Customer Reviews

Voltaic 1001 Voltaic Solar Powered Backpack - Silver

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

 

 

I'm very happy with my backpack. I've gone through two major phases of use now: day-to-day life and traveling. I'll also mention customer service and a few suggestions for improvements.

Day-to-day:
In day-to-day I spend most of my time inside, at the office, or equivalent; so basically this was just a backpack. It works very well for this. I had previously been using an earlier version of the CamelBak MULE, so the Voltaic backpack was a definite upgrade in storage space, and the laptop sleeve turns out to much more important than I would have anticipated. Similarly, the phone holder (which is adjustable in width) is a plus. On the other hand, the bag is more blockish than the Camelbak, and is obviously more expensive.

Traveling:
My recent traveling has been in the Middle East, so I've had plenty of sun. I've relied on my phone a lot, and it's been easy to run low on power. I've found a few things here. The first is that it seems to take slightly more than half a charge of the Voltaic battery to fully charge my Nexus One (this is consistent with the respectively claimed 11Whr and 5.18Whr). Charging my phone is inconvenient (see below), but I've always been able to call my hostel or check Google Maps when I need to. I've found that the panels generate between one and two watts on a sunny day in practice (when the backpack is worn the panels rarely get a good angle towards the sun). I think I probably pick up about one phone battery's worth of energy per day, or more if I'm careful.

Customer Service:
A couple of weeks after getting my backpack, the battery stopped working. I emailed Voltaic, and they immediately offered to send a replacement. They seemed specifically interested in getting my backpack working as quickly as possible.

Suggested improvements:
The battery has a single led gauge, which is used to indicate both the battery's current charge and whether the battery is currently being charged. Because of this, I sometimes have trouble understanding the charge level of the battery while the backpack is in the sun. A second gauge should be added so the gauges don't have to share.

A light should be added to indicate that the battery is currently charging another device.

Charging items in the phone holder should be improved. The main problem is that you need to access the backpack's battery to start charging. This largely defeats the purpose of being able to charge a phone in the holster. A smaller problem is that it's hard to plug the phone in. I've found it much more convenient to charge my Nexus One upside down than to use the hole in the phone pouch.

Overall:
This is just what I thought it would be: a good backpack with a neat something extra. The solar panels are good but not amazing, and the battery is very good and also not amazing. I'm very happy with my purchase, but you should understand that this is more cool than practical in most circumstances.

This backpack looked great and is a great gift idea for the outdoor person. However, I should have contacted the company before purchasing. This backpack does not have available the adapters needed for the cell phone, GPS, or digital camera that we have. It also doesn't have the voltage needed to charge these items. We are currently working with the company to return the item. The company has been very cooperative. Make sure you do your research before making this purchase.

This was purchased for a science club at an elementary school. It is going to be used to show the benefits and uses of solar energy. This is a great product.