A couple of days ago I was all excited to test a new solar battery charger we had purchased. Per instructions I loaded it with four rechargeable batteries I had in the battery drawer.
I left the solar charger in the window sill under direct sunlight for about five hours. Then I plugged in a drained iPod to see if it would charge it. Well… nothing happened. Perhaps I didn’t leave the charger under direct sun long enough. I move it to another sunny window left it out for another three hours. Again, nothing happened. Read the instructions further and found I followed them properly. So I replaced the rechargeable solar batteries with regular Duracels and sure enough, the iPod started charging. The solar batteries weren’t charging, but the charger was working fine. So I looked for the battery package and checked if it had a date. The date on the package said 12/1/2006! Arggghhh – five year old solar batteries! Of course they didn’t work, they were beyond expired.
The moral of the story is, check those expiration dates! I went and picked up some fresh rechargeable batteries. I will repeat the test on the new solar battery charger and will post the real review soon after.
what solar battery charger did you buy?
I have a couple of chargers to test; I will post the brands in a day or so. Thanks!
LOL!
Halfway through your post I was wondering about the expiry date of those solar batteries. Great minds think alike?
Do you have somewhere in your neck of the woods to recycle those? We’re VERY fortunate to have a company out here that recycles all kinds of batteries and electronics.
I’m looking forward to reading your review. We love our Kodak solar charger.
One of the local restaurants has a bin for expired batteries and broken cell phones. Thanks!