Customer Reviews

Portable Emergency AA Battery Charge Extender for the Amazon Kindle (1st Generation) - uses Gomadic TipExchange Technology

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

(Note that this charger is for the Kindle 1. The Kindle 2 has a different power socket, so there is a different Gomadic AA charger for the Kindle 2.)

I'm a heavy Kindle user and I tend to page backwards and forwards a lot, which eats up battery life. So I wanted a lightweight way of carrying some emergency power for long foreign trips. The Gomadic AA charger has worked well for me.

The main weakness is that with standard AAs it is slow to charge the Kindle above 80%. It will take my Kindle from flat to 80% in about an hour, but it takes another six hours to register as 100%. However it does let you read and charge at the same time.

A secondary minor weakness is that the charging tip fits slightly loosely into the Kindle. So you need to be careful to make sure it is fully inserted and stays fully inserted.

Despite those limits, I have been pretty happy. It was a great relief to be able to recharge my Kindle off AAs when none of my power adapters would fit into the hotel power outlets. (Yikes.)

I also own a spare Kindle battery. The main drawback there is that I need to remember to keep it charged. The nice thing about AA batteries is they have a long shelf life and they are almost universally available. So I have ended up carrying the Gomadic charger rather than my spare Kindle battery. I find it reassuring to know that as long as I can find AA batteries I can keep reading!

One of the reasons I purchased the Kindle was so I could travel light, leaving heavy books behind. The fly in the ointment is traveling abroad; adapters and converters usually work, but sometimes there are problems plugging them in (e.g., recessed outlets).

This is a great little gadget that helps solve the problem. Small, lightweight, and - since AA batteries are sold everywhere - theoretically inexhaustible. It's taken a big worry out of travel.

Needed to purchase a new battery for my Kindle as I read so much I was discharging the battery fairly quickly. I keep my kindle with me constantly and I'm not always where I can charge it up. This way I keep a fully charged battery as an extra and it doubles my reading time.

I wanted a back-up power supply as a cushion between the time the battery started running out and the time I could plug the Kindle into the wall charger. It serves this purpose very well. The only negative I would note is a lack of an instruction sheet. The unit comes with two tips (a tiny 1st generation barrel plug and a mini USB), but one is left to trial and error as to which one to use. I own a 1st Generation Kindle which uses the tiny barrel plug, and a Kindle 2 which uses the mini USB. It is a small point, but I like to know ahead of time before plugging aftermarket power supplies into expensive electronics.

Wonderful seller. Never had a more positive buying experience in my life! I bought an Emergency Battery Extender for the Amazon Kindle 1. The very next day, my Kindle broke (got stepped on). I immediately went to Amazon's website and bought the latest Kindle 3.

So here I was, with a $20.00 (+s&h!) Gomadic Charger in the mail for a Kindle 1 that no longer existed, and an incompatible (charging adapter wise) Kindle 3 on its way!

I immediately emailed Gomadic Customer Support, explaining the problem and asking how it can be remedied, because otherwise I'd reluctantly have to return the product (they have unconditional 30-day return policy).

To my agreeable surprise, they answered my email within a couple of hours of my sending it to them, and informed me they were sorry to hear of my broken Kindle, and that they had already mailed me the appropriate adapter so I could charge my new Kindle 3, all free of charge.

If that ain't the Rolls-Royce of customer support, I don't know what is.

I had one of these for my iPod and wouldn't be without it. Haven't even used it, but one never knows. I'm glad it is available. I don't see one for the K2.