Customer Reviews

Turbo Charge TC400 Portable Cell Phone Charger

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

 

 

I already had one of these (as pictured on this page) and found it very useful. I ordered the product on this page in order to get the larger set of adapters. What I received is apparently the second generation. It is significantly larger: about 3/4" longer and slightly larger in diameter. The new case incorporates a switch mechanism into the battery compartment end cap, so that you can turn it off without removing the battery or disconnecting your phone. It also has a blue-green cap separated from the end of the metal tube by a dark blue band. The old one (the one pictured on this page) had a clear/translucent cap illuminated from within by a blue LED.

I'm not concerned by the larger size; it's still very convenient, and the extra space hopefully houses electronics that improve the charger's performance. The problem is that, despite the tube's increased outer diameter, its inner diameter has shrunk so that rechargeable NiMH batteries will no longer fit in it!!!

To me the exclusion (intentional? Could they really be that stupid?!) of rechargeable batteries is a huge design blunder, which makes the charger much less useful. When I could run it on NiMHs (of which I have many), I used it as a tiny take-anywhere charger. If I can only use disposable batteries in it, then it is merely an emergency charger. Way to ruin a good product, guys!

The little Turbo Charge works great if used correctly. It restores my LG to 50% power in about 45 minutes when the Turbo Charge shuts off. If you try to run your phone off this device it won't work if your phone battery is so low that you are getting the warning beep. What happens is you are running off the Turbo Charge and the phone battery is not being charged so the phone shuts down because it senses a drained battery, the device is not powerful enough to power the phone and charge at the same time. I have used it sucessfully to power the phone when I had one power bar still showing when I plugged it in. The instructions say it is best to turn off the phone when charging. The instructions also say that you can go to the web site for instructions on how to receive a free adapter if the adapters that came with the device don't fit your phone. I only use the Turbo Charge to get me out of a bind when I can't wait for the AC to charge my phone, or I don't want to leave my phone in the car to charge. I shut off the phone, plug in the Turbo Charge and drop it into my pocket or I set it on the table at a restaurant and wait for the blue cap to go out. This little charger has saved me many times. I am ordering the newest one for my Ipod.

Where do I begin??. This has to be the most upsetting thing for me for this product. Horrible at best. Here are few MAJOR FLAWS this product has.

1.Unable to fit rechargeable batteries but yet works fine with disposable batteries which gets eating away faster than you can keep buying. Sure there are those Lithium energizer ultimate batteries but they are still disposable.

2.Turbo Charger isn't really turbo. It does not have the power to charge my blackberry properly. the screen goes on and off like its having trouble charging the blackberry. Sure i turned it off and still it charges way too slow and the batteries inside turbo charger gets pretty warm which means its not every efficient.

Energizer Energi-to-go charger beats turbo charger hands down. It not only charges my blackberry while its still on with no problems at a fast charging rate. But also you can use any 2 AA batteries including RECHAREABLES and hardly ever gets warm. On a fully charged 2 AA 2500mah nimh batteries. My black berry gets fully charged when its off and 85-90% charge when its on. I am talking when my phone is fully discharged, and hardly ever gets warm which makes it a very efficient cell phone charger.

Something that turbo charger fails to do without eating away batteries first.

3.I had to take the paper wrapping off for rechargeable batteries just so it can fit.

I highly do not recommend this to anyone. Worst decision i ever made.


Now there are things to consider that might fix these issues. One of them happens to be that in fact this unit uses 1 AA. This means in order to charge your cell phone the voltage would have to go from 1.2/1.5 to exactly 5V. Thats a big boost from one AA battery.

All the conversion is lost as heat. Heat that is been generated = waste of charge because this thing eats batteries like there is no tomorrow.

The only downside with the energizer enrgi-to-go is

1. Has no switch for on and off

2.Has a high voltage termination threshold. This means when the battery gets around 75% charge left. Whatever you do, do not disconnect it from the phone that is charging or remove the batteries. Because once it goes off thats it and all that remaining charge wont get used. But if you don't disconnect or remove the batteries. Then the battery will get used up all the way.

Which is why i am looking for a charger that has the strength of the energizer energi to go but with a much lower voltage termination so that way i can turn it off whenever i want and not having to worry about not turning back on.

