the protective film that Eton had put on it for shipping. It's only held in place by 2 tiny strips of double-sided sticky tape, and the window pops right off. Hate to see what happens if I were outdoors in the sun. FM on both radios worked reasonably. The weather channels worked reasonably. The AM channel, my main need and reason for buying a portable radio, was atrocious as with the Mini 400. Noisy, noisy, noisy, buzzing buzzing buzzing ...no matter what orientation you held the radio, and no matter how close you are to the actual transmitter. Stating "AM" on the box is false advertising if the quality is so poor that you cannot bear to listen to it. This radio goes back first thing in the morning. Anyone know if you can even buy a good AM radio nowadays? The $5 AM transistor radios that I got as a kid performed far better than what is being sold nowadays...

Tried two of these. First one wouldn't pick up stations, thought It may have been a bad one. Got another one, and same reception problems. Even the WX channels didn't work. I know a little bit of what I am talking about, as I am a Ham Radio operator (Extra Class), and believe me this radio can not pull in an AM station in 25 miles. So much for This Junk!!!!!

I noticed a quote from product description "rugged enough for outdoors". Thats a lie. The instructions say to keep it away from moister, humidity, and operating temp is only good down to 32F 0c. So Since I live in the humid south, the humidity is bad for it. AC adapter is extra (usually just battery's not included) but this one will make you buy an adapter + battery's.

Takes 10 hours of sun lite to get a full charge too. So I guess thats only good in the longest days of summer time.

Since this is an emergency radio, you better not have an emergency in the cold of winter, in humid place, or in the rain.

This might be an ok device for INDOOR use only. Just in case you lose power, and still want to get the weather reports.

As emergency radios go, I rate this a 1.

I received this for Christmas; it worked fine. I set it aside for 6 months and went to use it only to find that all of the electronic components (even the display) were dead leaving me with only a flashlight. Good thing that it wasn't an emergency.

it seems well made, and i like the digital tuner, but i found the tuning knobs to be a little "mushy" in tactile response. i also feel that the hand crank should be a little longer since it can be a little difficult to rotate.