Customer Reviews

GPX RWB4004SP 7-Channel NOAA Weatherband AM/FM Flashlight Radio with 3-Way Rechargeable Circuitry

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I purchased this radio recently and had to return it as the weather band did not work. I received the replacement radio and found the same problem along with the fact that the flashlight did not fuction. I live close to the Weather station repeater and receive a strong signal on my other units. I rasied the antenna, shortened it, etc. ran it off the batteries, crank to no avail. It is pretty scary considering this unit has the NOAA alert built in. I have sent an email to GPX regarding this and am awaiting a reply. Honestly, I may have received a bad unit from a batch; however, I do not know how that could be. In any case, I would not recommend this radio, especially if you are depending on weather alerts or reports. Oh, yeah, the back-lit display does not work with the crank batteries, only with the 6 AA batteries you must install. Way to go GPX, another fine product...........

I sure wish i had the one the other guy loves so much. Mine's utter garbage. I turns the crank, and the radio comes in very well. Thats about all it does.

See, the presence of a crank fools the buyer into thinking that they will not need batteries to make this object work. I couldn't read anything but extremely faint garbage on the digital display, until i put in 2 AA batteries.

The light is crap. The manual says that 1 minute of turning the crank will charge the batteries 25%, and that a full charge yields 1 hour of flashlight life. I cranked this odious chinese insult until my arms were numb, and that got me AT BEST 45 seconds of light.

The engineering is flawed, and i'm willing to bet that my unit is average. While the design is heavy on features, it has a great deal of counterinuitive aspects. Firstly, the flashlight is incandescent, as opposed to LED, meaning it is a more efficient heater than a light. Secondly, the reasoning behind the switch layout is insane. For instance, the sliding switch on the top has 3 settings: 1. off 2. loud emergency alarm 3. flashlight, in that order. This means you turn on the alarm every time you want to turn the flashlight on or off.

For a $10 radio, such flaws are acceptable. For the $39 radio/flashlight/alarm clock i bought at bass pro, it's infuriating.

Edit: how about this guy who gave this thing the same review twice, from two accounts, 3 years apart?

This is truly a piece of CRAP.
The first thing I did was to install the 6 AA batteries, instantly my eyes lit up for the clock was working. I found the clock simple to set. Then it was down hill from there. The crank did not work the AM/FM radio did not work.
You get what you pay for,$[...] +s/h too good to be true. Lesson well learned.
Advise spent the extra money and get a brand name weatherband radio.

Bought one from second hand store. I paid too much @ $2.00. Everything worked ,..poorly. I would not depend on this for an emergency.

I looked at a lot of emergency radios and this one came out on top. The weather station in Los Angeles comes in crystal clear, even running off just the dynamo. The hand crank is sturdy enough. The radio works well, but it works best with the batteries in it. The tuner is sensitive, but once you get it on a station, it sticks. The flashlight is OK. The emergency siren is OK. The back battery panel is going to pop open if you drop it. Although this product is multi-purpose, in a real emergency I will only care about the hand crank, the flashlight, and the weather (emergency broadcast) station.

I looked at a lot of emergency radios and this one came out on top. The weather station in Los Angeles comes in crystal clear, even running off just the dynamo. The hand crank is sturdy enough. The radio works well, but it works best with the batteries in it. The tuner is sensitive, but once you get it on a station, it sticks. The flashlight is OK. The emergency siren is OK. The back battery panel is going to pop open if you drop it. Although this product is multi-purpose, in a real emergency I will only care about the hand crank, the flashlight, and the weather (emergency broadcast) station.

Three years later we had to use this for real during a fire in the area. It worked, but it sure required a LOT of cranking.