I try the Turbo Charge TB550 and see how that goes because this one is a complete failure.

I bought this and the package clearly said it works with Nokia and Blackberry. I got it home and it does NOT work on my blackberry 7250 at all... nothing. When I plug it into my Nokia 2115 the phone says 'not charging' then proceeds to do just that... (not charge). What the package didn't say (but their web site did) was that their are TONS of phones it doesn't work with.

On the positive side it comes with a small light bulb you can plug in that does works. So I guess I bought a $20.00 AA tiny flashlight. Of course, I could have bought a flashlight like that at the dollar store... for a dollar!
UPDATE:
I contacted customer support and they shipped me a 'newer' model 5.6V which thay said would work on the blackberry 7250... well... nuthin', didn't work. On the positive side it does charge my nokia so it's not a total waste... but I never would have bought it if it didn't work on the blackberry!

I have to disagree with the poster who said rechargable batteries don't fit.(But thanks for posting the informative pictures) I have the new model in the picture and my rechargable batteries fit just fine. They are Targus 2200. I love that it comes with so may plugs, makes it truly a mobile useful gadget, several of the plugs fit other gadgets I have. I use this charger when my Razor runs out of juice and I HAVE to make that all important phone call. Carry it in my handbag along with a battery, has helped greatly in tough spots. I am able to talk while my phone is plugged into it but do not get enough juice for a charge at the same time. Its only one AA battery after all.You have to leave it plugged for a while to actually get a charge and don't hope for a fully charged phone, just enough to get you by for a few short calls, it really is only an emergency gadget. Tried it for fun with my big old mp3 player because one of the plugs fit, did not produce enough juice to power it, but then again, the company never said it was meant for mp3. All in all it does what it says and is a handy little gadget to have in your pocket. Plus, I am partial to blue lcd lights...

Very nice to have while traveling, if I don't have a automobile charger handy. It helps to buy a good AA battery.

After reading all the negative reviews I decided to take a chance and order this product for my new Nokia phone only to find out that it didn't have a cord compatible with my phone. So I contacted the manufacturer and waited for over a month for them to mail me a cord compatible with my phone (not to mention all the emails I had to send them asking for a status on the shipping of the cord). When I finally got it I was excited to try it. When I plugged it in to my phone I could see the battery "charging" BUT: 1. when I unplug it, it never shows that the battery was charged even a bit, regardless of how long it was charging or what type of battery I use 2. every few minutes it stops "charging" and I have to unplug it and plug it back in to "wake" it up. It's a pain! Save your money.

Plugged this into my BB Pearl (AT&T) when the battery was very low with:
1st; the battery supplied with the order. The phone displayed that it was in "charge" mode, but no addition to my battery's strength. In fact, the phone continued to DIScharge, 45 minutes after plugging this unit into my phone, the AA battery case was VERY warm, and my phone began to sound the soon-to-be-dead battery alert;
2nd, I tried a brand new Alkaline AA battery with the same result;
3rd, I tried a brand new Li-ion AA battery in the charger with again the same result - my phone continued to die, with significant AA battery heating and not only no increase in the number of battery strength bars on my phone, but they continued to decrease.
I only give it a rating of 1 because the little LED plug-in light it comes with works very well as a flashlight.
I was NOT talking on the phone during any of my 3 attempts to charge it. I tried powering the phone off while charging with no improvement noted, and I tried to reseat the battery per the instructions, still with no improvement.
I guess it should have occurred to me not to try to charge a 3.7V phone battery with a 1.5V AA battery.
I could spend another $15 in shipping to return it, but I think I will try to hack it instead. Should be fun.

I ordered 3 of these and none of them worked for me. Worked about 5 minutes and then cuts out.
Save your money.

i THOUGHT it was a great deal because it was exactly what i needed. but when it arrived, there only 5 adaptors. there are many more in the photos in this product ad. the adaptor for my phone is shown in the ad, but was not included in the 5 adaptors that i received. this is simply a case of false advertisement. they show you approximately 10 adaptors but only give you 5 adaptors. so save your money and spend it on an extra battery. thats what i'm gonna do now. i would give 0 stars rating but 1 is the minimum.

live and learn i guess.